Cain and Abel

I had worried about telling this story -- admittedly, it's a little intense, and I wondered how hearing it would affect my boys. How does introducing the concept of one brother killing another sound to two brothers who are as close as mine? J (whose story drawing is above, with Abel making a heart-felt offering to Yahweh, while an angry, jealous Cain glares at him from behind) merely gasped and looked up from the deck of cards he was shuffling when I got to that critical part of the story. Zoo Boy (story drawing below, of Cain drawing a blade on Abel in the field where they fought) said "uhoh" when the story started building, then followed that up with a quiet "I knew this was going to be bad" when Cain finally killed Abel. All in all, I'd say they handled it remarkably well.

More and more I am letting the kids chose the wording for our summaries. Today's was written almost entirely by them. (J's full summary above.) Since it was a little on the long side, I let Zoo Boy write a shorter version of it: