← Koala Moon: Kids Bedtime Stories & Sleep Stories for Kids Podcast
Koala Moon: Kids Bedtime Stories & Sleep Stories for Kids Podcast
The Clumsy Dinosaur 🦖 Adorable Bedtime Stories For Kids
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Foreign hello and welcome back to Koala Moon, a podcast of original children's bedtime stories and meditations designed to make bedtime a dream. Today's list of new subscribers has put a big smile on my face. I never get tired of seeing your names. And honestly, your decision not only to listen, but also to support us with your money means the world. It helps us stay creative and allows us to keep going. Plus, it really is cool to read your little messages coming in. So thank you. Bertie aged six, Alma aged four, Eliza from Sydney, and Maya, who just turned 11 on 9 July. Oh, and her sister Lana. Enjoy all your unlocked extra episodes and your ad free listening and thanks again. You're the best. 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. Now do you remember earlier this year I introduced you all to Cece and her bizarre little street where her neighbors are all dinosaurs? Well, Spike, the youngest dino who is half Snoozasaurus and half Snorrosaurus, has his cousin visiting and Cece immediately discovers something notable about him. He is the clumsiest dinosaur to ever have walked the planet. We're lucky enough to join them as they head off to the skate park. I wonder how that will go. Before we set off though. Get into bed guys and lie back. Get ready to listen with a nice big breath in and out. Okay, maybe this time, close your eyes and to get really relaxed, breathe in and imagine you're up high, looking down from the sky, just like a bird. And breathe out. As you're floating around looking down, seeing the valleys far, far below where the mist swirls and whirls and sweeps its way along the rivers and streams. Lovely. Keep breathing nice and steady. Perfectly calm and perfectly still. Wonderful. Just keep breathing nice and steady as I begin the Clumsy Dinosaur by Jane Thomas. Tonight's story is about a girl named Cece and her neighbour Spike. The unusual thing about Spike is that he's a dinosaur. Half Snoozasaurus and half Snorrisaurus to be precise. He moved in not so long ago and Cece thinks he's the best neighbour ever, even if he does snore so loudly that she has to bury herself in soft mountains of blankets and pillows every night just to get her 40 winks. Ever since he came to live next door to Cece the duo have been firm friends, and I'd go so far as to say they're best friends. There's something a little magical about having an absolute best friend. Cece and Spike have things like their special goodbye where they give each other a high five, a low five, and a behind five that ends with a wiggle and a jiggle. They know the minute they see each other whether it's the sort of day to go to the skate park and rush and whoosh around the course, seeing if they dare leap into the air, or whether it's the sort of day to sit on a park bench and share an ice cream while just being there for each other. Today Sisi has woken up very much in a go to the skate park kind of mood. The sun is shining, the sky is blue, and she swears the birds on the branch by her window sound as if the singing the tune of a swifty song. Just as she bounces down the stairs, jumping with two feet onto each and every step, she hears Spike next door doing the exact same thing. And just as her mother comes to the bottom of the stairs and says, try and be quiet, Cece, she hears Patricia, that's Spike's mother, telling him the same thing too. But nothing is going to break Cece's good mood today. While she's waiting for the toast to pop, she dances round the room, and when she spreads the jam thick full of whole strawberries that she squashes with glee onto the toast, she sweeps the knife back and forth to the rhythms of a song she's humming to herself. Toast, she sings to herself. Toast for me are covered in lovely strawberry. Her mother smiles as she passes her a glass filled to the brim with watermelon juice. Cece grins and sings another little song. I shall have some juice to drink. Juice that's thick and sweet, turn pink. She takes a huge gulp, then wipes her hand across the back of her mouth, cleaning away the pink moustache that appeared. Is it all right if Spike and I go to the skate park? She asks, hopping from foot to foot. Don't forget Spike's cousin is here for a visit. He'll have to go with you, says her mother. Ceci stops for a moment. She'd quite forgotten the cousin, I believe, her mother went on. He's an acrosaurus. Yes, I'm sure that's what Patricia said. Ceci had no idea what an acrosaurus might be, but if he was a cousin of Spike's, then he must be a generally excellent dinosaur. She danced her way down the hall, danced her way into her shoes and danced her way down the garden path, along the road and down the path that led to Spike's front door. She was