American
The Children at Ellis Island
Children who stepped off a crowded ship into a country they'd never seen — long days, strange new sounds, everything still ahead of them.
This Week · New Beginnings · New Year
New Beginnings: what's one thing you want to begin this year?
For littler ones: What's something brand new you'd like to try this year?
The calendar's turned over, fresh and clean as the first snow — so this week we're wondering about new beginnings. Not what you want to finish. What you want to begin: something you've never tried before. It's a good one for the car or the table on a January week, because a brand-new year is the rare moment everyone gets to start something at once.
This week's stories
Classics
Rip Van Winkle
A man who wanders up a mountain, falls asleep for twenty years, and comes down to a whole world made new — his beard long, his old life gone, a fresh one to begin.
Talk about it
- What's one thing you'd like to begin this year — something you've never tried before?
- The children at Ellis Island began in a brand-new place; Rip Van Winkle began in his same old town, only changed. Does a fresh start mean going somewhere new, or can it happen right where you are?
- What feels exciting about starting something new, and what feels a little scary about it?
A new question every week.
Listen together in the app — short audio stories for kids 4–10, at bedtime, on the drive, in the drop-off line.
Join the family
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