People of all ages love stories. Something that starts as a bedtime story or a bonding time with grandparents turns into something to catch up on a missed episode of our favorite TV show. When done effectively, storytelling takes us in a completely new world. You must have observed your kid’s changing expressions when you read them a story with full emotions, tone variation, and modulation. Stories have the power to gather, teach, entertain, and soothe. Human brains are wired for stories.

When we were growing up, our parents and grandparents made a new story each day. They never took the help of any book or never searched on the internet with the hashtag #bedtimestoriesforkids. They were experts in making impromptu stories. With time, the pattern of bedtime stories has changed. Now parents read books to their kids. I also follow it. Luckily, we have an excellent public library with a wide variety of kids’ books. There is no limit to issuing books. Every week I go to the library and issue almost 15-20 books. It gives me and my kiddo a variety of options to pick from for each story-time. I prefer physical copies over kindle stories. I want him to hold the book while we read it. A new study says that when children hear a vocabulary word spoken, they learn to read it more easily later.

Related article: Why reading physical books still holds a relevance in today’s era of the internet

But occasionally, he doesn’t want to read from the book. Instead, he wants me to narrate him a story. And I enjoy it as much as I enjoy reading from a book. So I take this as an opportunity to convey some important lessons to him in the form of a story.

But it is not the same for many. Not everyone is always up for creating on-the-spot stories. But, I feel we all have a storyteller within us. Sometimes, it takes the back seat in the presence of other fancy and easily accessible resources. So, why not wake up that storyteller.

7 Ways to keep kids interested in storytelling

1.Bring your characters to life

2.Use that day’s happening to build the story

3.Add a few personal elements into the story

4.Let your children complete the story

5.Maintaining an eye contact

6.Let them ask questions

7.Ending is important

Bring your characters to life

One of the essential skills of storytelling is bringing the characters to life. When we support our storytelling with emotions, it impacts the listeners. Talking about kids, then they love listening to a story that is told with emotions.

• Do accent
• Take dramatic pauses
• Modulate your voice, elevating and reducing it to construct narrative momentum
• Speak humorously and laugh with kids when they laugh to make it a happier moment for everyone

Use that day’s happening to build the story

One of the biggest challenges in storytelling is finding the plot. This problem is solved when we start looking for small details that have happened throughout the day. Sometimes, events from school can become the central point of the story.

Add a few personal elements into the story

We can turn the story in whichever direction we want when we are the driver. We can decide the end and bring new characters into our story. That’s how my first book, “A Girl In The New Town” took its shape. “A Girl In The New Town” was born from the bedtime stories that I used to tell my daughter and niece.

Let your children complete the story

When you ask open-ended questions, they are very excited. I am sure they will come up with an exciting addition. And you can keep building a good script as a team. You can even let them choose their characters.

Related article: Choosing books for children

Maintain eye contact

Maintaining eye contact is very, very important. Maintaining eye contact grabs not only the kid’s attention but also conveys a sense of confidence and truthfulness. When you start narrating the story in a flat tone and look up to them after some time, they are already busy with something else.

Let them ask questions- interaction is essential

We tend to stop them from interrupting us. We tell them to wait till the story is over. So, each time such questions pop up, take your time to reply to them. Kids asking questions and answering them will satisfy their curiosity, and it will tell you that they are listening to you.

Ending is important

Do not leave your story open-ended. Kids expect an end to a story. So even if you are trying to build a continuation in your storytelling, each chapter should end with something that will give them a feeling of completion. You can end the story with “what next” element for little older kids. But for younger kids, there has to be a strong ending.

Wrap up:

When kids are still in their world even after the story has ended, this is an indication that they were completely into the story. And that’s what we want. But for that, we have to make it a ritual. Then, very soon, they would be able to express their ideas in a much more constructive way; you will see a positive change in their thinking, vocabulary, sentence formation.