just reaching for the knocker when the door was flung open and there was Spike, skateboard under his arm, ready to go. They gave each other a double fist bump and wiggled their shoulders, their special way of saying hello, and then Spike stepped aside and introduced his cousin Dizzy. He'd been born in the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains in the usa, land of hills and valleys and mysterious mists that swirled and whirled above the trees and swept their way along with the rivers and streams. Dizzy was a delicate greyish silver colour with a ridge of orange spines that grew from his back almost as if they were a mountain range, and his long tail slipped along the hall as if it were a rippling silver stream. Ceci reached past Spike and shook Dizzy's hand, asking him if he liked skateboarding. Oh, he's never tried, interrupted Spike before Dizzy had a chance to speak. Dizzy shrugged and smiled. But it sounds fun, he said. I'd love to try. Spike was already out the door and heading up the road, calling over his shoulder for the others to catch up. Dizzy dashed outside, his long tail catching on the table that stood in the hoard and sending it and everything on it flying. A pile of papers flew up into the air, landing in a completely different order all over the floor. Pens shot off in all directions. A lamp seemed to hover in mid air for a moment before crashing down onto the carpet, and Patricia came racing out of the kitchen, tea towel still in her hands. Oh gosh, I'm sorry, said Dizzy, desperately scrabbling to pick things up. As he turned to help, his tail brushed against the pictures hanging on the wall, making them lurch and swing at alarming angles as if they were trying to dance themselves away from their hooks. Whoops, sorry, said Dizzy, reaching for the pictures and holding them in place, his long tail clipping a coat stand and sending that with a wallop and a thump onto the floor too. He looked around desperately, trying to decide what to pick up first, but Patricia answered that for him by smiling and shooing him outside. Looking over her shoulder before she closed the front door behind her, Ceci saw that there was a general trail of chaos inside the house as Dizzy knocked over a plant pot in his rush to catch up with Spike, she had a strong suspicion she knew exactly who had caused all that mess. The walk to the skatepark was just as chaotic as Ceci had A feeling it might be if there was something to trip over. A curbstone, a street sign, a litter bin, then Dizzy would trip over it. He knocked over the giant ice cream cone that stood outside the newsagent's and Spike just caught it in time before it hit the ground. Poor Dizzy spent the whole walk apologising both to Ceci and to Spike, and to random lamp posts and pillar boxes he walked into. It was Spike's skateboard, so he had the first go, swooping around the course, racing up and down the curves and ending with a quick spin of the skateboard. Ceci high fived him and went to have her turn, not daring to go quite as fast as Spike, but still putting in an impressive performance. Dizzy watched them both carefully, seeing exactly what they did. How they bent their knees in one place, how they pushed the board with a foot to gather speed, how they leaned back when they wanted to slow down, and he did his very best to copy just what they'd done. Somehow he managed to fall off before he'd even put both feet on the board. Then, when he was halfway to standing up, he tripped over the board and fell again. Finally, he was on the board at the top of a slope and it took off towards the bottom with him shrieking, a sort of combination of delight and horror that ended with him colliding with a tree. Dizzy was so rattled by the whole thing that he even apologised to the tree. They spent a lovely few hours racing around the course, Dizzy no better at the end than when he'd started, but still with a smile on his face. And then Ceci pulled out her purse and counted the coins her mother had given her, announcing that they had more than enough to go to the little cafe in the corner of the park. The three of them set off, Spike steering them along the route with the least obstacles for Dizzy. He made sure they didn't go anywhere near the pond, but that did mean they needed to go close to the freshly planted flower beds. And of course, Dizzy saw a squirrel and got distracted and tripped over a bench. And, well, the three of them had to sort of guess where the flowers might have been as they rushed to put them back in the ground in some kind of order to cross the river. They had the choice of the little wooden swinging bridge, the one that Ceci liked to try and cross as Spike stood there shaking it, making it rush from side to side and up and down as she tried not to trip. Or they could go over the stepping stones, hopping from one to the next and hoping they never missed and fell in the stream. On the whole, it seemed safer to