September 10, 2018

Storytelling

12 minutes

The Art of Story Telling Episode 276

People love stories and the art of storytelling is often lost. Learn some of the best techniques for telling a story and use storytelling in your homeschool lessons to enhance your teaching.

Thanks so much to our sponsor of the Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network and this podcast, Time 4 Learning – have you checked out this website?

My mother was an expert storyteller. She didn’t know any of the techniques or arts of storytelling that people study. She just did it. Most of her stories were about Biblical characters. I knew about Adam and Eve, Jonah and the Whale, Noah and the Ark, the parting of the Red Sea and of course the parables of Jesus. Yet, she loved the idea to tell stories about the fictional child who had every material possession, lived in a beautiful house, had all the best toys but was missing the most important ingredient and that was love, friendships, and family.

My mom’s storytelling was renowned in our family. I remember her telling us stories as young children, and she continued on with my children, nieces, and nephews. As young adults we would sit inside, often in the air-conditioning, while we watched as outside, next to an inviting swimming pool, my mother had our her grandchildren and their cousins sitting in rapt attention as she spoke. Her stories loosely followed this theme:

Once upon a time — this set the scene for something wonderful that is going to happen. It is a happy time or a very sad time and whatever that was, the story is going to center around this theme.

The meat of the story is what is happening or about to happen. The “what” is happening to the person and it will be just the saddest or happiest thing. We love this person, usually it is someone we can identify with or an underdog – someone who you hope will come on top. And of course we are on the edge of our seats because we know something is going to happen and it probably isn’t going to be good!

Something happens — what is it that happens? Does it begin in the day, at night, before dawn? What will happen that will change the entire outlook of this person and seem impossible to overcome?

Impossible is important — there is no way out– we can’t believe it and hope that there is a resolution.

Until… something else happens and then the story can continue or come to a conclusion

Solution. What or who solves the problem? Who comes along? Is it by chance? By prayer?

Storytelling should be taught in your home. You kids will love it, I promise. How many little ones do you know that want to put on plays. Children love to perform and the younger the better! It isn’t until they get older that they start to have inhibitions and think things are silly.

So, how can you implement storytelling into your homeschool?

Use it as a means to teach subjects. I once read a wonderful story about punctuation that I used for many years in my homeschool. I wish I could find it and share it with you. But the punctuation personalities were written in humor, the period was a final person, the exclamation point had so much energy, the comma had to pause and think, etc. History, of course, lends itself to storytelling very easily.

Have your children give a summation of something read with a story.

A storytelling event does not need to be fiction – it can be a personal story, and a biography or an autobiography about a book you’ve read.

You can use storytelling as a treat for a completed lesson or an end of the week ending to your school.

Be creative. Storytelling can be used in almost everything from sharing how you personally struggled with a particular subject or as a way to allow your child an outlet to an otherwise boring subject.

Special Thanks to Our Network Sponsor -Time 4 Learning

Time4Learning provides the tools and resources students need to build skills and confidence in the core subjects like math, language arts, science, and social studies. No matter how long you’ve been homeschooling or whatever your current situation, Time4Learning is a flexible, online curriculum that can be tailored to your child’s individual needs.

The comprehensive, award-winning curriculum allow students to study confidently and excel at their own pace, making it ideal for all kinds of learners, whether they are mainstream, gifted or special needs.

Click Here to Visit Time 4 Learning!

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By Felice Gerwitz

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