storytelling: 3 easy ways to start

photo by AXL. These toys could head out on a crazy adventure as puppets for your story.

Learning to tell stories can be daunting.  I get that. Even seasoned Waldorf teachers or homeschooling parents can feel that fear, and the Waldorf grades curriculum is built on storytelling.   Letting go of always reading to your child, or turning on an audio book or Sparkle Stories story, or a movie, can be really, really scary.

So start small.  Here are three easy ways to start telling stories to your children.  

1.  Puppets. Don't panic.  Puppets can be really easy; everyday objects can be magical.  Ask Dan Hurlin, whose puppet theater full of forks and spoons enchanted my college classmates.  Pick something up -- a toy, a cup, a mitten -- and let it speak and move.  This type of story can charm three and four year olds to stillness.  Puppet wakes up, has a tiny adventure, and goes to sleep.  Fin. Your lap, maybe draped with a playsilk or scarf, makes a perfect stage; so does the kitchen table, or the dashboard on the freeway-turned-parking lot.  There can be an epic adventure, or there can be next to nothing. Just try.


2. When I was a kid.  Can you remember anything from your childhood?  Stories from your family or longtime friends?  Children love real, true stories of your own experiences, especially when the story opens up a new perspective on you.  Stories where you got into trouble, where you made a bad decision, where things didn't work out so great, these are a real gift to your child, who will find in them permission to fail, to learn, to try again.  You become human and whole through these stories.  Tell stories of your triumphs, too -- spelling bee victories, hard-won first fruits of your own garden, the Big Game.  Humor and compassion for your young self and for the other characters in your story will feed their need for goodness.  Tell these stories.  They become part of your legacy.

3. Movies, Books, TV shows.  My mother told me the entire plot of Anne McCaffrey's The White Dragon on a road trip to Nebraska to visit my grandparents.  She later told me she'd done this to keep herself awake on the long, straight highway through the cornfields, but at the time, I only knew that here was a fantastic, beautiful story.  So tell your favorite plots; re-enact favorite scenes with voices and gesture.  Of course, there are limits, and you know what your child will enjoy and what will be unpleasant or scary for them.  The best part is this: if you forget, make it up.  This is your chance to fix the ending you hated, to fill in the details your mind has let go.  Your imagination and intuition may create just the pieces your child needs most.


I believe deeply in the power of stories to heal, help, and guide.  Pick any one of these, put down the book, turn off the radio, and let your own voice and the magic of the story sweeten your time with your child.  

---