go with the stepping stones, and it should come as no surprise to learn that by the time they arrived at the cafe, the three of them were dripping wet. Dizzy had stumbled and tripped and grabbed at Ceci and Spike so many times that they'd all ended up in the river at one point or another. Ceci squeezed the water from her T shirt as well as she could and was very glad she chose to wear dark shorts that day. So you couldn't really tell, well, not from a distance, at least, that they were soaking wet. Of course, poor Dizzy knocked over half the tables and chairs on his way to the counter to look at the cakes, and when he turned to pick up one chair, his long tail got in the way and somehow knocked over another. He's wonderful, whispered Spike to Ceci. But I have never known such a clumsy dinosaur. Ceci giggled. His spikes get redder and redder the more embarrassed he gets. I don't think anyone minds, really. It's just funny to watch. They finally settled on the idea of taking their cakes and drinks across to a huge open area of grass and sitting on the ground. It seemed safer than staying in the cafe. Ceci lay back with a sigh, her head resting on Dizzy's chest and her feet on spikes. She tore little pieces from her banana muffin and tossed them into the air, catching them in her mouth. This was something she'd mastered, and Dizzy watched on, impressed by the skill. He eyed up his chocolate chip muffin and considered trying the same thing, but on reflection decided it was best to eat it as he normally did. That was quite messy enough, after all, without adding in the art of throwing. The three of them lay back and looked up at the sky, watching perfect little puffs of white clouds drift by and seeing how birds floated high, high on the thermals. A red and gold butterfly landed right on the end of Spike's nose and he lay perfectly still, crossing his eyes to see it properly. All of them entranced as the butterfly opened and closed its wings, opened and closed, opened and closed, before slowly taking off and fluttering over to the flower beds. Dizzy asked Ceci after a while, do you mind if I ask you something? Dizzy, his arms behind his head, quite content in the safety of staying perfectly still, said that of course he didn't mind. Is it quite tiring being so very well, so very clumsy? Asked Ceci. Very, said Dizzy. I try so hard not to, but it sometimes seems the harder I try, the more things I knock over. Remember that time you knocked over the tent at Aunt Philly's wedding? Said Spike with a bit of a giggle. Dizzy groaned. I'll never forget it, he said. That's where I learned my trick, though. Cece sat up. Trick? Spike removed Cece's feet from his stomach and sat up too. Here. What trick? I learned what to do when I don't want to be clumsy at all, said Dizzy simply. Spike spread his arms and pointed at the huge field they were sitting right in the middle of. You've been pretty safe out here, he said with a laugh. Oh, I can do better than a field, said Dizzy. Find me a long length of rope and I'll show you. Ceci and Spike exchanged a look. They were curious now, and so the three of them headed back towards home, with Ceci rushing into the garage as soon as they returned. She knew that somewhere in there her father had a huge length of rope all coiled up and neatly tied, and she hoped it was long enough for whatever trick it was that Dizzy could show them. She laughed at herself as she knocked over a pot of paint in her rush to find the rope. Perhaps Dizzy's clumsiness was rubbing off on her, she thought as she cleaned the mess up with a pile of old newspapers. Ceci took the rope outside to show Dizzy, and he put his head on one side and looked at the rope, seeing if he could work out how long and how strong it was. In the end, he gave a nod. Right now we need a couple of trees, he said, and both Cece and Spike looked towards the back of their houses where two huge trees reached high up into the sky. Will does do? Asked Spike, and again Dizzy put his head on one side and seemed to be judging something about the trees. He gave another nod. Yes, the trees would do. The rope, explained Dizzy, needed to be tied between the trees and it needed to be as tight and as straight as they could make it. This meant that Ceci had to go into her back garden and climb up the tree a little, wrapping the rope around the trunk and tying the knot as tight as tight could be, and then throwing the rest of the rope over the garden fence into Spike's garden. Spike then climbed up his giant tree and did the same thing, making sure the rope was pulled tight and straight and absolutely level. Dizzy looked up at the rope, then reached his arms above his head and held on slowly, allowing his whole weight to hang from the rope that stretched between the two trees. It seemed to be firm, so he pulled himself up, swinging himself around quickly and dancing onto his two feet with his arms held out to his sides and his eyes