There is more to telling stories than meets the eye.
I spend a good deal of time and effort finding and recommending books for you guys to read with your kids and parents and teachers around the world are likewise encouraged to read stories to their children and classrooms to enrich the imagination and introduce literacy.
However…
There is so much more to explore through storytelling than simply reading the words aloud off the page of a good book!
Of course, reading is essential to literacy development but storytelling delights and encourages children to listen to the music of words in different ways.
Why Tell a story as opposed to Reading one?
Both reading and telling are great ways to communicate stories to children but the differences between the two are quite considerable for both the parent/teacher and the children listening.
When reading stories, the reader must always be focused on the printed words while occasionally looking at the audience.
In contrast, telling a story gives the teller freedom to speak directly to the children, remaining in eye contact while having the opportunity to watch for their reactions to the story.
It is the teller who makes the story come to life through the sound of their voice and personality combined.
The storytelling becomes almost a personal experience for all involved.
3 Basic rules of children’s stories
There are three essential elements involved in storytelling;
the story
the storyteller
the audience
The story itself should be a narrative short enough to be told in one sitting.
It can be a fiction or non-fiction but more importantly something that the teller is interested in and enjoys.
There really are no limits to what type of story can be told.
Before the written word, storytelling was the only way a person could relate events to other people.
Traditions were passed down from one generation to the next with the use of oral stories.
Even today, libraries are filled with books containing the different folk tales from cultures all over the world.
If it were not for storytelling, these may have been lost and never recorded.
Linking the story to your audience
Linking the story to the audience is up to the storyteller.
The best stories are personal stories because they come from within the teller and I find that my memory (and imaginative additions) is much clearer and provides a wider base for everything from descriptive surroundings to sub-plots and hidden lessons.
However, an experienced teller can learn any story and make it their own (and reading and practicing the tips and hints in the free storytelling technique course will set you on the right path).
The beginner may feel more comfortable with a traditional well known story like Goldilocks and the Three Bears, or Little Red Riding Hood.
Personal stories however, usually hold the greatest interest for a teller and have the potential to produce the inner most enthusiasm while reciting remembered events – plus : The audience will enjoy the story just as much as the teller enjoys telling it.
Some people are natural born storytellers, but anyone who is willing to practice and devote time and study can become a good one.
There are certain characteristics that a natural storyteller may possess that gives them an advantage.
A creative imagination and a flair for drama will help bring a story to life so the children will be able to visualize in their own minds the characters and setting of the story.
It is also better to be prepared for the sometimes unexpected tidbits the children will want to add to the story themselves. Including their ideas and engaging with the audience will truly make for a successful storytelling session.
There is clearly more to telling children’s stories than one at first thinks and indeed the same can be said of reading stories, but you have to start somewhere right?
I want you to be able to feel confident to tell stories to your children from your memory or made up from your incredible imagination that speak directly to the third piece of the storytelling : your audience!
The great thing is that generally we know our audience quite well which gets us off to a great start and I hope that in coming weeks you’ll start to gain some ideas and confidence and a structure around how you can formulate and tell your own stories to your kids.
Learning the difference between bedtime and sleep time and giving a child some autonomy
Why does a bedtime story have to lead immediately to lights out and the inevitable “but I’m not tiiiirrrred!!!” from your son or daughter?
How many times did I battle with my daughter and how many stories do I hear about other parents struggling to get their kids into bed for their designated bedtime!
Don’t these kids know that we are looking forward to a (small) glass of wine and some adult time?
Why can’t they understand that day after day, when we say “it’s 7 O’clock, bedtime” that we’re trying to give them some consistency!
After all, we are told that consistency and bedtime routine (although I don’t necessarily agree with it all) is crucial to our children’s development!
I’ve written before about bedtime routines and bedtime stories and something that I’ve been having with great success with as far as reducing bedtime frustration and argument is concerned, is removing my idea that bedtime must mean sleep time.
