← Koala Moon: Kids Bedtime Stories & Sleep Stories for Kids Podcast
Koala Moon: Kids Bedtime Stories & Sleep Stories for Kids Podcast
A New Year in Kookaburra Kindie 🐹🦘 Back to School Bedtime Story
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Koko
Hello and welcome back to Koala Moon, a podcast of original children's bedtime stories and meditations designed to make bedtime a dream. Koko and I are welcoming into the Koko Club some new recruits who are going to enjoy ad free listening and loads of new stories from now on. That's Michael, who's 8, and Alex, 5 from Minnesota. Sarah and Samuel Geary from Cork in Ireland. And Charlotte from Newcastle, California. Welcome and thanks for joining us, guys. I wonder, does the thought of doing something new make your tummy feel fizzy? It's the same for Cuddle the Puggle. She's going back to school after a long and lovely summer and she'll be moving up a year, joining a new class with a new teacher. And, well, it's all feeling quite intimidating. But little does she know that actually everything will go totally swimmingly and she'll even meet a new friend. She just needs to get through the nerves. Before we begin, a quick message for the grown ups. If you'd like to support our podcast, enjoy ad free listening, unlock four bonus stories per month and much, much more, you can join Koko Club. Subscribe in just two taps via the link in the show notes. But now here's a quick word from our sponsors. So let's give us some tips, shall we? You can see if this little breathing exercise works for you too. Next time you feel the butterflies in your tummy taking flight, what you gotta do is just lie back in bed or sit down in a really comfy chair and take a lovely big breath in until your chest is totally full. So, and now take one more gasping and then let it all out slowly through your front teeth. Imagine you're a rabbit and you've got really long front teeth. And then push the air out through them. Let's try it again. Breathe in all the way and gasp. And then let it out through your teeth in a long stream. Let it go on and on and on. And then do one more big breath until your chest is totally full. One more gasp because there's always room for more. And then let it all out slowly, slowly, slowly through your front teeth. Perfect. And now your body knows it can relax and can go all lovely and soft. Keep going if you need. I'm going to get started. This is a new year in Kookaburra. Kindy by Jane Thomas. Snuggle and Huggle are two baby platypuses known as Puggles who live in the heart of Sleepy Forest with their little sister Cuddle. And this morning it's Snuggle and Huggle's job to make sure Cuddle is all right. She has a big day ahead of her. You'll be fine, says Snuggle, patting Cuddle on the shoulder, then reaching across her to get the marmalade. You'll have no problems at all, says Huggle, giving Cuddle's arm a quick squeeze, then biting into her grapefruit so hard that juice squeezes out and hits Cuddle in the face. There's a quick pause before all three of them burst into laughter. Didn't you find it scary? Asks Cuddle when the laughter has died down. Huggle shrugs her shoulders. I suppose a little bit, she says. But did you also find it exciting? Asks Cuddle, her face showing how confused she is that something can be both exciting and scary at the same time. Snuggle grins. Definitely exciting, he says. Their mother comes bustling into the kitchen from the garden, her basket overflowing with fresh cut flowers. Ready for your big day, dear? She says to Cuddle, planting a quick kiss on her youngest Puggle's head. A whole year older, A new classroom in school and a new teacher. Let me guess. It's scary and exciting, isn't it? Cuddle giggles and says, yes, it's exactly that. Her mother reaches into one of the kitchen cupboards and turns around holding out a new shiny lunchbox. It's purple and covered in silver stars that sparkle as she moves it around in the beam of sunlight shining through the window. I think this day deserves a brand new lunchbox, don't you? She says, passing it over to Cuddle, whose eyes grow large. Snuggle and Huggle exchange a quick look, and then Huggle reaches into her school bag and hands Cuddle a pencil case in the shape of a giraffe. Thought you'd need this too, seeing as you're getting all grown up now, she says with a smile. And then Snuggle is reaching into his school bag too and taking out a brand new set of pencils in all the colours of the rainbow. Reckon you'll be needing knees, Cuddle? He says and puts them on the table in front of her. It is with great ceremony and care that Cuddle places her bright new pencils in inside her wonderful new pencil case, and as she snaps the silver sparkly clips closed on her brand new lunchbox, she feels as if she is ready for anything for the first time. She won't be one of the very youngest at school, and she imagines all the tiny creatures all across Sleepy Forest who are getting ready for their very first day at Kookaburra Kindy, Mrs. Bloomington will have already learned their names by heart. Cuddle knows that much, and for a moment she feels sorry that she will no longer be in the care of the big fuzzy yellow and black bumblebee. The three of them head to the bus stop together, watching for the alligator to