Storytelling for Kids and Children | Creative Childcare
Storytelling is as simple as reading a story from a book. If you don’t have that much time, you can always share a story from memory, talk about your own childhood, or even read out loud from your phone. There are innumerable advantages of storytelling for kids, especially for pre-schoolers, kindergarten and young children.
Here are 10 benefits of storytelling with your children
1. Instils Virtues in Your Child:
Children all over the world love listening to stories. They want to know more about their favourite characters and often try to emulate them. By telling your child stories that come with a meaningful message, you can inculcate qualities like wisdom, courage, honesty, etc. from an early age into your little one.
2. Makes Them Aware of Their Own Culture and Roots:
Telling your children stories from your childhood and about various activities and celebrations from your past will make them more familiar about the different customs and traditions prevalent in your family. Sharing stories about various family members will help them learn about their lineage better.
3. Enhances Verbal Proficiency:
Reading out stories to your children helps in making them acquainted with the language as well as in learning new words and phrases. This is also a great way to teach your child new words and pronunciation on a regular basis.
4. Improves Listening Skills:
Most children usually have a lesser attention span and find it difficult to concentrate on something thing for long. Also, they end up talking more, rather than listening. Storytelling for kids ensures that they are not only more attentive but are also keen to listen and understand.
5. Encourages Creativity and Imagination Power:
Listening to a story helps a child imagine the characters, places, plot etc. instead of seeing it on a visual medium. This also enhances creativity, making them more imaginative and open to ideas and free thinking.
6. A Great Tool for Sharpening Memory:
By using certain smart ideas, you can use storytelling to help increase your child’s memory. Once you have read out the story, you can ask him to repeat the same after a few days. Alternatively, you can ask him to describe the story up till the present. This is a fun way to increase his memory and encourage concentration.
7. Broadens Horizon:
Young children may not always be exposed to the different cultures and countries of the world. Through the medium of storytelling, you can make him familiar about the various places and cultures across the world. Try and include stories from different countries and cultures to give your child a broader understanding of the world.
8. Makes Academic Learning Easier:
Storytelling for children is a stepping stone for academic learning. Many children have the habit of learning by rote, without understanding the subject. Storytelling, as a regular activity, can help children to enjoy and better understand what they are reading. This helps them in learning their subjects better. Sometimes, teaching school subjects as an interesting story (example, a boring history lesson can be turned into an interesting historical story) can help them understand better and fuel curiosity.
9. Better Communication:
Sometimes, children are hesitant to ask a question, even though their mind is filled with curiosity. Storytelling helps children in learning the art of asking the right question. It also tells them how to strike a perfect conversation and makes them more confident. Regular reading and listening can make them better orators too.
10. Helps to Face Difficult Situations with Ease:
Difficult situations can often end up leaving children feeling confused. Stories about various characters facing difficult situations can help them understand this concept better. Try and tell stories that teach children that pain and suffering are a part of life as much as happiness and fun times are. The right stories can help your child become well-equipped to face life and various situations.
Do you think that story telling is boring and just not fun? Well here is one of my favourite ways of telling stories to my son.
Storytelling with Our Family Photos:
Glance through some pictures along with your child and take turns narrating stories about what you find. For instance, it can be a picture of her birth or a picture that recounts a story about the night when there was a heavy snowfall.
You can even print some pictures of any fun occasion like a birthday celebration, family vacation or any holiday trip and ask your child to arrange the events in order.
Show a picture of any event and ask your little one to make a story using the clues.
Let your child pick 10 or fewer pictures and place them in chronological order to create a story. It is interesting to watch what pictures they pick to narrate a story.
Below are some great stories for children to read which will teach them about different morals.
The Tortoise and the Hare
Recounting the road race between a rabbit and a turtle, Aesop’s fable of the Tortoise and the teaches children to keep trying and not to brag.
The Boy who Cried Wolf
The boy who cried wolf is a story about a boy who falsely accuses a wolf of trying to get his sheep. When a wolf really does come, no one believes him, thus teaching children honesty.
The Wet Pants
Many children may be able to identify with The wet pants , a story about a boy who wet his pants and the girl who spilled water on him to save him from ridicule. The moral teaches children to help others.
The Lion and the Mouse
A perfect tale for little kids, The Lion and the Mouse tells the story of a lion with a thorn in his paw, which the mouse removes. The moral teaches children that no matter how small they are, they can still help others.
Children in a childcare setting are involved in many different types of storytelling. These include, reading story books, felt boards, finger puppets and even the children having ‘News’ times.
Resources:
Best Moral Stories for Kids. https://www.care.com/c/stories/4048/the-22-best-moral-stories-for-kids/
10 Amazing Benefits of Storytelling for Kids. http://www.momjunction.com/articles/benefits-story-telling-yor-kids_0036903/#gref
Reading and Storytelling with Babies and Children. http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/reading.html
