Mama, Can you tell me a story?
I hear this all the time around our house, in the car, on bike rides, anywhere and anytime. It didn’t really phase me as being unusual until a few weeks ago when my friend was with my daughter for an extended amount of time and she mentioned all the stories my daughter requested during their time together. Looking back, I have my friend Meg and Nana to thank for all our story telling going on around here. Meg can come up with the most creative tales and Nana can retell any Disney story verbatim! I think they got the ball rolling and now we’ve got Grandma, babysitters, Mama, Papa and others telling her stories!
I love that stories are entertaining to my girl. Storytelling is a wonderful way for children to develop an imagination and to begin visualizing (creating mental images) stories that will later support them greatly as they read chapter books.
I recently came across this blog post on Pinterest with super suggestions on fostering creative storytelling and play. Check it out and start telling stories. The possibilities are endless!
Disclaimer: My stories are by any means NOT children’s book worthy! They come to me on the fly and I try to play off of what my girls likes and dislikes are. Today I told a story about Wigglesticks-the Fairy who gathered sticks for her bird friends to help them build their nests. There was a problem, series of events and it ended with a solution. Later in the day, I overhead my four-year-old telling her sister a story about Wigglesticks. Point made. Storytelling is grand!
