HOW TO ENCOURAGE YOUR CHILD TO LISTEN STORIES?

 

Do you remember how much you enjoyed listening stories from your grandparents,parents, aunts and uncles......

We used to forget the world and lost in the world of fantasy.

It was magical right???

Those were the stories that helped us learn some important lessons of our lives. They taught us about the good and bad and also had a great hand in making us the person we are today. But now as the technology is invading our lives, the art of story-telling has become rare.

As parents how much time do you spend on telling stories with your child?

Stories play a crucial role in cognitive growth and development of infants and young kids. Stories are not only fun but also develop a great bond between you and your child. Through stories you can introduce new words, develops literacy and also improves your child's vocabulary. It boosts your child's listening skills, sharps memory, foster their imagination, and stimulates curiosity. It helps to understand new or frightening events and the strong emotion that come with them.

PRO TIP TO ENCOURAGE YOUR CHILD TO LISTEN STORIES

There are few pro tips which you can incorporate in story telling with your kids.

1) Remember The Importance of Story Telling!! : It is important to you as parent to consider story telling an important session. If you will give the importance to it without any leaves your child will too. Don’t just consider it as a bedtime story.

 You know what???

You can tell story to your child at any point of time to make them understand the situation.

 When your child is feeling bored, tell them a story.

When your child is not eating healthy food or a picky eater, tell them a story on importance of that.

When your child is not feeling confident or is very anxious, tell them a story.

RELATED: Does your child is a picky eater?

2) Choose Good Books: Reading a book with no pictures is a bad idea, it will any how lose interest of you and of your child. Books with colorful pictures will definitely stimulate the curiosity and interest. If your child’s listening skills are weak always try to start with short stories. Ask questions between the stories or perhaps you can share your personal experiences as a story. You must add different genres like science, fantasy and biographies…..

 

3) Set A Reading Routine: Reading to toddler is often a great goal. Reading regularly helps kids learn to sit with book and feel relax.

Sit with your child, unfolds the story, hold your child’s hand while reading will form a strong bond between you and your child. Reading expressively, using voices for different characters, raising or lowering your voice will hold the interest and will encourage your child’s listening skills.

 

4) Story Time, Fun Activity:  Make story time interesting for your kids. You can add fun elements like hand puppets, real life objects…….

Use your personality to bring kid’s books to life. Enacting some interesting parts of the story can make story time even more memorable and enjoyable for you and your child.  Don’t just consider story time a regular nap time story. Find different places to read to your child, perhaps cuddled up in your child’s favorite blanket with a flashlight, sitting on a swing in your balcony with evening snacks……. A place to read can be just as unique as the stories themselves.

 

5) Story Telling Games: By creative games you can involve your child in the art of Story Telling. It is the another way through which you can encourage your child to not only just listen but also make their own story.

*        Build a Story – In this game, start with any story, introduce characters, build a plot of the story and just stop at the peak of the story, all you need to do is ask your child to think what he/ she thinks will happens next and let them create the story in their own unique  way. This will encourage your child’s imagination and let their creativity flow like never before.

*        Flashcards- based Storytelling- For this fun game, show your child some random flashcards and ask them to build story around each one. They can form a continuous story or they form a single story from each flashcard. This would work best with a group of your child’s friends. 

*      Story Sack- This is very simple yet creative game. Give your child an empty sack with their name or picture on it to make it decorative. Ask your child to collect a bunch of objects and they have to form a story with those objects. You can also invite your child’s group of friends to go outside and collect any objects they think would make a good story. They then come back with their sacks of objects and sit around in a circle with their unique stories.  

Do you find this article helpful? What stories you have heard in your childhood? Which is your child’s favorite story game? What kind of tips you incorporate in your story telling? Drop a comment and let us know!!!