Cuddle's Sleepy Day At Kookaburra Kindie 😴 🎒 Bedtime Stories For Kids | Rewind

[00:00:10] Hello and welcome back to Koala Moon, a podcast of original children's bedtime stories and meditations designed to make bedtime a dream. Tonight we're returning to Kookaburra Kindie where our little platypus friend Cuddle is learning all about the weather. So let's join the class who are thinking about pitter-pattering rain, warm lazy sunshine and funnily enough about what makes the perfect weather for a monkey's wedding.

[00:00:40] Yep, listen out for that one. I had no idea either, but now I just can't stop imagining one. Slip into bed, have a lovely stretch and wriggle and maybe let out a little sigh or two. Lovely. Now breathe in and out through your nose a couple of times to get still and really ready to listen.

[00:01:07] Off we head then into the heart of sleepy forest. This is called Cuddles Sleepy Day at Kookaburra Kindie by Jane Thomas. Before we begin, here's a quick ad break, then we'll start tonight's bedtime story. If you'd like to support our podcast, enjoy ad-free listening and unlock all our premium stories,

[00:01:37] you can join the Coco Club. To join, follow the link in the show notes. As the summer holidays begin to wind down and families settle back into their familiar bedtime routines, we have something to help make those early wind downs a little easier. From August 31st until September 14th, you can enjoy a 14-day free trial of Coco Club. So whether you need a peaceful story after a busy back-to-school day, a calming meditation to help your child switch off,

[00:02:07] or an extra-long compilation to help an overactive mind settle down, you can unlock over 500 episodes, totally uninterrupted. With ad-free listening, exclusive bonus adventures, and a growing library of magical bedtime stories, there's something for every kind of night. This September, you can enjoy even more adventures with Coco and Kira, go camping with Hector and Sunny, join Flick and Jumble on a brand new quest,

[00:02:34] and even meet a curious new alien family who've just moved into the middle of nowhere. Simply tap Try Free on Apple Podcasts, or use the Supercast link in our show notes for Spotify, Yoto, and other podcast players to begin your 14-day free trial. Mrs. Bloomington, the big, fuzzy, yellow, and black bumblebee

[00:03:04] who runs the Kookaburra Kindy in the heart of Sleepy Forest, yawned and stretched her way into the morning. She buzzed her way into the bathroom, then buzzed her way downstairs and into the kitchen, and buzzed her way through a giant bowl of nectar sprinkled with the delicate pollen of honeysuckle flowers. Mrs. Bloomington picked up her satchel, checked that she had all her notes for the day's classes,

[00:03:34] kissed Mr. Bloomington on his fuzzy yellow and black cheek, and then buzzed off to school. As she flew along the lanes, taking care of course to stop at traffic lights, just because one can fly doesn't mean one can break the rules of the road. She thought about the faces of all the children she'd see that day. She just knew they'd light up when she told them what the day's lessons would be about, and she had a little buzzing chuckle to herself

[00:04:03] as she thought of the secret she had slipped up her sleeve. At the same time as Mrs. Bloomington was buzzing and stretching her way into the day, so was Cuddle the Puggle. She sat in her bed and wiggled her little otter-like feet and smiled to herself as she shook her beaver-like tail. She pulled back the curtain she could reach from her bed and looked out at the sunshiny blue sky, white puffy clouds day that was happening outside.

[00:04:34] She jumped up and dashed to the bathroom, only to see her sister Snuggle already lining up outside the door, waiting for their brother Huggle to hurry up inside. Cuddle hopped from foot to foot, wishing for a moment that platypuses didn't love water quite so much, as maybe they would all have much shorter showers. When she'd finally had her turn, she slid down the banister and landed with a thud and a bump in the kitchen.

[00:05:05] Cuddle's mother handed her a bowl of starfruit, the thick star-shaped slices shining up at her and glistening with big dollops of honey, and Cuddle wolfed them down in one, two, three bites. She grabbed her backpack and her bright red lunchbox with an elephant on it and put one hand into Snuggles and the other into Huggles. Then, the three of them headed off towards the alligator bus stop together.

[00:05:34] Now that Cuddle had been going to the Kookaburra Kindy for three whole weeks, their mother didn't always come in with them. It made Cuddle feel terribly grown up, although she was still glad to have her big brother on one side of her and her big sister on the other. The three of them waited for the alligator to appear, looking down the river for telltale signs. Then, there he was, his shining black cap coming towards them

[00:06:03] and gentle flicks of his tail pushing him through the water. They all climbed aboard and Snuggles sat with her sister until the next stop when Kevin the kangaroo hopped on board. He took Snuggles' place and Snuggles went back a few scales and Kevin sat down with his bright blue lunchbox with the elephant on it sitting squarely on his knees. G'day, Cuddle. Beautiful morning, he said cheerfully.

[00:06:32] Kevin did everything cheerfully. He was that sort of kangaroo. Cuddle had even seen him fall out of a tree and just sort of bounce a bit and then come up smiling. No damage, he declared, and climbed right back up the very same tree. He was Cuddle's first and best friend and she nudged him with her elbow as they drifted along Sleepy River on the alligator's back. What do you think we're doing today, Kevin?

[00:07:02] She asked. Mrs. Bloomington seemed very excited yesterday when she said goodbye to us all. Kevin had no idea and even though they tried guessing for the rest of the alligator journey, in the end, they decided they quite liked surprises and Mrs. Bloomington had never let them down yet. They stepped off at the school stop along with a load of other animals. But even though it was very busy

[00:07:31] with koalas and kangaroos and all sorts of creatures rushing this way and that, Huggle and Snuggle made sure to give Cuddle a quick high-five and a kiss goodbye before they headed off to Sleepy Forest High on the far side of the playground. Safely inside the classroom, Cuddle and Kevin sat and watched Mrs. Bloomington. She was quite literally buzzing with excitement. Today, children,

[00:08:01] we are going to talk about the weather, she pronounced. First of all, I'd like all of you to draw a picture of a bright, sunshine-filled day. Cuddle loved bright, sunshine-filled days. They were some of her absolute favorites. She pulled out her yellow pencil and carefully drew the best circle she could,

[00:08:29] then colored it in a little bit at a time, being sure to stay in the lines. She closed her eyes and thought about all the things she liked to do on days when the sun shone in a clear blue sky. Cuddle thought about floating with Kevin in Sleepy River and remembered the day they had seen what must have been a thousand dragonflies go past, their red and blue and green bodies

[00:08:59] lifted by silver wings. And she thought about balancing on the tightrope in the garden with Huggle and Snuggle. And how she could almost make it the whole way now between the two weeping willows before falling off and bumping down into the long, soft grass. She thought of lying in the hammock with them too, while their mother sat in her red and white striped deck chair wearing her enormous yellow sun hat

[00:09:28] and told them all the myths and legends and folk tales of Sleepy Forest. Cuddle especially loved the days when they called the kingfisher, who would fly swiftly along the river and deliver them the freshest, coolest, most delicious ice cream of anywhere in the world. The kingfisher would dart into the garden with the bag held in his beak, a bright flash of shimmering green

[00:09:58] and turquoise and blue, who came and went in the blink of a golden eye. Cuddle filled her page with all the colours of sunshine and summer, and Mrs. Bloomington looked over her shoulder and smiled at the beautiful picture. Mrs. Bloomington buzzed her way to the front of the class and told the children they must now turn their papers over, and this time they were to draw

[00:10:27] everything they thought of when she said the word snow to them. Tobogganing, whispered Kevin, and icicles, and snowflakes, and scarves, and woolly hats. Cuddle smiled. Mittens, she whispered back, and snowmen, and mountaintops, and the warmest, fluffiest, snuggliest blankets. They grinned at each other

[00:10:57] as they reached for their pencils and started to draw. Cuddle particularly loved the way snow made everything so instantly beautiful, and how it draped itself softly around even the sharpest, tightest corners. She loved the way snow would sit on each and every branch of each and every tree, and how it sparkled in the winter sun.

[00:11:25] She loved making snowflakes with snuggle and huggle, folding papers and turning them this way and that, cutting out triangles and squares, and opening up the papers to find individual, perfect snowflakes that they could tie to invisible threads and hang from the ceiling. Cuddle thought of the night when they had travelled to the far north of sleepy forest in the depths of winter,

[00:11:54] and how she had just about managed to stay awake long enough to see the dark sky suddenly start dancing with swirling lights of green and red and pink. Waves of green had swept over her head as she lay back in the snow, wrapped in a dozen blankets, and with her head pressed into not one, not two, but three woolly hats. She was the only one in the class

[00:12:23] to draw those swirling, twirling, dancing lights in the sky, and Mrs. Bloomington carefully showed her picture so everyone could see that sometimes, if you were very lucky indeed, you could actually see this for yourself. At lunch, with their bright red and bright blue lunch boxes opened alongside each other, Kevin bounced up and down on his seat.

[00:12:52] He made Cuddle promise, promise, that the next time her family was heading to the special place where you could see the dancing lights, that he could go with them too. And then he told her all about the evening he had been in the mangroves with his father, and how the strange tangle of roots resting in the shallows lit up as if by magic as they walked along a boardwalk and sent shuddering ripples through the water.

