Two events are very remarkable to children and they don't joke about it. Storytelling and playing/leisure times. A child could be distracted during mathematics and reading learning periods but are always prepared and you're assured of their full concentration. During our days as kids, storytelling times were usually done when the moonlight is out and it's called Tales by the moonlight. The stories were told by elderly people in the society, most especially, grandpa and grandma. Grandpa and grandma told us stories about the turtle and how crafty they are, as well as the wisdom of the ants 🐜🐜🐜🐜. Since it's fun filled, we look up to storytelling times. Have you told your child a story or two today? Please do if your answer is no. Greetings from @salvadornkpara.
Since the demise of grandpa and grandma when I was about 8 years old, dad and mom have been too busy with work, so we were no longer having our usual storytelling times for our listening pleasure. This gap made me miss my grandpa and grandma so much and I wished I could turn the hands of time to the days we heard some beautiful and interesting stories from them. There are somany benefits about storytelling and one of it was learning about the history of Africa. During the storytelling times, we were allowed to interact with our grandparents through asking questions on the areas we're not satisfied with. Sometimes it marvels me where my grandparents who were not formally educated got answers that satisfied our curiosity as kids and those answers are still relevant to us now as adults.
Storytelling exposed us to several past events that happened and bring them to the knowledge of kids through oral interaction with elderly people. It's during storytelling times that I got to know about the Nigerian Civil War from my grandpa's perspective. He told us how he fought for the Biafra Army. Other events like communal and inter-communal land disputes/wars in our region. Grandpa gave us some gist about how he met grandma and how they got married. This story was one of my most exciting one. Grandpa was an epitome of idiomatic expressions and African proverbs. Once grandpa switched to discussing with you in proverbs, you'll immediately get confused. Once he speaks any proverb I was of the attitude of asking him for interpretations. I remembered him saying a toad doesn't run in a day without anyone pursuing it also, due to the fact that the lizard walks with his stomach, you'll never dictate if it has stomach ache.
Benefits of Storytelling/Writing to Kids in our Homeschool
- it improves their communication and writing skills.
- it helps their retentive memory. Interesting stories are always retained by children, so parents can use storytelling mechanisms in teaching difficult subjects and topics to their kids.
- it also promote creativity. A child that concentrate and understand the lines of a story can become a poet or even a better novelist.
- it helps them understand life better.
Finally, do we as parents have time to tell our kids stories in our leisure time or do we have storytelling in our homeschooling curriculum. If no, please add it because it'll broaden your kids knowledge. Please tell interesting stories to your kids not boring one. Thank you.