appear right on time, just as he always does. Cuddle says good morning, Mr. Alligator as she hands over her bus pass. She's a little older this year and she dares to sit slightly further back than she did before, looking ahead to see the youngest creatures taking the bus for the very first time. A worried looking fox cub is right in front of her, clutching onto his flame coloured lunchbox as if it is keeping him alive, and Cuddle leans forwards and tells him he needn't worry at all, that Mrs. Bloomington is the most wonderful teacher and he will be almost certain to have a little bit of magic in his day. The fox cub smiles and squeaks a little. Thank you. And then they're at the next stop and Kevin is leaping aboard and bouncing towards Cuddle with a loud g', day, g', day, g'. Day. And plonking himself down next to her. The kangaroo and the platypus have been best friends since their first day at the Kookaburra Kindi, and Cuddle can't wait to show off her new lunchbox. She proudly displays it, the silver sparkly stars flashing in the sunlight, and Kevin reaches into his backpack and pulls out his new lunchbox, which is covered in a glorious jungle scene where toucans fly through the trees and monkeys are swinging on lengths of creeper. As they pass the community garden, Cuddle leans forwards and points it out to the young fox cub in front of her, telling her that Mrs. Bloomington's class had thought of it and brought it to life. The young fox cub's eyes grow wide. He's often been in the garden taking a handful of blueberries here and a clutch of bright orange carrots there, and he starts wondering what his class might get up to. He had been worried that school would be all about sitting with your nose in a book and doing very complicated sums and learning to spell incredibly long words. But if school also meant things like learning to plant seeds and grow gardens, wow, that sounded like a perfect place to him. Snuggle and Huggle gave Cuddle a quick hug and a wave as they charged off in the direction of their classrooms. And then Cuddle and Kevin walked either side of the little fox cub and led him up to Mrs. Bloomington. The fuzzy Bumblebee smiled at the two friends and thanked them, welcoming Little Blaze the Fox to her class and checking off his name on the register. Cuddle and Kevin hang about, not in a rush to go anywhere. I think you're with Mr. Twinkle, said Mrs. Bloomington, nodding her head in the direction of a line of animals queuing up in front of a frazzled looking peacock. He keeps dropping his list and when he picks that up he drops his pen and then when he has that, his glasses slip clean off his nose and he has to pat around on the ground with his beak for a moment before he finds them once more and pops them back in place. Mr. Twinkle sparkled like sapphires and behind him his feathers fanned out in a glorious kaleidoscope of emeralds and gold. Mrs. Bloomington leaned in close to Cuddle and Kevin as she whispered, never forget Mr. Twinkle has eyes in the back of his head. Now hurry along you two. You've outgrown my class. Good luck. Mr. Twinkle's peacock feathers really did look as though they contained a thousand eyes that could see in all directions at once. They went over and joined the back of the line right behind Harry the Hoglet, the one with the glasses that slipped down his nose at least a dozen times a minute, and Tammy the pointy nosed, big bottomed fluffball of a wombat. Together the four of them make up the Sleepover Story Club and Cuddle was crossing her little webbed feet in the hopes that somehow, by some miracle or other, they might all end up sitting at the same table in Mr. Twinkle's classroom. Theirs is the last group to head towards their new classroom, mainly because all the other teachers have a better grasp on their lists and pens than Mr. Twinkle manages to have, but they finally go in and are given a seating plan. As they pass their new teacher, Cuddle looks down and sees that there are all sorts of different shapes. There's a triangle as a table of three, a hexagon as a table of six, and a circle has space for seven students. She searches quickly for her name and breaks out into a smile as she sees she will be seated at a star shaped table and three of the other seats are taken by her Sleepover Story Club friends. Cuddle and Kevin have a quick celebratory dance before they settle into their seats and start looking around the new classroom. The fifth seat remains empty. Mrs. Bloomington's classroom had been all about balloons and clouds, with a huge mural on one wall and a huge map of sleepy forest on another. Mr. Twinkle's classroom has taken them deep under the ocean. The walls are painted a beautiful dash of turquoise and silver along the top and become the deepest midnight blue at the bottom. Models of colourful fish hang from the ceiling on invisible threads, so there is the distinct feeling of being inside an aquarium where orange and white clownfish dance alongside the dazzling purple of parrotfish. On one of the walls there is a map of the world and where attention is normally paid to the land. On this particular map all the glory was given to the seas and oceans. They were filled with whales and dolphins. There were albatrosses sweeping over the waves in the far south and black and white penguins surfed on ice floes. Walruses and polar bears patrolled the white capped top of the northern hemisphere. With a hop, a step and a jump, Mr. Twinkle was on his perch. A golden bar that hung from the ceiling and meant he could twist and turn in a moment to see any corner of the room he wanted. The thousand emerald and gold eyes on his feathers shimmered and shone, a reminder that every student could be seen in every moment. Cuddle pulled out her new pencil case and presented it proudly to Kevin, who in turn showed her his new one that looked exactly like a book except it had a little clip and when you open the COVID there was a secret compartment inside instead of pages. Mr. Twinkle is about to start the lesson when there's a knock at the door. He hops down from his perch and glides across the room with a swoosh and a shimmer of his glorious feathers. Cuddle leans back in her chair to see who is there and notices the school secretary is talking to her new teacher. The secretary is an elderly rabbit with a string of pearls around her neck and a chunky blue cardigan that all the students know always has sweets and plasters in its pockets. She's whispering quickly with Mr. Twinkle and then a badger cub appears in the doorway. He's wearing a badge that says hi, I'm Buttons and has a large pair of headphones covering his ears. Mr. Twinkle guides him over to the star shaped table and introduces Cuddle and her friends and Buttons smiles shyly before hopping onto his seat and staring at the table in front of him. He carefully reaches into his backpack for his things, arranging his pens and pencils in a perfect row of neatness in order of size. Kevin looks at his bits and pieces, which are already all over the place in no order whatsoever, and scoops them back into his disguised as a book pencil case. The first lesson is maths and Mr. Twinkle uses his feathers to help show the sums. He bobs his head up and down in perfect rhythm as he says two plus two plus two and then one more two then two again. Gives us all a nice round 10. The class giggle and chant as they go through the two times table with him loving his rhymes to help them remember everything. Although buttons isn't watching Mr. Twinkle, cuddle can see he's listening because his head bobs up and down in perfect time too, and his pencil taps out the rhythm of the words four plus three plus two plus one. What have we gone and done? Only found another ten. Let's all try that one again. Mr. Twinkle Twirls and swirls on his golden perch far above the tables, looking down on his students who chant along with him as he does his sums. Cuddle steals a glance at Buttons notebook and sees that he has the most immaculate handwriting, every number and word being perfectly formed and sitting neatly exactly where it should, resting on the lines of the page. She looks down at her own workbook, already covered in scribbles, and crossings out where she's made mistakes and decides to start a new page. She doubts she can do this as beautifully as Buttons, but she will definitely give it a try. 10. Lots of 10. Have you ever wondered why? I'll tell you. That's 100. Mr. Twinkle chants and the whole class repeats it back to him, thinking how easy and fun maths can be and wondering what they'd worried about all this time. The bell rings for break and everyone rushes to get outside into the sunshine. Everyone, that is, except Cuddle and Buttons. Cuddle was about to leave when she looked back and saw Buttons sitting there all by himself, his eyes closed and his paws flat on the desk. He was breathing slowly and carefully, long deep breaths that he held for a moment before letting them go. Cuddle looked outside and saw Kevin showing off his latest dance moves to Harry and Tammy and then looked back at Buttons sitting by himself and decided she would go and talk with the new Badger Cuban. She touched him gently on the shoulder and Buttons jumped and then opened his eyes and smiled at her, reaching up and removing his headphones. Hi, he said, a beaming grin suddenly in place. Cuddle hadn't expected him to be so confident. She stammered out a little hello, going back to the very shy little platypus she'd been on her very first day at Kookaburra Kindi a whole year ago. She couldn't help herself. Her eyes darted towards the headphones now lying on the table, folded up neatly next to the perfect row of pens and pencils. Buttons eyes followed hers there. For when it gets too noisy, he said. Oh, replied Cuddles, not quite sure what else to say to that. I find it hard sometimes when everything is really loud. I wear them a lot, but I don't always have music on, he explained. So that's how you could hear the maths rhymes? Cuddle asked. Buttons nodded. He pointed outside where Kevin could just about be seen trying to do a backflip. As they watched in silence, Cuddle and Buttons saw him fall flat on his face again. They both stifled a giggle. It looks fun, said Buttons. But sometimes it's a bit noisy for me. I don't really like it, so he pointed towards the headphones. Got it, said Cuddles. Spicy brain? She asked. Buttons laughed. Spicy brain, he said. He looked out at Kevin again. I swear my brain thinks it can do backflips sometimes, he added. Cuddle was suddenly curious. Buttons, she