Everything has a story

1. Everything has a story The stories we hear as children shape our view of the world. Most small children live their lives in quite a limited environment. Reading stories to children can show them far-flung places, extraordinary people and eye-opening situations to expand and enrich their world. Aesop’s tales, Fairy tales, Grimms tales, Panchtantra tales have ruled the children’s imagination since time immemorial, in joint families, there were ‘Nani Dadi ke kissey- kahaniyan’ but in today’s nuclear family scenario where the interaction with the children has decreased because both the parents are working and also because of electronics ruling our drawing rooms and bed rooms. Stories have become centre stage for relating better life experiences to the children with values and mottos. The best school in Noida believes reading aloud and sharing stories with your child is a great way to spend time together. Reading and storytelling also helps promote language, literacy and brain development. Sharing stories, talking and singing every day helps your child’s development in lots of ways. Nowadays, with the tremendous amount of pressure on young parents, like the complexities of a nuclear family, lesser amount of free time available, and the addiction towards technological gadgets, the art of storytelling for kids is somewhere getting lost.

2. In top primary school, you will find storytelling forms a crucial part in developing your child’s overall personality. It is an age-old tradition followed by parents since time immemorial that has been a part of most of our own childhood too. “Just as computer simulations help us get to grips with complex problems like flying a plane or forecasting the weather, so novels, stories and dramas help us understand the complexities of social life”. It can also be a great way of helping them deal with real life situations that they need help to deal with. Researchers have found that the brain activity that occurs when we read fiction is very similar to experiencing that situation in real life, so reading about a situation helps children work out how to solve it in reality. The benefits children get from having stories read to them are hugely increased when parents talk and ask questions about the story as well. Reading and sharing stories can: help your child become familiar with sounds, words, language and the value of books spark your child’s imagination, stimulate curiosity and help his brain development help your child learn the difference between ‘real’ and ‘make-believe’ help your child understand change and new or frightening events, and also the strong emotions that can go along with them Help your child develop early literacy skills like the ability to listen to and understand words. So tonight let us all start with storytelling sessions.