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Storytelling with a difference By Grandma Christina @basket.of.treasures
Leaves are growing on the trees, flowers are blooming, Warmer days are coming, hopefully anyway, and that can only mean one thing, spring is upon us. With spring comes new beginnings, but it’s also the perfect time for reminiscing and remembering. Children love stories, fairy tales and superheroes, magic animals and mysterious aliens. But why not tell them real stories, about real people. Tell your grandchildren about you, their parents and grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Those photo albums no one looks at anymore are full of memories and stories waiting to be told. As grandparents the most precious thing we can give our grandchildren is our time. This is the perfect opportunity to sit back, let everyone else plant daffodils, decorate eggs, go on an Easter egg hunt. Get out those photo albums, sit in the garden with your grandchildren, tell them who everyone is or ask if they recognise any faces. I’m sure you’ll remember some funny stories to retell. If you’re really prepared take some props too. For example, an old net curtain representing the veil on your wedding dress, a bag, a favourite piece of jewellery you still have. The concept of time is a difficult one for children to grasp; it’s important that children learn the importance of yesterday and the promise of tomorrow. Visuals help with short-term time concepts; I always use an egg timer so if I give a time limit they know when the sand has run out they should have finished whatever was asked of them. Timetables made up of photos will also help in reminding children what will happen next and in what order. Or, when the day is done, talk about what you did today and talk about what they did yesterday. This helps to reinforce memory and strengthen the memorisation muscles. Short term memory will help process and recall new information. Long term memory will help develop a deeper understanding. Of course, very young children won’t remember very much, but may remember
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today’s and yesterday’s activities with prompting. This is an easy activity to do, just tell the story of your day. Those photo albums will allow children to see the passage of time, learn a little about their family, (why not make a family tree using photos) or remember the photos taken last time there was a party or when they were babies themselves.
If you want your children to be smart, tell them stories. If you want them to be brilliant, tell them more stories. Albert Einstein
and what’s better than the story of you?
Treasure Basket I’ve made a basket filled with special memories: the shoes I wore to my engagement, my favourite bangles I wore as a teenager, the hair clips I wore to my daughter’s wedding, a favourite scarf, my Filofax from the ‘80’s (yes I admit I had a Filofax too), my first evening bag, the sparkly ball my grandchildren loved to play with as babies, a seashell we collected from the beach on a day out and a pearl necklace. There’s a story to tell about each item, children can see and feel the memory while you tell the tale and they can role play, pretend to be in the memory. Role play enables children to make sense of the stories you’re telling, and will help create more memories too.