The dawning reality of an easy bedtime routine
I realised some time ago that my daughter’s bedtime is also daddy’s evening-time. I get to sit in peace and read my book or watch a film (or write content about children, stories and parenting for this very website). But my daughter often isn’t tired and from spring though to autumn; it isn’t even dark outside at 7pm.
Looking back on it I’m not sure why it took me so long to work this out, but it dawned on me just to tell my daughter that it was Daddy’s evening time.
Adult time
I told her that she could do what she liked as long as it was in her bedroom and she didn’t disturb us adults.
It was a bit of a gamble, but I like (at least attempting) to treat my daughter as an adult as often as possible, so I explained exactly what I was doing and why.
I explained that I understood that she was probably not that tired and wanted to stay up and play some more. I also explained that I needed some time for me too so that I could do the things I wanted to do.
She said that was fine and I left her to her toys in her room and went off to have dinner.
I had assumed that it wouldn’t work the first time and that, having a new routine and all, she’d be in and out and demanding things of me. I was mostly wrong!
The first night, she stayed awake playing until 9.30 and I had to go in and suggest that it might be time to sleep otherwise she’d be grumpy and tired in the morning and wouldn’t enjoy swimming.
She actually agreed! And went off to sleep pretty quickly.
The next night I could hear her playing at 8.30 but by 9 she was asleep.
Ever since then we’ve had a (mostly) really easy time of it at bedtime! We bath, brush teeth and have 15 minutes of quite time on the sofa before she chooses a couple of books to read in bed.
Once the books are read, she knows that she’s allowed to get back out of bed if she likes and play with her toys as long as it’s not too noisy or disrupting to whatever we’re doing in the living room.
Why does separating sleep time and bedtime work?
One of the best things about this bedtime routine is that, for me, it also ticks several other learning/teaching points :
I get to give her direction – She is told that it is bedtime and I set the expectation that she’ll go to sleep. I still control the end result but…
I also get give her control over her own destiny – She can choose when she goes to sleep.
Autonomy and Direction. Two key ingredients in generating motivation and I can’t recommend Daniel H Pink’s book “Drive” enough if you want to learn about how to motivate people (children or adults). It’s aimed at adults and the world of business, but the principles can (and should) be applied to everyone at any age. This book really has changed how I approach the world.
Anyway, I digress (though I couldn’t write an article on Kidmunication without at least 1 reference to a book!).
The end result is that my daughter no makes no fuss when it’s bedtime in my house (although trying to get her willingly brushing her teeth is another matter). We have an agreement.
“Ah yes, but I bet she’s up ‘til late every night!” I hear you say. Well I can assure you that, now that she’s used to it (and it did take a couple of weeks if I’m honest), sometime she really does put her head straight down and other times she’ll play for 10 minutes and then go to sleep and other’s she’ll stay up later. It really depends on how she’s feeling and what she’s been doing in the day.
As far as I’m concerned, I’ve given her an important bit of independence allowing her to choose her own sleep time and I’ve gained a less stressful and argumentative bedtime routine with my daughter!
Win Win.
Give bedtime not sleep time a go
If you want to have a go, here are the bullet points:
Commit to giving this a proper go – at least two weeks. Remember you child has to learn how this works too, so do expect them to take a couple of weeks to work out how to identify for themselves that it’s time to sleep.
Explain to your kids that you understand their point of view about bed time. This is surprisingly important and will get “buy-in” from them.
Explain to your kids what you want and why you’re doing this. You listened to their point of view, they’ll respect yours too.
Set expectations. No loud games, bouncing beds etc. but quiet playing is ok.
Keep your normal “bedtime” routine. Bath, teeth, books, bedroom (or whatever works for you).
Have patience and remember to check on them before you go to bed (they might need the light turning off and covering with the duvet – I haven’t yet had to pick my daughter off the floor where she’s fallen asleep mid-game).
One tip can be to ask them that when they come and see you, it must be to tell you that they’re ready to sleep. I didn’t need this, but I hear that it can help with some kids.
And remember to come back here and tell me how you get on!
