. . . there was a poor miller who had a beautiful daughter. One day he had the opportunity to speak to the king. To make himself seem important he said, "I have a daughter who can spin straw into gold."
To make a long story shorter, the king married the beautiful girl, imprisoned her in a windowless room which was full of straw, gave her a spinning-wheel and a reel. His parting words to his beloved queen were,
"By tomorrow morning this straw will be turned into gold, or you will die."
After many fearful tears were shed, a little man appeared, turned the straw into gold and then departed with the promise that the firstborn of the queen would be his.
A year later after the birth of her first child, the manikin appeared to claim his prize. The queen begged to be freed from her promise. After much deliberation the little man bargained,
"If you can guess my name, I will release you from your promise."
After 2 days of dropping names, the queen despaired. She only had one more opportunity to guess the manikins name. The next morning a trusted servant told her of a funny little man he had seen in the night dancing around a fire and singing,
"To-day I bake, to-morrow brew, the next I'll have the young queen's child. Ha, glad am I that no one knew that Rumpelstiltskin I am styled."
When the little man appeared a little later, ready to take the infant, the queen greeted him with several more outlandish names. Suddenly she blurted out,
"Is your name Rumpelstiltskin."
She watched in amazement as the little man jumped up and down in a rage at the queen's cleverness. He bounced so vigorously that he fell through the floor and was never seen again.
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Driving with the children in the winter of 1994, I felt that I had a lot in common with the queen in the story of Rumpelstiltskin. Name after name was thrown around as we tried to christen our homeschool. Suddenly I looked down at my fanny pack and noticed the letters AVID embroidered on the top. I liked the word AVID which is defined as "enthusiastic; ardent; dedicated; keen. Then I realized AVID would be a great acronym. After playing with words for awhile we came up with a wonderful description of our homeschooling experience:
Academics with Variety for Individial Development.
Fourteen years have come and gone. Several of the children have left the nest and are creating their own cozy aerie. I am so pleased that they are AVID learners with burning enthusiasm for knowledge. Real joy will be manifest when I see my grandchildren with an all consuming love of learning. Note: Picture from http://www.hotmoviesale.com/dvds/14311/1/Rumplestiltskin.jpg.