[00:13:22] The tiny creatures that lived there danced and floated, and, as they did, they glowed and shone in the darkness. Cuddle held her breath as she imagined the scene, and then made Kevin promise, promise, that the next time he was going there with his father that she could go along too. Mrs. Bloomington curled up in her favourite bright red

[00:13:52] hibiscus flower and had a nap while the children were at lunch. It was a nap filled with particularly beautiful dreams that day, thanks to all the colourful pictures that had been drawn in her classroom. and she borrowed the images of their sunny and snowy days and poured them into her mind. The petals of the flower wrapped around her so snugly, and it was so very warm

[00:14:21] and cosy in there that Mrs. Bloomington almost didn't wake up before the children returned for the afternoon lessons. Tell me, cuddle, she said when everyone was sitting down. What do you think is your absolute favourite sort of weather? Cuddle had a think, a gentle frown appearing on her face as she chewed on the end of her pencil. It helped her think better when she did that

[00:14:51] she'd found. Well, she said at last, I do love sunshine and I do love snow. But what I think I love the best is rain. Beside her, Kevin groaned. Oh, really? he said. Of all the weather in the world, you choose rain?

[00:15:20] Cuddle pointed to her little otter-like feet and her little duck-like beak and her little beaver-like tail. And Kevin grinned at her. Of course, a platypus would love the rain. It made perfect sense. While Cuddle loved floating in the river or playing in the garden or building snowmen or sliding down a hill, her favourite thing to do was to splash

[00:15:50] about in puddles. And for puddles to appear, there needed to be rain. Lots and lots of rain. She thought of how she would run and run and take the biggest leap she could, flying through the air with her eyes closed as she rushed towards a puddle and landed in it with a splash and a wallop and a wow. She and Snuggle and Huggle would take it

[00:16:20] in turns to try and make the biggest, most fantastic splashes. The little lane where they lived was particularly excellent for puddle jumping because the road was filled with divots and patches where it had worn away, all of them waiting to be filled with rainwater. Cuddle also loved the cosiness of being inside and listening to the rain on the roof in the windows. Sometimes

[00:16:49] the rain would fall so hard that you couldn't hear each other speak and suddenly you would be wrapped up in this wonderful watery world where nothing else mattered anymore. She loved lying in bed and watching the raindrops race down the window, picking from the little rainbow-coloured droplets and guessing which between the two would get to the bottom first.

[00:17:19] She loved the way the garden smelled after the rain had fallen, everything fresh and clean, the flowers and the leaves glistening with raindrops. And tell me, Kevin, said Mrs. Bloomington, what do you think about storms? Kevin swallowed. Cuddle turned to him a little surprised that some of the bounce seemed to have left her kangaroo friend.

[00:17:50] Storms? he said with a wobble in his voice. You don't like storms? whispered Cuddle and Kevin shook his head. No, he very much did not like storms. He was scared of storms. Oh, but Cuddle said in a gentle, earnest whisper. Storms are simply wonderful.

[00:18:20] The whole sky comes alive when there's a storm. And then she told Kevin that she used to be scared of storms too, but then she had learned to see them as something beautiful. She would lie and listen to the thunder and feel it almost rolling around inside her and how that made her feel as if she belonged in the world more than at any other time. She would watch as the lightning raced across

[00:18:49] the sky for the briefest moments brightening up the darkest nights so you caught glimpses of trees silhouetted against the sky and silent owls sweeping through the darkness. She loved the way the trees would bend as if they were trying to touch their toes. And she loved the way the wind whipped the rain this way and that, suddenly dashing it against the window and then whisking

[00:19:19] it away again. Storms could make her feel five whole things at the same time, and that was something that no other weather could do. I guess storms aren't so bad, said Kevin, thinking about them in a whole new light. But, Mrs. Bloomington, if I'm being honest, my favourite weather will always be sunshine.

[00:19:50] Mrs. Bloomington had rather hoped he would say that, because then she could slip the secret out of her sleeve where she'd been hiding it all morning and all afternoon. Class, she said. I want you to draw one more picture today. I want you to draw a monkey's wedding. Cuddle and Kevin exchanged a look.