Kids lie for similar reasons parents do: to be acknowledged communally, to get rank, to upset somebody, or because they dread the cost of telling the truth.
However, younger children don’t know the idea of truth and lies in the way that adults do.
Let’s enter the world of the kid to know why children can bend the truth so effortlessly.
Quite simply, the world of the younger child is half spent in fantasy. They continually play games, make up stories and characters with which to experiment with situations and roll play.
There is a huge amount to be discussed around play and fantasy, but for the purposes of this article, we’re going to make a couple of acknowledgements and focus on a particular type of lying.
Knowing that kids spend a lot of time in fantasy land, it is easy to see how they might take a while to get round the idea that fantasy play and lying are two different things. I’ve had some pretty amusing accounts of my daughter’s day at school with all sorts of fantastical things happening. This could be considered “lying” but really it’s still playing and, while frustrating at times, she’ll soon learn the difference and it is my job to help her discover that difference and show her that sharing the reality of her school day with me is better than making up amazing stories.
This is not the kind of lying that this article is about, but it is important to acknowledge that it takes place and to understand that when it does, it is not something that needs to be punished.
Damn lies and statistics
In 2008, the New York journal reported on an investigation that seems to confirm the connection between lying and intelligence. Whilst many parenting resources emphasise that kids will ultimately grow away from their lying manners, the researchers seemed to prove that the reverse is true! Averaging the statistics, they found that a child of 4 lies as a minimum once every 2 hours, while a kid of 6 lies at least once every 1 and half hours.
Some common “reasons” for lying :
Avoiding punishment (well who doesn’t!?)
To be in command of, and get status.
Avoiding embarrasment
Avoid somthing they don’t want/like
Experiment (we’ll be ignoring this reason today, though it is kind of covered in the fantasy play side of things)
An uncomfortable truth?
The main reason is just as clear: they discover lying from us: the parents and role models and knowledge holders of the universe.
We lie for convenience all the time! “sorry, I don’t have any spare change”, “I’m just on my way out so can’t stop to talk”, “Stop doing that because you’ll break that other thing”, “No you can’t have something to eat because I’m busy doing this”, “We’re not going out because it looks like it might rain”. Etc. The funny thing is that we also lie to ourselves : “I’ll tell a little fib and my daughter won’t notice, so it’s fine!”
Guess what! My daughter’s a smart girl and she can see right through my weak excuses (there I go again – I called it an excuse, when it was actually a lie).
How to stop your kids from lying
Now that I’ve admitted to myself that I’m probably the biggest cause of my daughter’s pro-lying attitude, what on earth can I do about it!? Actually it turns out it’s not so hard…
Tell the truth
Obviously the number one thing to do is make a commitment to myself and my daughter to be honest with her. If I’m feeling lazy and don’t want to go for a walk, I’ll tell her that that’s why rather than make something up (lie). This will actually have lots of positives and one that will probably have a profound effect on me and my daughter :
I won’t be showing her that lying is OK.
I will be showing her how to tell the truth when it’s not necessarily something that I want to hear.
I’ll probably do more with my daughter because I’ll tell her the truth and then think how ridiculous my excuse is and promptly do whatever it is!
Explain why telling the truth is important
Ever heard of Peter and Wolf? A classic children’s story with a very clear moral. It’s about a boy who, on “wolf watch” caring for the village sheep makes up a wolf attack and after a couple of times, the village don’t believe him anymore so when the wolf really turns up to eat him and the sheep, the villagers don’t come to help. Explaining both directly why telling the truth is the right thing to do as well as indirectly through stories such as Peter and the Wolf or even better : stories from your own life that illustrate the point can help here. Maybe not immediately, but give it time to sink in and be adopted.
