![]() This is instinctive, the mother’s voice and movement is the story, the beginning of the story telling. Sometimes women will hum or sing spontaneously in labor. With my oldest, I gave him a womb name and spoke to him and wrote to him. I had a name for my youngest for two years before he was conceived. Often we begin before birth, in talking to the child that is to come. I also tell stories in the car, at bedtime, in the afternoon, with seasonal puppet shows and finger puppets. They have adventures in the kingdom with their dog and cats and always return at the end of the afternoon to the royal kitchen for a cup of tea and a cookie. Their parents are kind and gentle rulers of a large kingdom. We have two brothers, Prince Sugna and Prince Nacnud. Something very special I have done with my own children is to reverse their names and create a royal character who has daily adventures. Pumpkins, apples and squash grace our seasonal table at this time of year and sometimes an acorn child peeps out from the “garden.” ![]() ![]() I like to weave in many of the nature tales from Suzanne Down’s Autumn Tales and expand upon them with figures and activities that connect to the stories. In autumn, we have so many wonderful stories to tell. The child awakens, goes outside for a walk, encounters the animals in the yard, says good morning, rambles about, returns home for lunch and a nap. I often tell a story of a small child while creating the puppet from a silk square, with a rolled ball of wool roving for the head, and then I tie it at the wrists. With the youngest children, in the Morning Garden, I tell simple nature stories about Mama and Papa Redbird and Squirrel Nutkin, creatures who live in the garden and trees, and whose antics we observe daily. I spend much of my time with children who span the ages of two to fifteen years of age. Human connection is strengthened through storytelling particularly when we tell stories of our own childhood or that of the child’s grandparents. Storytelling conveys rich language, full sentences and an extensive vocabulary to children. Stories told by humans rich with language, rhythm, and repetition spark a love of language and a lasting literacy. Very young children watch our mouths as we form words. Literacy begins with the experience of being with another human being who speaks to the child. Storytelling provides a strong foundation for literacy. When a child sees a pre-formed picture of a story in a book or on a screen, the image is made there is no room for the child’s imagination to create the picture. Imagination is about making pictures in our minds, learning through pictures, through imitation of the pictures, of the gestures, of the movements brought through the storyteller and the stories that are told. Storytelling brings pictures to children of life, of what it means to be human, of how we can serve one another. Waldorf education is a live education, it takes place between human beings, this is why one does not see textbooks, CD players or videos in Waldorf classrooms. But they will take up the impulse of the cholerics in the acting out or will soon join in the ‘game’ of finding adjectives.Storytelling is life. In these recall exercises sanguines often stare at you blankly as they have forgotten the whole story, or so they think. They dislike having to be the first to do anything that involves work. Phlegmatics need a bit of pushing when it comes to articulating their inner life: they will be helped by the other children because once the activity is started, they actually enjoy falling into the pattern of making lists of words. Melancholics who often enjoy remembering things will benefit from this exercise as it gives a certain objectivity, a wider context to their one-sided picture. ![]() These will come in useful both for die children’s drawings and their writing of the story the next day. ![]() Asking just for describing words (adjectives), chiIdren are called to the blackboard to write them down. Are there any noises? Can anything be seen? What light is there ? What i s the sky like? etc. ![]()
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