Teacher's Room

Lesson Plan

Comment Form

Things To Do

People

Volcano Story
by Lara Steele

Not to long ago Lara was in very good physical shape. She worked out daily and considered herself a fairly good martial artist. She enjoyed the flexibility that she had in her body and the energy that came from being in good shape. Then she did something to change all that, but at the time she didn't know it was going to have such an impact in her life. Lara's husband and her decided to have a baby. This meant that she had to get pregnant. It all seemed pretty simple. You want a baby so you get pregnant and then 9 months later you have a baby. She didn't realize the physical requirements that her body would have put on it.

At first it did not impact Lara's life style much to be pregnant. She could still work out and do her martial arts, but after about two months she noticed she was always tired. She started taking naps a lot. Soon she had to give up her workouts and often she couldn't even find time to walk everyday. There was nothing wrong with Lara. her body was just using all the extra energy to create a new life. At first no one could see that she was pregnant, even though it was obvious to her. However, after about 5 months they started to be able to see the changes in Lara's body. At eight months her back started to hurt, but she got back some of her energy.

During all of this time she never got back enough energy to work out again, but she kept walking. Everyday she would walk two miles. When her legs would hurt, from the extra weight, she would slow down, but she never stopped. Her only reward and encouragement was that she could feel the baby moving and she was reminded of the reason she was doing all this.

When the baby was born Lara was very happy and very excited. All her energy returned and she discovered that she was stronger then she had been before. She had her balance back and she could do her workouts again.

Was it bad for her to be pregnant? (yes - she was always tired, interfered with her lifestyle; No - she was creating a new life and wanted to be a mom)

Why was she so tired? (hard work to make a baby)

Why was she so strong after the baby was born? (Lost a lot of extra weight and had never stopped walking)

Even though others couldn't see it, Lara could feel the life growing in side of her. How do you think this made her feel? (Great, happy, like she was doing something good)

You might want your introduction from this story to be something like this: "You have just heard how a new life can start out invisible to everyone, and gradually become more visible till it is there for everyone to see. Today we are going to talk about how a volcano erupted and then the new life that started before anyone thought it could, because they couldn't see how much had survived."