Work together and find an alternative to lying
Your child has been given a revolting hand knitted jumper by Aunt Dorris. Helping our kids understand that telling the actual truth might hurt Dorris while still finding a way to say that while the thought is appreciated, it’s not really their style but will treasure it for the time and care she’s put into it will stand your child in really good stead for her future. Potential politician in the family!? On second thoughts, maybe that piece of advice isn’t so good. Best to tell Dorris it’s lovely and stick it at the back of the cupboard
Compromise on truth vs un-truth
As a parent, I set rules about how much television my daughter can watch, when it’s bedtime etc. As part of what I believe is good parenting, I try as hard as I can to be consistent with these rules but as she grows older and wants to assert her authority, I notice that she’s starting to bend and break certain rules but lie about it when questioned. The solution for me is to compromise with her. If I show her that by telling the truth and talking about it with me that I am able to listen to her reasoning and she in turn listen’s to mine, we reach compromises for special occasions or use allowed rule bending as a reward for good behaviour.
Give them an “out”
Our kids will lie to us. Often. It’s an accepted fact that this will happen and we know (and dread) that we’ll catch them at it from time to time whether it’s something big or something small and then we’ll have to “deal” with the lie somehow. One of the best opportunities to encourage our children to tell the truth is when we catch them at it!
Let them know they’ve been caught but don’t punish or address it immediately (if you can – sometimes these transgressions need to be brought up sharply, but try to keep objective on this). Instead, let them know they’ve been caught lying and that they have a short amount of time in which to address the lie. Circumstance will dictate how they address it (apology, simple truth, reparation etc.), but give them the chance to make it right.
Doing this will give them the chance to do the right thing, show that you’re not going to blow up or unnecessarily punish them for, what is normally, a small transgression. It will also build trust and connection between you and your child.
Children lie. Adults lie.
We all lie from time to time and it is our responsibility to help our kids understand the difference between lying (including lying by omission) and story telling. If you would like some help educating your children about lying and truthfulness, then see if you can track down a copy of A Children’s Book About LYING (Help Me Be Good Series) which can be read with your children and could put some needed objective 3rd person authority on this (after all, we all know that our kids can choose not to listen to us just because it’s us that’s telling them).
In this article about story sacks (also known as “storysacks” without a space), we’ll look at what they are, why they help us tell stories, what is in one and how you can make your own!
I don’t think anyone viewing this website will disagree that one of the most important gifts children receive is a love of stories and reading.
Young children often find it easier to relate to stories and concepts if they have something concrete in front of them that help them understand what’s being discussed or told. This is one reason picture books and books with plenty of simple illustration are so popular for this age group.
What are story sacks?
Story sacks are a genuinely fantastic and different way of engaging children in the stories and books you’re sharing with them.
The point of a story sack is to help you illustrate the story in more ways than just the pictures on the page.
If you’ve read all the content on my free storytelling course or article on using sound effects in storytelling then you’ll already be familiar with some other key ways to engage your kids in the stories and how to illustrate the story in more ways than what may initially be obvious on the page. Story sacks
The sacks might contain soft toys, plastic figures or other objects important to the content of the story or material the children’s book is presenting.
Really, the sack provides a convenient way to store the associated objects, helpful in any setting, whether it’s for storing at home or in an institutional setting.
The sacks themselves often illustrate the theme of the book, making it easy for children who can’t read, find and play with objects from their favourite stories.
Why do story sacks help us tell a story?
Because the story sacks bring a more concrete dimension to the material being presented, readers can use the story and the props the sack contains to take the discussion beyond simply just telling the story.
Whether it’s in a group setting or on a one-to-one basis, the objects make it easier to involve the child in the story’s content.
The story sacks provide a tool to take the discussion of the content to the next level, involving the thought and creative process natural to children to another level.
Our children naturally act out what happens in their lives, especially if they have something concrete in-hand to help them.
Ask your child to use the props to make her own changes to the story using the props.
It doesn’t matter if the changes are consistent or even realistic.
The act of anticipation and imagination provide good mental exercise for your child, who learns that she can exercise problem-solving thinking and discover different outcomes to familiar situations (and isn’t this one of the main reasons for play and stories for kids – to allow them to explore the world without the danger of the “real” world).
Story sacks are also an excellent way to simply entertain children on long trips, whether on an airplane or in a car.
