How to Tell Stories to Children—The Fascination of Stories Never Ends

Yu Yan， my granddaughter， is 4 and a half years old， born in the Chinese lunar year of Pig. She fell in love in listening to the stories when she was very young， and loved to sleep with her dearest storyteller “Little Pudding”， a mp3 which looks like Astro Boy before she was two years old， and addicted in listening to the stories with Ipad later， required her mom to download kinds of fairytales and some classic mythology and masterpieces. She can even almost understand the masterpieces like Journey to the West， The White Snake， except A Dream of Red Mansions that she felt elusive. Her favorite thing is listening to the classic stories like The Wizard of Oz， Pinocchio's Daring Journey， and Peter Pan etc.. Every time after story telling ends， she likes to ask me to pick up the parts she is interested in and to repeat many times， Because I know little about children books， I select carefully to in book store， and buy only the books with beautiful illustration and helpful content for her. Nonetheless， my little granddaughter sometimes does not have patience to listen to me， often interrupt， and you can always hear her repeat many funny and strange words she learned in stories.

Last Spring Festival， I got a wonderful book in my hometown Guangzhou. It is Xiao Wu’s new work ie How to Tell Stories to Children， which now becomes my bedtime book that I can hardly put it down after I leafed through it. Telling stories is absolutely a big work， books are usually in addition to textbooks more helpful for us. I strongly recommend that parents， grandparents， and people working in education institutions who need the skill of telling stories to read this book. I’d like to share the three points that strike me at my first reading.

Firstly， when telling stories， “scientific methods” play a great role.

The main idea in How to Tell Stories to Children that story can be considered as nutrients helping people grow up. When we tell story to children it is the same as to nourish them with natural nutrients. Besides drawing right nutrients， correctly transporting nutrients is also a scientific process. The time， the quantity， and the target object are all needed to be paid attention to. I have noticed that Yu Yan shed tear any time when hearing of “lovely rabbit Guaiguai”， and become nervous when hearing of the “little red riding hood”， these roles and stories are well known for generations. With the reaction I considers that she is so clever while understanding those stories. While it seems that those stories brought no happiness to her， let alone nourish her. By this token， those well known simple stories that pass down for generations cannot be easily used as baby’s enlightenment. When to tell， how to tell， and what to tell are worth deeply thought.

Secondly， when telling stories， the “little angel” in children’s mind should be highly valued.

There is a detail repeated in Xiao Wu’s book. The leading roles of the stories are specified by children when she tells stories. I feel it’s funny and reasonable. I remember when Yu Yan was two or three years old， she liked to mention her good friends named “Darcy”， “Ji Ou”， “Zhi Fengqian”， “Zhi Fengyu”. These friends do not really exist in the world but in her mind. They are neither human beings nor animals. They can fly， and living in the tree. She always talked about what happened to those friends， vividly. We took it as a joke， and now I realized that in children’s growth， the “little angel” plays a great role. Thus if we understand their world and act in cooperation of them timely， imagining with them， making stories with the angels， what funny stories our baby would have， what a wonderful relationship would appear between parents and child.

Thirdly， when telling stories， it is important to develop children’s ability of listening.

Story books were our tools when telling stories in the past， though we tried to be vivid， and tried to extend stories. Children are also used to it. When a story is told， the quiet reflection of kids is to think of a book. This leads to the result that many children take storytelling as telling something according to book. For educational purpose， it will benefit children to learn some knowledge during listening and watching. While it’s more effective for a baby in enlightenment period for rounds stimulate， said by Xiao Wu. Listening to stories， children have to try their best to make pictures， in mind which do a lot in their imaginative ability， and this is also the beginning of creation. The example of Xiao Wu Teaches you to tell the story Sweet Porridge performs it well. Therefore， according to storytelling， children’s listening skill can be developed， and they will catch it right way of listening. We may say that career training starts from childhood.

Thanks to the author and the editor who teach me the way of telling story. Good books are worth reading time and again， ponder over the details. After intensive reading， I will gain more， and I will consciously practice it. Next time sharing my feeling of reading this book， I guess I can directly tell the stories.