It’s Story Time

Do you still remember those good night stories your grandparents used to tell you when you were a child? Aren’t the memories still fresh? Yes. Right? But when was the last time you narrated a story to your child? It’s been long? Then, today is the day. It’s story time.

Literally speaking, storytelling is an art of conveying a sequence of events in the form of words, images and gestures. But there’s much more to it than just entertainment.

Stories are a great way of imparting cultural heritage to kids. A nicely told story stays in child’s mind for a long time and hence helps in retaining the culture over generations. It is also a very efficient means for kids to know their ancestry and be able to relate to their forefathers.

I remember being told so many mythological stories to me and my sister by my grandfather. Few of them we liked so much that we used to ask him to narrate the same story over and over again. These stories became a strong base for me to understand our culture and values.

Bed time stories go a long way in building strong positive virtues. Knowingly or unknowingly, these stories install in kids the sense to differentiate between right and wrong. It helps them understand the behavior they must observe to be able to earn respect as a responsible citizen. Those lessons of courage, kindness, cleanliness, and good traits can be imparted through tales. Don’t we all know the importance of Jataka tales or the Panchatantra?

Stories are powerful ways to help kids to be creative and imaginative. As the words fallout from your mouth a new world is under construction. Your child is already weaving the story in his mind. A little narration weaves a thousand thoughts and who knows sometime later even your little one turns out to be an impressive story teller himself.

Stories develop vocabulary. At homes, we communicate with limited number of words. But through stories you can introduce a lot of new words for the kid to learn. It is easy to teach the meanings of these words as kids learn faster from the context of story.

Reading is a rare hobby in children these days. But kids, who have watched their parents read out stories to them, automatically develop an interest in reading. Story telling also encourages children to participate actively in the learning process. It can enhance the listening skills of children.

Not just this, the time you spend with your child narrating him stories is full of those beautiful moments spend with just two of you together with no gadgets involved, which is so unavoidable in today’s era. It is an opportunity to see him make faces, smile and laugh with you, and hence develop a strong bond. Isn’t that an unmatchable reward?

Decorate your stories with emotions on face, gestures with hands, change in pitch and you are good to go. Ask your kids questions, in between, to make them feel involved in the process. Draw different characters of the stories to them and give them an additional task of coloring those characters.

And wait for those stories to come back to you from them. That would be such an emotional and satisfying moment you would have earned for yourself.

I would like to describe myself as a dreamer in the IT world. I am full of positive energy. I hold degree in electronics engineering and have been working in core electronics (Semiconductor Domain) since last 8 years. I have been blessed with a family who encourages me in whatever I wish to do. I have a two year old son who is my lifeline. I am an avid traveler and also love cooking. I take this opportunity to scribble down lovely experiences with my son.