Storytelling : Incredible Ways To Tell Great Stories To Your Child6 min read

Who doesn’t like to listen to stories? Stories make children’s lives magical. It’s not rare to find a kid who doesn’t love listening to stories. Stories are magical, and they can teach a child about life and make them feel good. Storytelling is a great way to keep children engaged and entertained. It can also help them improve their language skills and cognitive development. According to the National Storytelling Foundation, storytelling is an ancient art form that is very valuable to humans. It involves the use of words and actions to tell a story.

Looking back to our childhood, we too were curious to listen to stories from our mother, grandparents, or siblings. There will surely be some classics that taught values, some really funny ones, and some chilling thrilling stories that scared us all. But every time we think of Stories there will be a favorite one for us all to remember. Something close to our lives or our beautiful childhood days.

As I said, there are so many kinds of stories and so many ways to tell stories.

Now, How do stories influence a child’s mind? It is really important to know how a child gets formation during the process of storytelling.

Different age groups and their favorite genre of stories

Stories that cater to their age can only be effective if they are liked by their young audience. Every child will learn about values and morals from stories that are told in school. Ideally, these should be from the Panchatantra tales of Aesop’s Fables. Young kids will also love stories about insects and animals. Some kinds like, short stories that should be about adventure, and drama. For older kids, long narratives should focus on romance and realism. Stories play one of the most crucial factors that influence kids’ at every stage of their age.

Just like the different genres of stories, there are different ways of storytelling too.

Narrate it for them

One of the many ways is to keep the tone. The way you do the narration is very important. After choosing a simple and familiar story for storytelling you should always familiarize yourselves with the story. However, if the story is complex, try to read it multiple times to get used to the details. Varying the voice of the narrator is also important to make the story more interesting. This will keep the Child keen and impulsive to listening to your story.

Stop when your child wants to add or ask

The next important thing you should be aware of is interruptions and questions from your child. Give your child the freedom to interrupt the story to share his/her thoughts and feelings after each important sequence. Sometimes, his/her imagination will come up with parallels between what you’re saying and what she/he had already heard. It shows that your child is paying attention to what’s being said.

Add color to your story

Visual aids can help children understand complex stories and concepts. flannel boards, puppet boxes, and comic strips are useful when story sequences are important.

Make it digital

You can even weave various elements of the real world and the virtual world into your presentation. Digitized storytelling is a form of storytelling that involves moving images and sound. It is recommended that children avoid too many videos in a story as it can be very challenging to imagine.

Act it

Storytime with action elements can stimulate kids’ senses. They can also learn how the character behaves and relate better to the story. After telling the story, let your child pretend to be one of the characters. Doing so helps your child develop comprehensive skills.

Role Plays

Instead of just reacting to a story, role-playing allows us to imagine a different scenario with different characters and different conditions. It’s also helpful for developing critical thinking skills. It will be a time of fun too.

If the stories are too long it can be boring too. Most kids tend to end up with one or two short stories that they love. These are usually set in a simple setting and theme.

Short and sweet stories

Here are some really easy and amazing stories that you can Most kids tend to end up with one or two short stories that they love. These are usually set in a simple setting and theme. They help them improve their literacy skills.

The Crocodile and the Monkey is a story my mother used to tell when I was a child. And I remember she making faces too of the crocodile and the monkey! I loved to listen to it more often only to see those crazy faces of hers and loved the way the monkey plans an escape. This is a good choice if you can narrate it with more expressions.

The Hare and the Tortoise is one such story, that has a moral too to help the child understand learning’s for life. It is a story that we all are familiar with and a short one indeed. Hence it is easy for us to say it over and over again for your child. This story talks about the importance of being slow and steady in life. It also teaches about the importance of having a good attitude.

The Lion and the Mouse is another short story. This story too is easy and at the same time shares a message to the child which can inculcate kindness. This story can teach kids about the importance of being kind to others. It can also help them develop a helping mentality.

Stories about people who have great achievements are very uplifting for children. They will teach them that no matter what obstacles you face, you can still achieve anything that you set out to do.

Long for a reason stories

Reading motivational stories can stimulate kids’ interest in reading and build a strong character.

The Wings of Fire is a book that will teach children about the motivational ideas of A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. It will make them understand how to motivate themselves and others.

Mahatma Gandhi’s biography helps your child know how he fought for India’s independence. Knowing this, children will learn about the struggles The Father of Nation, had to endure to get freedom to our Nation.

There are plenty of inspirational novels and biographies of great people who influenced our community, society, and County available everywhere. So it is not a herculean task to find one but reading it for them makes the difference.

Conclusion

Good storytelling will give life to the stories that are told. With good Narration, it can emote to make the listeners feel like they’re being transported to the imaginary world where the story revolves. This should happen while telling stories to children too. Since listening to stories can benefit them more than we can imagine and develop several skills and include moral values in their lives in an interesting way. Have a great storytelling week ahead.