The ability to tell a great story, one that captivates listeners and keeps them on the edges of their seats, is a great talent.
Thankfully, memorizing stories is a talent that any parent can learn!
Memorizing children’s’ stories is much easier than you’re probably thinking.
With this second set of tips and tricks below (checkout the first ones here), you can tell your children a bedtime story…no book included…as early as next week!
In addition to giving you some great memorization tips, we’ll clue you in to some great books filled with stories sure to capture kids’ imaginations.
While these quiet moments with our kids are a great way to spend some quiet time together, sometimes the mad dash to find a storybook can take longer than reading the story!
While nothing will replace reading books to children, memorizing stories is a great way to put some spontaneous fun into their bedtime routine.
In addition, having a cache of stories in your memory is a great way to pass the time during long car trips, while stuck in the waiting room at the doctor’s office, or any other place or situation which can be boring for young children.
Here, we’ll give you some tips and tricks to memorize stories and be able to recall them at a moment’s notice.
In addition, we’ll give you some ideas for books full of short and easy-to-remember tales that will delight children of all ages.
Remember to adjust your vocabulary to your child’s level of understanding.
Kids will mostly allow you a certain amount of leeway as words fly over their heads’, but if they can discern an entire word they don’t understand, they are more than likely going to bring you up on it.
So you’re spinning a splendid saga when suddenly…you’ve forgotten the next part.
It happens.
Be prepared.
There’s nothing worse for a child listening enchanted on the edge of their bed, then to have that magical trance broken, by a wavering hesitant adult.
The storyteller being hesitant about the tale is a real atmosphere killer. Not only could your audience lose confidence in your story, they could lose confidence in you.
You are, after all, to their tender young minds, the person who knows everything, and the fount of all knowledge!
We all get frustrated on telling our kids not to do something the first thing they do (or continue to do) is to go and do it!
Storytelling is a great way of helping you with this particular challenge. This particular post is about one aspect of creating a story: The use of language.
Not just any old language, but specifically positive language.
It turns out this is because in order not to do something, our brains have to process the idea of doing it before not doing it.
Don’t scratch your nose in a minute
I bet you thought about scratching your nose. Or if you haven’t you may realise you’ve done it in a minute after you’ve stopped thinking about not doing it.
As adults, we’re (mostly – and I think we all know at least one adult who will always do the opposite of what they’re told to do) able to process that very swiftly and get on with the job of not doing it.
Children on the other hand, aren’t so lucky. Their natural desire to learn and explore (which should totally be encouraged btw) simply filters out the “do not” bit and they quite obediently go and explore whatever it is you’ve asked them not to.
There is a simple trick to getting this right:
Don’t say “don’t do abc”. Do say “do do xyz” instead
Instead of telling them “Don’t climb on the furniture” try saying “Let’s stay on the floor”
Instead of “Don’t run into the road” try “Wait for me at the curb”
Instead of “Don’t throw stones” try “can you find any red ones?”
You saw how complicated it is to explain how this works, so just imagine all the extra processing that a brain needs in order to not do something and why children find it so easy to (apparently) misbehave…
Build this positive language into the stories that you tell your children and you’ll be able to deliver very strong lessons and achieve fantastic results from surprisingly short stores.