Children love a good story – we all do.  And what fun to have a storytelling session with the kids. Stories can be silly, scary or outrageously funny. All you only need a little imagination. Storytelling encourages children to explore their unique expressiveness and helps them communicate thoughts and feelings. It helps you see into your child’s world. And to think about it, storytelling is a sweet reminder to your children that speaking, listening and communicating are the simplest forms of art in this media-driven world.

So what would make storytelling even easier? Here’s our top ten tips

1. Just have fun.  Don’t worry so much about the content.  Instead relax and enjoy playing with what comes up.

2. Ask one of the children for suggestions. Build up a story from an incident – or perhaps a movie you went to see that a child gives you, by asking for details.

3. Start the story and keep asking the children for ideas – get them to use their imagination to help you to continue the story – ask them what happens next?  Who does the character meet on the road?  Where is the road leading?

4. When asking children to help you it’s important to say ‘YES!’ to any offerings, even if it’s not what you wanted to hear. Saying ‘No’ is disappointing and children soon learn not to expect anything magical (Now you wouldn’t want that, would you?)

5. Listen to your audience having fun or reacting to your stories. That lets you know you’re on track!

6. No matter what your story is, there are four magic ingredients

   • Character – get the children to describe what the character looks like, how their dressed, are the large or small, handsome or ugly?  What’s their favourite food, hobby, toy?

   • Setting – is it a magical forest, a ship at sea, or a deserted house?

   • Problem – why is the character on a journey?  To rescue a friend kidnapped by pirates? To search for a special potion?  To discover who stole the treasure trove of sweets?

   • Resolution The missing friend is rescued from walking the plank? The special potion is discovered and used to cure a spotiferous friend? The dastardly thief is found and the sweets returned to their rightful owner

7. As long as you’re including all four elements in your story the sequence doesn’t matter. And guess what! Because it’s YOUR story, you can experiment – have fun letting the children help create the story themselves. They will surprise you! It also keeps the story fresh and new.

8. Storytelling involves motion along with words. So move around while you narrate your stories, use your body and face to tell the story.

9. If you have a dress up box with hats coats and shoes – you and the children can play different parts

10. And lastly, use different voices for different characters (it always works!)

 Storytelling Party Ideas

If you want to throw a story telling party for younger children our most popular theme right now is Peter Pan.  It comes out in theatres next month and we can’t wait! Your children would be thrilled to meet Tinkerbell and Peter Pan as hear them tell their story.  This fun, interactive storytelling show with characters is sure to keep everyone entertained. You can also throw in a hunt for hidden treasure chest of gold coins, let the children play a different pirate or one of the lost children, have them walk the plank or search for the treacherous Captain Hook! (or the crocodile.

 The story can be as simple as who stole the birthday cake, to who murdered a victim, (who’s body has naturally been removed from the scene of the crime!) Each guest is provided with a personality.  The guests can dress up with silly hats crazy clothes and props. Split the guests into groups and ask them to act out a scene each in turn, which contains clues.  If questioned, everyone must answer truthfully, except the murderer who is of course a liar.  Finally, everyone is asked who they believe the murderer to be and why.

If you’d like Peter Pan and Tinkerbell to come and tell their story, or a detective and some mysterious guests to help investigate your party guests give us a call.  We’ll make it so much fun you’ll never forget it!