Chelsea Dyreng's Blog

As the mother of six kids I had reservations from the beginning about virtual school.

The first two weeks of online learning were rocky. Having five people on Zooms brought our already feeble internet connection to a glacial crawl. You could have breakfast, brush your teeth, and take a shower in the time it took to log on to your Zoom. At lunch when I asked what everyone had learned the response was unanimous: Nothing!

Getting started was the hardest part, and each child had their own ...

Part 2

That is a very big knife, said his mother when Orion showed his parents his sword.

Im going to use it to find my sisters and bring them home, he stated.

The worried king and queen wanted to know how he would do this. Orion raised the sword and sliced through one of the tapestries on the wall. That is how, he said.

Orion rode off in the direction the swans had flown. At night he was guided by the stars and during the day he was guided by the sun. He rode up mountains, around great lakes...

Once upon a time, in a land where happiness and harmony had existed for so long that no one even knew what the word war or weapon meant, there was a queen and king who had seven daughters. At the Gifting Ceremony of each daughter the royal fairy Philippa bestowed upon them a magical skill that would fill them with complete joy. The eldest, Andromeda, was given the gift of wisdom, the second, Lyra, the gift of song. The third, Cassiopeia, was given the gift of knitting, and so forth, all the...

Part 2

Douglas galloped his horse along the path to the palace. Every now and then he slowed to let the panting animal rest while he thumbed through the hairy godfathers book. He recited several poems out loud, enjoying the rhythm and beauty of the words, and tried to commit them to memory. Then he spurred his steed onward.

By mid-morning he arrived at the palace and entered the tournament. All of the competitors lined up on a field facing the royal box in which the king, queen, and princess...

Part 1

Once upon a time in a grand country mansion lived a couple and their young son Douglas. The father was a studious man who had a large library filled with books that hed collected from around the world. The three spent hours in the library together reading novels, biographies, travelogues and poetry. Before he left on his next journey, the father promised to bring back another book. But alas, he never returned, for his ship was dragged to the bottom of the ocean by a giant squid.

Life...

Once upon a time there was a boy who had everything he ever wanted and was consequently very spoiled and selfish. His name was Golden.

He lived as an only child at the edge of a wood, and he never did anything his mother asked him to do. When she said, Wash the dishes, he would go outside and play. When she said, Clean up your dirty clothes, he would fling them around the house. So, on the fateful day when his mother said, Dont ever go into the wood alone, he decided to do just that.

Off he...

Once upon a time there was a group of old women who liked to get together and knit in the village square, and while they knitted, they bragged about their children.

My daughter makes beautiful dresses, said the tailors wife.

My son can grind wheat faster than any man in the kingdom! said the millers wife.

The bakers wife, who often felt inferior in front of her friends and wanted to prove that her child was just as good as theirs said, My son can bake loaves of dough into bricks of gold.

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Once upon a time there was a boy who lived with his father at the edge of a great wood. The boy had bright red hair and everyone called him Little Red. His father, who also had red hair, was called Big Red.

One day Big Red said to Little Red, You are old enough to go into the forest alone, and I need you to do an important errand for me. He took a basket, covered by a cloth, and said, Carry this basket to your grandfather who lives in the middle of the wood. Take care you do not get...

Once upon a time there was a king and queen who desperately wanted a child. After years of fertility spells by fairies and genetic testing by warlocks, the couple were finally approached by a rat, claiming to be a magical witch, who gave the queen a bubbly drink in exchange for a promise that if the baby was a girl the queen must surrender her child to the rat, but if it was a boy the queen could keep it. The queen was desperate, so she did as the rat said. Nine months later the queen had a...

Once upon a time there was a woman named Yetzel who didnt care much for children or men and definitely did not want to live with either. Instead she dedicated herself to the study of sorcery and became a powerful witch. She lived alone in a small cottage, brewing potions in her kitchen and growing illegal plants in her garden. Though her career kept her stimulated, fulfilled, and busy, she would sometimes feel a surge of loneliness and wonder if maybe it wouldnt be so bad having a child after...