Surprising your kids with a new story or two while on a long trip cuts their boredom and restlessness and the number of materials, activities and related props will give them huge numbers of combinations of things to do while leaving you free to concentrate on the road ahead.
Unfortunately, any parent will be familiar with the fact that while adults find reading the same material over and over tiring, young children enjoy it.
Besides enjoying being read to, the props provide some novelty, helping pass the time quickly.
Some story sacks come with CDs, which can be uploaded to MP3 players, reducing the need for someone to read the story repeatedly.
Learning to organise and pick up after themselves is another challenge that children need to learn (and this entertaining story written by a dad will attest to that).
Story sacks can be good tools to teach kids the rewards of these processes. After playtime with the story sack is over, demonstrate the value of organisation by putting away the contents.
The next time the child wants to enjoy the story or the props, all the pieces will be in one place and he won’t have to hunt to find his favourite objects from the story sack.
It goes without saying that that is easier said than done and cleaning a messy room may be overwhelming for a child, but when you ask him to put just a few objects away in one familiar package, the task becomes achievable with immediate rewards.
Where can I buy storysacks?
Storysacks are relatively new to the world of storytelling and they’re not everyone’s cup of tea. They are also expensive but do contain a lot of material.
Finding the story sacks is easy online, or if you’re handy with arts and crafts, you can make your own story sacks using prefabricated bags or constructing your own (see below).
How to create your own storysack
If you decide to make your own story sack, plan to spend a little time hunting for the supporting material, which might be challenging for obscure or less popular books (or even the sack itself).
Consider enlisting the help of friends and family to help make the story sacks by asking them to keep their eyes out for the things that work as props.
List the objects that illustrate the story, the size and the budget.
Think about the message and any educational points within the story. Is it about a new baby in the family? consider including copies of the 20 week scans or a (kids) stethoscope etc.
Where is it set? If it’s on a farm, consider adding a tractor toy or some corn ears.
Is there friendship in the story, are there any games or puzzles that you could use to compliment the theme?
Are there animal characters? Maybe include a stuffed toy animal to be the character
If you have voice recorder (and most smartphones will have one), why not record yourself or a family member reading the story and include that in your virtual sack.
Like all toys, children eventually outgrow them, so don’t overdo it and maybe consider donating the storysack once the attachment is gone (although that will probably depend on just how much chocolate is smeared over it…)
Technically you don’t need a “sack” and in fact any container will do (obvious I know but it’s easy to get hung up on the name: storysack)
If there’s one thing you take away from this article about storysacks, it’s that there can be more to reading children’s stories and books with your kids.
You don’t have to go rushing off to Amazon to buy a storysack, or even spend hours making your own, but maybe have a think about using one or two props to help you with a bedtime story that you’ve long since grown bored of but your kids still love and force you to read.
Many children suffer from low self-confidence. Symptoms can include excessive shyness, separation anxiety, as well as a negative attitude toward themselves and others.
Life is more challenging for a child that lacks confidence.
As parents, we are there to show them what confidence looks like and how they can be assertive without becoming aggressive.
It is important to give children the tools of confidence, because many behaviour problems come from a lack of self-esteem.
Sharing stories about confidence can help to improve behaviour and the way your child thinks
“If we tell children what they should or shouldn’t do, it doesn’t have as much impact on them as a story because a story builds in the experience. It’s a way of teaching them about life.”
There are many ways that low-self confidence manifests, so pay attention for indications that a child may be struggling:
Using negative words to describe themselves or others.
“I’m so stupid” is a classic thing that you’ll hear from adults as well as children. This self-talk is a dead giveaway to low self confidence and you’ll probably find that they call themselves even worse things in their heads (adults, with greater vocabulary and experience, are the worst at this form of self-putdown and one that we all do from time to time. Take my advice: forgive yourself. No one else can).
Not wanting to play with others, and keeping to themselves.