closed, Dizzy walked along the tightrope they had created. He walked as easily as you or I might walk along a sidewalk. There was no pausing, no hanging around, no moment when he wobbled. For the first time that day, Dizzy was calm. He walked to and fro between the two trees, first towards the one in Ceci's garden and then back towards the one in Spike's, and then he repeated this, still with his eyes closed and seeming somehow to know when he reached the end of the rope and turning in perfect time. Eventually he came to a stop above Spike's garden, opened his eyes and grinned, then hopped down from the rope. Ceci pulled a chair over to the fence and stood on it, looking over into her best friend's garden, where she saw Spike high fiving Dizzy. Bravo. She cheered. Amazing. But how do you do it? Dizzy reached up and lifted Ceci over the fence, setting her down on the ground and sitting beside her. Spike joined them so the three of them made a sort of triangular kind of circle there at the end of the garden. Dizzy told the other two to copy what he was doing, and he held his arms out by his sides and closed his eyes, breathing in slowly and deeply for 1, 2, 3, 4, and then breathing out slowly and fully for 1, 2, 3, four. He repeated this and the others joined in, taking long, slow breaths that they held for a moment before releasing them back into the world. As I breathe in, dizzy explained, I move my left leg forwards on the rope. I imagine that I'm floating high, high above the world. I'm there with the birds in the day and the stars in the night. I can look down and see the valleys far, far below. The valley's where I was born, where the mist swirls and whirls and sweeps its way along with the rivers and the streams. And then as I breathe out, I put my right leg forwards on the rope, and there I am, far above the trees, far above the highest buildings, away from the noise of the traffic and the busyness of everything. I am perfectly calm and perfectly still, and there is nothing for me to bump into up there as long as. As I keep breathing slowly in and breathing slowly out. He stopped speaking and smiled to himself, opening his eyes and looking at the faces of Spike and Ceci, both completely calm and with soft smiles resting in place. Slowly, they too opened their eyes and grinned across at Dizzy. It's how I fall asleep, too, said Dizzy, even when I need to listen to this snoozasaurus snoring and rumbling his way through the night. He nudged Spike in the ribs as he said this. He leaned over and whispered loudly into Ceci's ear, making sure Spike could hear what he said. Try it, he said. Imagine you're walking on a tightrope far above the world, and I promise you'll soon fall asleep too. Even with the noise coming from Spike's room that evening, Ceci explained to her mother what Dizzy had taught her and she smiled and said yes, that was what an Acrosaurus did, and Ceci suddenly realised that the start of acrosaurus sounded a bit like the start of Acrobat, and her mother nodded and smiled and said, yes, it meant heights, and Cece decided to see if she had a little bit of Acrosaurus somewhere inside of her as she rested her head on her pillow and curled up to fall asleep. As she closed her eyes, she took a deep breath in and imagined moving her left leg forwards on a tightrope Far, far above everything else. The sun was just setting and cast a soft golden glow over everything. So as she looked down she saw golden birds returning to golden nests in golden trees. A stream ran along as if it was melted gold and poured its way into a golden pool, ripples spreading out in ever growing circles as a golden frog hopped from a golden stone into the waters. And then she was slowly, so slowly, letting her breath out. And as she did, she imagined moving her right foot forwards and looking across at the first silver sparkles of stars in the sky, so close it almost seemed as if she could touch them. An owl flew silently past, great wings sweeping gently up and down, up and down, the breeze rushing against her face as he slowly drifted from one side of the world to the other. A deep breath in her left leg forwards, and a golden dragonfly landed on the very tips of her golden fingers, its wings a shimmer of silver and gold in the fading light of the day. Slowly releasing the breath, she looked down towards a golden sea, gentle waves rising and falling, a golden beach lined with golden palms that swayed back and forth, back and forth. NC never noticed the snores of the dinosaur next door because the mist grey dinosaur with the tail that stretched as if it was a stream of silver had shared his secret with her. She too could walk across the valleys of the Great Smoky Mountains. She too could stride above the deserts with their shifting sands. She too could look down on temples and rivers, mountains and forests, and balanced on a thread as slender as silk that reached from one side of the world to the other Sam Sa.