Oct 24, 2012

Stories that bond




Reading or telling stories to your children at night is good for character development and a child can be inspired to keep his or her own little diary of scribbles and notes. It started at ten or twelve for this writer when a lousy childhood drove me to read more and more books and was engrossed in reading comics at first and then The Hardy Boys. A child can fly free with his imagination and put himself in all kinds of situations to see what he would do if in the same position. There is adventure and comfort when someone is reading to you. Telling stories to your children at night is also a bonding experience where the child has your full attention and knows it is his or her time with you. 


What to read and what not to
If your child is under five or six years of age do not read him a scary story at night. Some older kids love scary stories, but others dread and dream about it and have a fitful sleep. They also become scared when they have to go to bed at night. Still, the tradition of reading and putting your child to bed with a good story under his belt is as old as the hills and will enhance his imagination and hopefully he learns by new adventures in the tales he comes across.  The Alchemist is such a story and suitable reading for kids.


Mind adventures
Reading is satisfying and informative, and fiction writing especially for children can be a lot of fun as the Harry Potter collection attests to. There are many forms of storytelling and there are groups now who have storytelling evenings and events where they have theme nights and stories are told all night long. Still, the best stories are the ones you make up for your kids. Remember Meryl Streep in Out of Africa? Robert Redford gave the opening sentence and Streep continued the tale leaving her listeners enthralled. Storytelling is a wonderful form of escape and putting your child to bed with a smile on his or her face makes it all the more important to continue the tradition.