Art of Story Telling

Honest confession! I am terrible at story telling. I can read, well yeah but I can’t make up stories. And so conveniently, I passed the buck of putting our son to sleep with a bed time tale to my husband. And so this is what I learnt from him.

Story telling is not mere telling a story. Ek tha raja, ek thi rani, dono marr gaye khatam kahani! Haven’t we all heard this short and sweet story? But it goes beyond that. I remember my childhood days, when our grandparents used to slowly inch out stories that made us enter into the world of imagination.

So, that’s the art of story -telling. It makes you create a world of fantasy and imagination. The next time you’re narrating a story to your child be ready to use these handy tips.

Have a different tone for story- telling. This is a tip that my husband gave me. He says- don’t use your scolding tone while you are telling him a story. It made sense. Story-telling has to be special. So lower your tones and whisper in between to create that effect.

Embrace your child while telling a story. Hold them close and pat their head. Keep the physical proximity close while narrating stories to them. This will deepen the bond that you both share. Choose your story wisely. Usually stories are about experiences to learn, or morals to understand. Try not to have stories about super heroes and over the top fiction that may harm your child’s imagination.

Another basic principle about story-telling is the atmosphere. Turn off the television, keep away the gadgets and magazines and get comfortable. The lighting of the room is also important. Make sure it does not distract you or your child.

My son is seven and up for a story every night. Sometimes even my husband gets out of ideas. So, I’ve purchased some really good short bed time tales that now they both read together. It is so much fun to watch them doing this. And I must compliment the superb voice modulation. From the high tones to the soft whispers keeping him engrossed deeply in to the story. There was this one time, when a very interesting story-telling session was going on, which even gripped me. And I listened to the story so intently, till my son dozed off and the suddenly the story narration stopped. It was so interesting that I told him to finish it. It just made him smile.

Story-telling is a way of nurturing your children. It contributes so much in building their personality, towards their academic success, vocabulary and harness imagination. It helps in supporting the daily life skills and one of them is active listening. It increases their patience levels so much that it has been observed that children who listen to stories on a daily basis have a lot more patience levels than kids who don’t.

So there you go! Learn the art of story-telling and watch them grow!

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