Stories for Children
The mind of a small child is very receptive and sensitive to thing going on around. The elders and the parents can inculcate beliefs and ideas into the mind of the child effectively through stories.
The stories for the children can me be classified into many types. First we can see the stories being classified on the basis of region and county. When we look at the middle east and gulf countries we can say that the stories of Arabian nights are very famous . When it is the case of India the stories of Panchatantra. The stories for children can also be mythological. They can be religious too. The religious stories are usually based on the religions books like the Geta, Mahabaharatha, Bible, etc. The characters of the stories and morals are of importance.
Need of the Stories : It is a tragedy that people don’t realize the importance of the Story telling to children. On the contrary it is seen that the family members usually get together in front of the TV when its sleeping time for the kids. Instead of bed time stories and lullabies it’s the addictive serial or a movie that makes the children go to sleep.
Telling stories to children has many advantages such as:
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The stories give their imagination a boost , thus making them more creative.
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The stories cater to the emotional hunger of the children.
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It develops the language skills too.
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The vocabulary increases.
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It fixes the sentence structures in the mind of the child
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The child learns to express itself effectively in public.
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It moulds its personality
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It increases the listening skills and improves its concentration.
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The stories create a “virtual theatre” in the child’s mind.
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The value system is built .
Telling stories to children is an art that includes:
Choosing the story: The story has to be chosen on the basis of the age of the children. The children who are less than 4 years old like to hear about seas, voyages, animals. This is the age when they are grasping all that they can from the surrounding so let their hunger for knowledge be satisfied through stories especially about kings, queens, tigers, lions, rabbits, elephants, etc.
Entertainment and Morale : Let the entertainment be prime and then the morale. First prepare the platform for the acceptance of the morale of the story.
Short and Sweet : Let the stories be short and sweet. If they are long it will be boring and it will be difficult for the child to remember the characters.
Language: Please avoid slang and abusive words and language while narrating the story.
Interaction: Make the story interactive by asking the questions such as asking them to repeat small words spoken by you earlier