said, do you ever want to be alone but not be alone? He looked sideways at her, so she rushed to continue. Like you feel as if you don't have the energy to talk to anyone else, but you don't want to be by yourself. You just want to be quiet with someone else there. The little badger smiled softly at her and said, yes. He knew exactly what she meant, so carried on Cuddle a little cautiously. That's normal, right? To feel that way? Buttons shrugged his shoulders. I think it is. Do you? Cuddle nodded. I guess it's our version of normal then, he said firmly. Cuddle pointed at Kevin, who was now trying to see if he could do a belly dance. Tammy was rolling on the floor holding her sides, and Harry was scrabbling around trying to find his glasses. Kevin glanced up and saw the puggle and badger cub watching him, gave a big grin, a huge wave of his stomach, and then fell right into running on the spot. As fast as he could see him, Cuddle said, he's my best friend in the whole wide world. He can be a bit. A bit much for some with all his energy, but trust me, he likes his quiet time too. It comes on suddenly. It won't happen now. He's got too many people watching and laughing with him. But when it's just me and him and it's a weekend and we've gone to Betty Badger's Bakery for a treat, Kevin sometimes likes to just sit completely still and calm with no talking or dancing or being silly. Buttons nods. He understands what she's saying. I guess, says Cuddle. We all have our different way of seeing things and being, don't we? And that's good. I mean, it's brilliant. Cuddle had no idea how relieved little Buttons was in that moment. It was his first day in a new school and he'd been worried how others might see him and his headphones and his moments of disappearing into silence when everything became too much for him. He'd even been told that just behind the secretary's office there was a quiet little den where he could retreat if he needed one, with soft pillows and cosy blankets and heavy curtains at the window so the lights could be dimmed and lowered as if it was somehow always those beautiful golden moments just before the sun disappears over the horizon at the end of the day. Kevin called out to Cuddle, beckoning her to join him outside. He, Harry, and Tammy had their arms around each other's shoulders as they tried to do the can can, lifting their legs high high into the air and throwing back their heads in time to unheard music. Want to join us? Cuddle asked Buttoned. He seemed to think about it for a moment before saying no, not this time, if that was all right, and Cuddle said, sure, of course it was all right. But just because you said no this time doesn't mean I won't ask again, she turned to say just before she left the room. I get it. Some days you will and some days you won't, and that's perfect. See you in five. Cuddle ran out of the room and over to her friends, putting her arm around Tammy's shoulder and joining in the dance, her big webbed feet lifting in time to the others. Mr. Twinkle had watched the whole scene quite quietly from his golden perch far above the classroom. Cuddle and Buttons had quite forgotten he was there. The thousand emerald and golden eyes in his feathers had seen every moment, and he thought to himself how lucky he was to have Cuddle in his class. Mrs. Bloomington had told him to keep an eye out for that one, about how kind Cuddle was and how understanding and how she was always looking out for others. He had only known her a few short hours, but already Mr. Twinkle knew that Cuddle was something special. He peered out of the window and watched as the four friends fell down in a heap on the grass, lying down with their chests heaving as they caught their breath, pointing up at the clouds drifting by. As he watched, he saw Buttons approach the group, the little badger reaching down and touching Cuddle gently on the shoulder to catch her attention. She shifted over and patted the grass next to her, and Buttons lay down with them, Kevin leaning over to give Buttons a quick fist bump of welcome and then settling once more onto the grass. Tammy picked a daisy from the grass and one by one removed the petals, singing some song to herself as she went that Mr. Twinkle couldn't quite hear from where he rested on his golden perch. As the bell went to signal the end of break, Mr. Twinkle watched as Kevin leapt up before the others, turning round to pull them up one by one. All the creatures slowly return to their classes, some by themselves, others with arms linked through their best friends, some racing to be the first and others dawdling to be the last. Buttons put on his headphones and headed in behind Tammy and Harry, with Kevin and Cuddle holding back for a moment. The little kangaroo held the paws of his puggle friend and twirled her round and round, a gentle whirlwind skimming across the daisies and the grass, their laughter drifting across the fields and to all corners of Sleepy Forest. A little silver sparkle that everyone felt rather than heard. It was a shimmer that started in their toes and ran up their legs and down their arms and to the very tips of their noses, a warm glow spreading gently across the world as the kangaroo and the puggle swirled and twirled in the sunshine. Sam sa.