Storytelling opens children’s minds, unleashes their creativity and deepens their understanding to other cultures and life philosophies; it develops the inner world of imagination and creative thinking. Last week I got a chance of having a one-on-one conversation with my friend’s daughter who will be starting KG soon. She was telling me how much she likes stories and especially when her mom read it to her. Obviously, when we read the stories to our kids, it is with more expressions, tone variation that makes it more interesting. But every time kids are not satisfied with story books. They want fresh stories. Its a big question for us that from where to bring these fresh stories every time? Weaving magic with words and making up an interesting story is an art that we all learn over the period of time. That is today’s topic – Art of Storytelling: Weaving Magic with Words. If you are among those who are about to step into the world of storytelling, let me help you with few ideas from my side that I have tried.
- Relate your story with day-today events: There is lot that has happened throughout the day. Add some extra touches and you would be able to create a new story every day. Storytelling time can be a way to get to know about your child’s day.
- Build story on imaginary characters: I do this every now and then keeping the previous point in mind. Long time back, I told a story to my daughter about a girl somewhat of her age. I tried to end every chapter with a moral. The story had some facts that were similar to my daughter’s activities and hobbies. This way she was able to relate to the story and would look forward to the next chapter. For me it was easy as I was able to end the story whenever I wanted.
- Change the plan: Good movies come handy when you run out of the imaginary characters. What I do is, I re-tell the movie story in such a manner as if it will sound like a story and off course I change things here and there.
- Your childhood stories: Stories can be a way to translate memories into more concrete manner. Kids love to hear what their parents have done and experienced while growing up. We think that there is not much to tell but there are many such stories, incidences that our kids might like to hear.
People of all ages love stories. Children are great fans of stories and love to listen to them. Any parent can preserve few stories for kids and spend a bit of time with them in the storytelling session. So, next time when your child wants a fresh story, try to build your own and re-live your childhood memories. And yes, don’t forget to ask kids to share their contribution in the stories.
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