You know, the kid that stands on the edge of the playground or the one who watches rather than joins in. A classic symptom of low self confidence. As a side tip, you can often treat this symptom by treating the child like they’re playing a game and joining them in their watching (be careful not to make it condescending though). You’ll quickly find that they get into it and before long get bored of your company and rush off to play with the other kids. Remember though: you’ve treated the symptom not the cause – they’ll probably be back on the edge of the playground tomorrow…
Using coping strategies to hide low confidence.
This is particularly difficult to spot but is probably best unmasked by asking yourself “What does your child do when they fail at something?” You can often tell from their response (strategy) how confident they are in themselves. My daughter for example is very good at getting someone else to do whatever it is she’s just failed at, so I spend time boosting her confidence and the idea that she will succeed if she keeps at it and tries again (hence my recent children’s story on perseverance). It is important to note that all human use strategies to deal with things, so look out for strategies that allows the child to avoid (the) problems and prevents the development of the skills they’re needing to learn at whatever stage they’re at. More on coping strategies here.
Fighting (and bullying or being bullied)
Picking unnecessary fights, being mean (with or without the “bully” label) and indeed being the object of such attention are all signs that your child needs some help with their self confidence and control.
Of course there are many other symptoms and effects of low confidence in children so what can you do should you think your child needs a little help?
How to build self-confidence and assertiveness in your kids
Encourage your child to show enthusiasm and celebrate their accomplishments.
Celebrating even the smallest accomplishments is good for children of any age. Letting them see that you are proud of what they have done will boost self-esteem.
Think of the refrigerator door as the “wall of fame”. Whether they have a painting or picture that was done or a certificate for being good at school that day, your child will see that they are valued, and it will encourage further good behavior.
Does the “Wall of Gaylord” from Meet the Fockers ring any bells?
A good laugh in the film, but it does have serious and effective roots for building confidence and self-reliance.
Play your kids games with your kids to build physical confidence
Playing with your child can also boost confidence, but it is also extremely important to let the child choose what you are going to play.
Activities that are started by kids generally hold their attention longer, and they feel like they chose something that Mum or Dad finds interesting or “worthy” of doing.
My daughter is smaller than average and one thing she (and I) love to play is mock wrestling and “escape” games. These involve her pushing me over, stopping me from getting up and her (successfully) escaping from me while I’m trying to hold on to her and shouting that she won’t escape, that I’m the strongest and biggest.
This has had a hugely positive effect on her physical confidence and while she’s still careful around bigger kids (boys in particular) in the playground, she no longer shy’s away from chase and tag games. Plus wrestling build connection and trust between us not to mention leaving us in fits of giggles.
You might also want to check out one of my earliest video posts about why she (used to) insist that I was the monster rather than the other way round: How children deal with things that scare them.
Share stories with your children to boost confidence and put confidence in context
There are thousands of children’s stories and books that do (or can be) related to building confidence and self-assertiveness. The key to selecting the right one is to find specific context in which your child seems to need the help (though don’t be surprised if it’s actually somewhere completely different).
Even classic children’s fairy tales, such as “Beauty and the Beast”, or ‘The Ugly Duckling” speak to self-image confidence issues and allow you to then have a conversation with them about the themes in the story, such as not judging people by their looks.
Make your kids responsible for something to boost confidence
Another way to boost kids’ self-confidence is by giving them jobs around the house.
Having a chore that they are responsible for helps kids develop self-reliance and channels their energy into something productive.
“The Berenstain Bears and the Trouble with Chores” by Stan Berenstain and Jan Berenstain shows kids why it is good to help around the house. Teaching children about responsibility and how they can help other people can help them feel less helpless and more in control of their own lives. Think of the last time you learned something new that you’d previous felt quite helpless about. Didn’t you immediately want to help as many other people overcome that feeling as well?
Building children’s confidence without aggressiveness
It is tricky sometimes to encourage assertiveness and not let it go as far as aggression.
Some kids are naturally more assertive than others are (boys vs girls for example) but it is important that they all understand that they can be if needed and when and where it can be taken too far.
Children need to know it is ok to stand up for themselves.
No matter which story you choose to help bolster your kids’ self-confidence, it is sure to be as fun as it is important.
