Stories serve a purpose beyond entertainment. Today, parents have be on their toes to engage their children and improve their learning ability- Stories are a great solution!
“Once upon a time there was a King and a Queen” … “Deep in the forest, there lived a Lion” … Words such as these ruled our lives long before the advent of the mobiles and gadgets. Anyone who remembers listening to stories by parents or grandparents remembers the joy and comfort that stories bring with them. They will remember the various emotions such as fear, surprise and wit of the stories.
Stories are Everywhere!
When a grandparent narrates an event about his or her life to a grandchild, they pass on a piece of history to the new generation. Children get a glimpse of the lives of people during that time, their ways of living, the language, the clothes, etc. It transports them to a whole new world.
Storytelling is an ancient art form. It is through stories that our folklore, art, customs and epics pass on from one generation to the next. Besides this, the practice of listening to stories is helpful for children because-
- It makes them better listeners, a very important quality
- It improves memory and recollection, which helps in academics
- It builds their knowledge and adds information
- It improves empathy, i.e. makes them sensitive towards other’s feelings
- It helps them solve problems better
- It encourages humour and creativity.
- It builds their vocabulary
- It makes them more curious
Stories are beneficial for the parent too…
Storytelling or Story narration is also extremely beneficial for a parent. Today parents have to think of new ways to keep their children engaged and they have to think one step ahead. Storytelling is important because of the below reasons-
- It helps spend quality time with the child
- Sharing information helps strengthen it
- It passes important events about one’s life and improves family bond
- It makes parents creative.
Teaching difficult concepts? Use Storytelling
The teachers at Little Aryans, the best preschool for kids, thought of an innovative and fun- filled workshop by the name “Stories come Alive”. The workshop involved both parents and children to kindle their love for stories.
In an interactive session which was attended by more than 100 parents, the teachers at Little Aryans demonstrated different mediums of storytelling such as–
- Puppets,
- Audio Visual,
- Skits,
- Creative boards,
- Flash Cards and
- Pretend Play.
A concept can be taught through different mediums of storytelling. Children, especially when they are in pre-primary, understand and remember such concepts much better. The parents found the program useful as there were some practical tips on how to use stories to enhance learning.
“How Milk turns into Curd?” “How do Rainbows appear?”, can all be taught innovatively. Mediums such as Flash Cards and Audio Visuals can help to teach alphabets. A Pretend play corner for the kids can help them engage in free play.
Learn with your Child!
Learning needs to be fun for children and parents need to be more involved in the child’s learning. New innovative activities such as these hep achieve this aim. Most parents are aware about the need to generate new ideas to help their child cope with new concepts, but they don’t know how to execute it.
When a parent takes time out to engage in free play, to sing and dance and pretend play with the child, they get new insights on the child’s thinking, likes and dislikes. This helps one grow as a parent too.
While tuition classes make the child repeat, engage in rote learning and aim to complete syllabus, methods such as these make the child intellectually sharp, generates a love for learning and teaches life skills.