[00:20:20] What on earth could a monkey's wedding have to do with weather? They looked towards Mrs. Bloomington for a clue, but the bee was busying herself with a watering can, attending to the plants that filled a corner of the classroom. And even though Kevin raised his hand and waved it around, she did a very good job of pretending not to notice the bouncing, eager kangaroo. Cuddle tried to imagine a monkey's wedding,

[00:20:51] so she closed her eyes and waited to see what pictures came into her mind. She saw a jungle. Yes, that made sense, because monkeys lived in jungles. She saw vines hanging from trees that were pulled to the side, with mounds of leaves piled onto them, as if they were a huge pair of green curtains hanging over a stage in a theatre. She saw boulders and stones in

[00:21:20] neat rows, with monkeys sitting on them, wearing beautiful flowers of every colour tucked behind their ears. And right at the front, she saw it was an elephant that would watch over the wedding, which made sense, she supposed, because elephants are after all some of the wisest animals in the world. world. And she saw two monkeys facing each other on the stage, and they were looking earnestly into each other's eyes.

[00:21:50] They were exchanging ring, which were made from the finest silkworm threads, woven around and around a thousand times. rings. And when the monkeys had exchanged the rings, and the elephant had raised his trunk to show it was the end of the ceremony, the two monkeys walked away from the stage. All the others stood on their boulders and threw the pinkest blossoms high in the

[00:22:20] air, so they landed in the aisle and over the newly married monkeys. Cuddle opened her eyes and carefully drew the scene, adding more and more flowers, and then, as if from nowhere, having the idea to include a flamingo wearing a very smart waistcoat, running and flapping across the stage. She sneaked a peek at Kevin's picture and saw that he had the two monkeys being married on a

[00:22:50] little raft that drifted down a river that looked very much like Sleepy River. When she looked closer, she realised it wasn't a raft at all, but really the scales of Apollo the alligator slipping above the water line. And dozens of monkeys stood along the shore. Instead of showering them with pink blossoms as they had in her picture, they were throwing the

[00:23:19] brightest yellow banana skins at the two smiling newly wed monkeys. Mrs. Bloomington checked their pictures and everyone else's and said that while everyone had wonderful imaginations, they had forgotten the theme for the day. We're learning about weather, aren't we, class? So, while Cuddle has a beautiful picture set in a rainforest,

[00:23:49] and Kevin has a gorgeous image of monkeys on a river, and Samson over here has a very special picture with the monkeys getting married among the moon and the stars, none of these are really about the weather, are they? You see, went on Mrs. Bloomington, a monkey's wedding is an old Zulu expression all the way from

[00:24:18] South Africa. It is what they say when the rain pours and the sun shines all at the same time. I'm not really sure why they say that, but it's interesting, isn't it? A monkey's wedding. My favourite is rain, said Cuddle quietly. And my favourite is sun, said Kevin. They looked at

[00:24:48] each other and laughed. So, we would be happiest if we could have a monkey's wedding, they said together. Mrs. Bloomington smiled and said that this was their homework, to draw one final picture of a monkey's wedding. Only this time it was to show both the sunshine and the rain together. And can

[00:25:18] we bring rainbows into it? asked Cuddle. Why, I think rainbows are very much needed, replied Mrs. Bloomington. For when there's sunshine and rain, there are bound to be rainbows. As they slid through the waters on the back of Apollo on their way home from school, Cuddle and Kevin checked with each other

[00:25:47] that they definitely knew the order of colours of the rainbow. Cuddle even wrote it down in the back of her notebook, just to be sure that she would get it absolutely right. This had to be the best picture she drew because it was everything about her and her best friend's favourite weather all in the same place. She spent ages over her picture that evening and the final thing she added was a

[00:26:16] huge sweeping rainbow that went from one side all the way to the other. She started with red and then added orange and then came yellow which was next to green and then blue and the indigo and finally she searched carefully in her pencil case to make sure she had the right colour and not to mess everything up at the very last moment. Finally

[00:26:45] she added a violet curving sweep at the very top of the rainbow. Cuddle had spent all day imagining her favourite things to do and she was surprised to find how very tired that made her feel. Her eyes were heavy as she sat at the dinner table that evening listening to Snuggle talk about something to do with the book she was reading and Huggle

[00:27:14] talk about the kings and queens who had ruled the lands many many years before and her head kept slipping forwards and her eyes couldn't quite stay open. Her mother picked up Cuddle and carried her upstairs moving slowly and steadily through the cottage so as not to wake

[00:27:44] the little sleeping platypus and she pulled back the bed covers and placed Cuddle gently in her bed then tucked her in with the blankets all the way up to her beak as she turned out the light before she closed the door. She looked over at Cuddle and saw a smile appear on her face

[00:28:13] and she wondered for a moment what dreams her little one might be having that night. But you already know don't you for they were dreams of green and pink sweeps of light dancing across the darkest night skies and summer days spent in hammocks swinging gently in the shade

[00:28:43] of the weeping willows and of raindrops landing on petals and leaving them covered in silver shimmering jewels and monkeys and elephants and cloud after cloud of the pinkest softest blossoms drifting through the air and the