One Day At A Time by Ruth and John Kenward - 5 to 7 years (KS1)

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Theme  -  Dealing with difficult problems 
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Story  -  by Ruth & John Kenward  (approx 7 mins)

Extract:
Aliesha and Jacob were twins. They lived in a cosy house with their mum and dad, and a ginger cat called Geronimo. Although the twins obviously weren't identical, because Aliesha was a girl and Jacob was a boy, they did look very alike. They both had brown hair and brown eyes, and were exactly the same height. Both of them liked the same food, the same TV programmes and the same games. 'We're twins!' they would say proudly, whenever they met someone for the first time...

...The twins had begun to notice that when a bad thing happened, it only happened to one of them at a time. This was good, because it meant that if something bad happened to Jacob, Aliesha was there to cheer him up, and if it happened to Aliesha, Jacob was there to cheer her up. 

For example, when they were three, Aliesha had lost her favourite Teddy. One day she took him shopping, but that turned out to be a bad idea. Somehow the little teddy got dropped. Although they looked all over the place, Bertie couldn't be found. Aliesha cried and cried. 
'Poor Aliesha,' said their mum, 'sad things happen, but you won't be sad forever.'  'Yes I will!' cried Aliesha.
'Just take one day at a time.' said Mum. 'Things will get better.'  And of course they did.  

It wasn’t until the twins were six that something horrible thing happened to them both at the same time. Every night at bedtime, the twins would stroke Geronimo the cat and say goodnight. But one day after school Geronimo fell over and lay on the floor making a funny noise. The twins ran for their mum. ‘Mum!’ they shouted. ‘Come quick!’ But when they got back he was lying absolutely still. The twins were shocked. 
‘Is he dead, mum?’ asked Aliesha. 
‘I don’t know,’ Mum replied...

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Song  -  by John & Ruth Kenward  

A gentle song to encourage young children that things do get better, if you can be patient and take one day at a time.  (Sample on the audio player above.)

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Reflection Points  -  samples

1.  Why was it good that they usually took it in turns to have bad things happen?

2.  What did Mum always say when bad things happened?  Was she right?

3.  What does it mean to 'take one day at a time'? 
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This assembly is from 'Assemblies Alive KS1'. There is a parallel assembly for KS2 'Growing Pains' with the same theme in 'Assemblies Alive KS2'.