January 31, 2015

ITL170: How to Teach Your Kids to Be “Interesting” (and How to Be Interesting Yourself)

18 minutes

On this week’s episode, I answer a listener question on how to teach a child to tell a good story in a conversational setting.

The ability to tell a great story is extremely valuable in all phases of life.

When we train ourselves to tell a good story, we become more engaging to our peers, to authority figures, and to people we are in authority over.

Being well liked by people can lead to a great number of additional opportunities.

So we not only need to train our children to tell great stories, we need to train ourselves to tell great stories.

First, we need to train our kids to talk to all kinds of people.

To train your child to tell a good story or anecdote, it’s very important that they watch adults tell good stories and anecdotes in conversational settings.

Most kids grow up on the outside of those conversations. They don’t get to listen because the parents do not give them the opportunity to listen.

Let them see adults in conversations. They tend not to act appropriately if they haven’t seen mature conversations before.

Encourage them to read.

People who read books will learn things that fire their imaginations, and they’ll be able to bring those things into conversations beyond the books.

People who watch TV generally talk about TV shows or the stars of TV shows.

One of the best ways to learn how to communicate is by reading a book.

Teach your kids to be good at learning in person when you’re with them, or when they are learning by themselves (when all they have is a book).

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By Andy Andrews, hosted by David Loy

4.9

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