can you tell a story ?

A while ago, I took Ruby to a playgroup.  After some free play, the leader had all the kids sit down on the floor for story time.  That's when I got nervous.  Ruby didn't have the longest attention span, and I expected her to jump up and start wondering on to something else within a couple of minutes.  But then the story began...there was no book!  Just a few tiny stuffed animals and a hat, and the most amazing story teller that ever was...i was completely immersed in the story, and so were all the kids.  It was so fantastic!  This lady knew the story by heart, and told it with such animation using her little props - it was like the story was alive!

I wish I could remember that story...  

I went home and tried to tell Ruby about the animals who found a home in a hat, but with all the other amazing songs and ryhmes we heard that morning, I could only remember fragments of some of them which really didn't amount to much at all...so sad ! 

I'm not much of a story teller.  I think some people just have the gift, and then there's the rest of us!  But that doesn't stop me from telling stories to my kids.

Ruby loves a good book, and she's got a stack of good books,  but she loves it more when I just tell her a story.  The whole  'telling a story without a book' concept was a bit new to me at the time, so I was a slow to get started...but I'm getting better!

One of the first stories I started telling her was "The Hare and the Tortoise".  Why?  Well, because I had just seen THIS tutorial on making a felt turtle.  I love my turtle / tortoise because it was the fist felt toy I made, and I was pretty impressed with my efforts!!  So I found a story to use him in, which meant I needed a rabbit / hare.  So I made one of them too.  Then I had to re- learn the story, I was a bit rusty...and then it began.  Ruby loved it so much, we had to do that story every day, a thousand times a day, and she never tired of it...aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!  Time for a new story....

See the little Gingerbread man sitting on the foxes back !

Another story we do is the one about the "The Gingerbread Man" and the reason I started telling her that one was because I had made a felt gingerbread man ornament for the Christmas tree that year.  So there was my first prop!   And although the story calls for a pig, a cow, a horse and a fox, I figured it would be OK to change it, and use the props we already had...so by now I had made a pig anyway, and the fox was made especially for this story.  The hare and the tortoise also featured, coz there was no cow, or horse in our story stash.  but that's OK!  Kids don't mind who is acting out the story - they love the fact that you are telling them a story.

Her all time favourite stories are the ones that start with "Once upon a time there was a girl called Ruby..." Then I proceed to tell her about all the things that Ruby did that day - usually the stuff she really did do.  And it always ends with "...and the sun went down and the moon came up, and Ruby fell fast asleep."  No props, just a dose of reality in story form, and she LOVES it.


Here's a great story about Mr Wiggle and Mr Waggle, a perfect 'simple' story.  Ruby and I have been practicing this one together for the last few days.  She wants to 'take' her story and do it infront of her class for show and tell sometime !

Ruby telling her version of Mr Wiggle and Mr Waggle

Our story repetoire isn't that big - I'm not good at making up stories, and even telling them sometimes is a big effort, but we've gathered a few more props to help. Sometimes I'll ask Ruby to pick 3 characters and together we make up a story - the simplest ones are always a hit - kids are good at 'simple'...I need to practise that a bit more!