This week I used the benefit of storytelling. I haven't done much of this, but have occasionally used storied that we make up for teaching lessons. We used to do more of this a year ago when we had a fireplace and would make fires and lie in front of the fireplace and take turns making up stories in the dark. We were always making up "train stories" where the train characters resembled our kids and would come up with lessons for them with issues they were dealing with.
This week for the first time in a long time I used storytelling. It started with one of my 4yo twins discussing what stories were "real" and what wasn't. He tends to think his make-believe worlds are real when they aren't or stories (i.e. Curious George) are real and there really is a real Curious George. So we were talking about this and I decided to give an example of a story I could make up as if I were writing a story, but it wouldn't truly be real.
So I decided to pretend chairs were characters that could talk like people and made up this story about the chairs at our dining room table and how they were a chair family and how they all wished mommy and daddy could be the ones to sit on them because they always sat so calmly and nicely! Anyways, I'll spare you the details of the whole story but it was a kind of funny story about how they didn't like the kids rocking on them, standing on them, jumping around on them etc. during mealtimes and how they decided to teach the kids a lesson and buckled them into their chairs and ran off with them.
The kids thought it was hysterical and all I have to do now at dinnertime is talk about how the chairs are feeling right now with them sitting on them(when they're getting antsy) and at least they're more amused with it and are a little more like to sit nicer for a little time!
Anyways, if you need a little humor to lighten the atmosphere about an issue, make up a silly story and teach them a lesson with it!
• Sun 1 Apr 2007 - Untitled Comment
Blessings,
Linda<><