Story telling is an old method of passing on complex knowledge, such as respect, love and character etc This has throughout time been core to many cultures only to be replaced by the written language.
Some cultures such as the indigenous people of New Zealand the "Maori" only had story's to pass on all knowledge of the past and the future. They had no form of written language until western people arrived and created it with them.
In Thailand they use this to explain things in the 3rd person as to not offend the other person directly when needing to ask them to change how or what they are doing etc.
Its been an amazing journey with the children through these country's but has been incredibly hard in some aspects. As expected one develops strategy's and methods to make it all work.
The most effective and enjoyable one has been for me (Boyd) to tell story's to the children and this has developed into a common event. It is used on long boring journeys, trekking, it is used to settle for bed, and in the story's they are always about digesting the past key events as well as preparing for the next change or event mixed with some moral aspect they are being challenged with at that time.
The story's are usually made up on the spot, involve the same 2 characters who are similar to the children and us as their parents mixed together. Children absorb and mimick everything so much and I have done this to bridge the gap between child and adult behavior.
this actually works incredibly well,
Structure is simple, set the scene, introduce the challenge, every so often describe some thing in high detail and specifically such as the feel and texture of something key and then go back to the general story.
Weave the unwanted behavior into the story and the outcome with the character learning a different way throwing in some fun and humour.
or sometimes explain the complexity of something like how the earth spins and astronauts travel in space.
Typically I explain a story of our next journey and the names of the places we are going, focusing on things like dangers of this new and the foreign environment to them. Such as remembering to go the the toilet before they get on a train or bus. Standing back behind the yellow line on the train platform.
They have heard the story of their familiar friend and the trouble that they went to to find a toilet to relief themselves on the bus. this can be fun to tell such as of climbing on the roof and weeing on the cows as the bus travels passed a paddock.
so next time we are at the bus station the concept of going for a wee before getting on makes complete sense and is fun for them as apposed to another command from a parent which makes no logical sense to them in a busy exciting place where they are very unlikely to sit and listen to a long explanation.
Sometimes I find them reminding us to stand back behind the yellow line. Tara has become particularly good at keeping an eye on this.
I encourage all parents to play and experiment with story telling and open up such a powerful connection with your own child!
and for those that this all sounds to easy and it wont work for you, its not easy and if Im tired I struggle, but it does require lost of practice and experimenting, you will in time based on feedback from their faces of what engages them and to hold that attention. which story's they ask for again.
The hard thing is no story can be told again the same its always different.
Boyd
Some cultures such as the indigenous people of New Zealand the "Maori" only had story's to pass on all knowledge of the past and the future. They had no form of written language until western people arrived and created it with them.
In Thailand they use this to explain things in the 3rd person as to not offend the other person directly when needing to ask them to change how or what they are doing etc.
Its been an amazing journey with the children through these country's but has been incredibly hard in some aspects. As expected one develops strategy's and methods to make it all work.
The most effective and enjoyable one has been for me (Boyd) to tell story's to the children and this has developed into a common event. It is used on long boring journeys, trekking, it is used to settle for bed, and in the story's they are always about digesting the past key events as well as preparing for the next change or event mixed with some moral aspect they are being challenged with at that time.
The story's are usually made up on the spot, involve the same 2 characters who are similar to the children and us as their parents mixed together. Children absorb and mimick everything so much and I have done this to bridge the gap between child and adult behavior.
this actually works incredibly well,
Structure is simple, set the scene, introduce the challenge, every so often describe some thing in high detail and specifically such as the feel and texture of something key and then go back to the general story.
Weave the unwanted behavior into the story and the outcome with the character learning a different way throwing in some fun and humour.
or sometimes explain the complexity of something like how the earth spins and astronauts travel in space.
Typically I explain a story of our next journey and the names of the places we are going, focusing on things like dangers of this new and the foreign environment to them. Such as remembering to go the the toilet before they get on a train or bus. Standing back behind the yellow line on the train platform.
They have heard the story of their familiar friend and the trouble that they went to to find a toilet to relief themselves on the bus. this can be fun to tell such as of climbing on the roof and weeing on the cows as the bus travels passed a paddock.
so next time we are at the bus station the concept of going for a wee before getting on makes complete sense and is fun for them as apposed to another command from a parent which makes no logical sense to them in a busy exciting place where they are very unlikely to sit and listen to a long explanation.
Sometimes I find them reminding us to stand back behind the yellow line. Tara has become particularly good at keeping an eye on this.
I encourage all parents to play and experiment with story telling and open up such a powerful connection with your own child!
and for those that this all sounds to easy and it wont work for you, its not easy and if Im tired I struggle, but it does require lost of practice and experimenting, you will in time based on feedback from their faces of what engages them and to hold that attention. which story's they ask for again.
The hard thing is no story can be told again the same its always different.
Boyd