Everyone deals with confidence issues during their lives, having a baseline at a young age will ensure your child has tools to get them through anything.
Storytelling and Difficult Subjects: Divorce and Separation
With more and more families breaking up with parents separating or divorcing, there is an ever increasing need to help our children understand what is going on and why, should they find themselves in the middle of one. Even if your marriage or relationship is as solid as a rock, you can bet that your child will have friends in their class whose parents’ are (or have) separating/divorcing. Children’s stories and storytelling are great tools for broaching this stressful subject even if only to explain what your child’s best friend at school is going through.
There are many concepts and subjects that can be particularly stressful and even scary to address with our kids, and some which are just a little more difficult to know how to broach with children – which can also be communicated through storytelling techniques.
Using Storytelling to Start Conversations
Some of the subjects covered in contemporary children’s stories are undoubtedly the same that parents of all eras have wrestled with. Others may be unique to contemporary culture. Either way, storytelling techniques can be used as a way to touch on the more difficult lessons children have to learn. They can give you a way to easily bring up the subject with kids and can also be a means of generating additional conversations with your kids on those hard subjects.
Don’t underestimate your kids’ ability to handle these harder subjects. It’s all in how you approach topics with them. They learn from you and the methods you use in communicating about difficult topics can strongly influence how your children respond to these kinds of subjects. Putting good children’s stories to work for you is one of the best ways to broach more uncomfortable subjects with your kids. These books have been specifically designed to help you deal with difficult topics in terms that children can easily understand.Continue reading »
A children’s story with a lesson about Perseverance
The following story I wrote for my daughter to help her with learning to stick at something and keep trying even if it is extremely frustrating and difficult. I wrote it because my daughter is being taught to write at school so we’re practicing at weekends though she’s struggling to find the ability to keep at it and it’s turning into a bit of a battle.
We actually started this story together and the two young fairies were named by my daughter. She loves it when we tell stories together and she’ll often suggest which direction the story should go or what the characters are doing or what they’re like. It’s a great storytelling technique and I’m constantly amazed at where my daughter’s imagination takes us!
Creating stories for and indeed with our kids isn’t really that difficult and can be both educational and fun not to mention the closeness that imagining together fosters between us.Continue reading »
Children with autism often cannot understand facial expression
There is much importance put on the ability of the storyteller to be able to make the right faces but it is a common feature of autism spectrum disorders, that children with autism not be able to discern the emotion from facial expressions, finding it hard to distinguish the meaning of a smile from a frown.
My daughter is in Australia with her mum for the whole of April, so I thought I’d write her a poem in a card she could take with her and open on Easter day as I’m not going to see her for over a month!
I’m not a very good poet, but that doesn’t really matter. For me it’s that I’ve made the effort and, like the pictures I draw for her, it’s another way of communicating with her and showing her how important she is and what she means to me.
Dear Olivia,
I hope you’re having a whole heap of fun,
Down in Australia, out in the sun.
I’m back in England missing my daughter,
And I hope youre being safe, out there in the water.
Speaking of which, what’s it like in the sea?
can you bring something nice from the beach back to me?
With all of my heart: I love you O,
I just thought I’d say, as I miss you so.
So come home soon and tell me all about it,
(your holiday that is, not the Easter Rabbit.)
Happy Easter Olivia!
Love you,
Dad
xxxxxxx
Does anyone else write letters or cards to their kids?
Interactive Storytelling: How to get Children to engage in story time
Although bed time has traditionally been a big time for telling tales and reading to children, getting kids to participate in storytelling during other parts of the day is also important.
Children learn through stories, including everything from basic syntax and grammar to more complex concepts like moral and ethical behavior and concepts of cause and effect.
Kids learn through stories
Children’s ability to learn through dynamic storytelling is one of the reasons story time is a big part of daycare, preschool, primary (kindergarten in the US) and early elementary learning environments.
Making story time a consistent part of your home routine is important as well, and you can set the routine for storytelling activities at home for whatever works best for your schedule.
