The Lost Art of Storytelling

One of the fond memories I have from my early childhood is of my grandmother telling us little children stories. We would sit with rapt attention by her feet or cuddled up beside her, listening to tales of animals and little critters or stories from her own childhood.

I can still remember some of them, picturing in my mind’s eye what I imagined as the story unfolded. They were usually simple stories, but my grandmother was a natural storyteller, and she had a way of making them come to life for us.

Recently my girls and I cozied up on my bed with pillows, blankies and stuffed animals to listen to a story about “two little girls, who looked the same, but were very different..”.

These twin sisters have many adventures and the subject of their escapades range from finding special shells on the seashore with an octopus friend, to helping a lost baby bee find it’s mother.

It’s wonderful to sit down with your child and read a story from a book, but have you ever considered telling a story from your own imagination? Something that you make up as you go?

I’ve been challenged lately to make storytelling a part of our lives, because there are some benefits that differ from those of simply reading a story book. It’s a lost art in our culture, but that doesn’t mean it has to be lost to our kids.

3 Reasons Why You Should Tell Your Kids Stories

Real stories take effort

Storytelling is a type of entertainment for kids and adults alike, but unlike TV or movies, it requires that you be present. It’s easy to put on a show for your children or even to watch a family movie together, where it doesn’t require much energy for personal connection. But to tell a story you need to connect with and hold the attention of your children.

This takes carving out a special time and space for story-time, setting the atmosphere, and showing your kids that you’re available to just be with them as you go on a little adventure of imagination with them.

Years ago, parents told stories to children both to entertain them and to teach them about the world’s complexities. But we lost the art of storytelling when we lost that sort of open-ended time with out children, the reflecting, wondering, watching time that gives rise to stories”. ~Katrina Kenison

Your imagination needs exercising

If I told you to go right now and sit down with your child and tell them a story that you make up as you go, you might find yourself at a loss, as I did at first. Most parents today don’t have any reason for using their imagination much, and unless we are natural storytellers, we would find it very challenging to awaken that sleeping child-like imagination that we once had as kids.

As a child I remember playing house, ninja turtles and everything else that my friends and I could think of. We lived in a world bright with imagination, where every tree, bush and hollow was potential for some secret hideout, and the characters that we created for ourselves were often quite hilarious.

Now as I watch my daughters playing, I am constantly reminded of how much imagination I’ve lost since being a kid. Somedays they are little mice making a mouse hole behind the sofa, and other days they are princesses dressing up with my high heels and using my scarfs for shawls. For them, the whole world is open for their creative thinking, there are no limits.

Most of us adults get caught up in the reality of everyday living, the bills that need to be paid and the jobs that need to be done. We have responsibilities, and we often rush around just trying to keep up with it all. When we do sit down to relax or recharge we are most often being entertained by TV, sports or social media. Our imagination just doesn’t have the need to work like it used to.

Telling your child a story requires using those brain muscles, and at first can feel a little weird, but like riding a bike for the first time since you were a kid, you will remember and start to realize that your imagination is not dead, it’s just been sleeping for a really long time!

It’s not only coming up with a story in your own mind that encourages imagination, it’s listening to one. As you children listen to an oral story they have no pictures or video to go with it, so they must imagine in their own minds what is happening. One child’s picture of the story will be uniquely different from another’s.

Storytelling teaches you to see the world through fresh eyes

When I first started telling my girls stories, I was a loss of what to talk about. I didn’t really know where to start. Inspired by one of my favourite authors, I began to look around me at nature, and at objects in our own home. Sometimes the girls will ask for a certain animal or character to be in the story, which also helps.

Storytelling causes you to view the world with a new lens as you being to see everything as potential for a story. Your stories don’t have to be epic, or have some crazy moral to them, or even teach a lesson to be great in your kids eyes (though those are all wonderful things stories can offer). The small, simple things of life can become inspiration for a great tale of adventure, like a ladybug on a leaf or a full moon surrounded with bright stars.

I’ve grown to thoroughly enjoy the times when my girls sit and look at me with eager expectation as we go on an exciting adventure that’s different every time! As much as they love me reading to them from their favourite books, they love hearing my stories even more.

If telling your kids stories is something you’ve never done before, I challenge you to try it! I can guarantee that you won’t regret it, because even if you feel like your stories are terrible, all you kids will remember is the special bonding time spent together, which is never a waste!

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Some other inspiring articles on storytelling:

Storytelling for children: how to get started

Folktales and Fairy Tales: oral stories for kids

 

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