Catholic Activity: Story-Telling

Both parents can contribute to the increasing scope of the child's mind by storytelling. Stories can be told while certain other activities are being carried on.

DIRECTIONS

Your child is taking a larger size in clothes. He is ready now for a wider variety of solid foods. He is more active than he was a few months ago. He is climbing and he loves to run around the house. The world is huge and new to your child.

His capacity for story material has increased also. Possibly there is no single medium of instruction so powerful and effective as storytelling. A real closeness can develop between father and child through shared stories. Since Dad is away at work so much of the time, he can use the medium of storytelling to meet his youngster on a common ground. How absorbed a child will be with the account of the travels of Jesus, Mary and Joseph as Dad relates them! All through life it is wholesome ant pleasant for an individual to be able to remember hearing certain childhood stories told by either of his parents.

Storytelling can become a prelude to reading. A child loves to hear stories and watch pictures as you turn pages of a book. By reading to your child while he is still very young, you are creating in him appreciation of a basic, indispensable source of learning.

Ideally, story time should fit into the daily routine at the same hour each day. However, if it is too difficult to allow some minutes for stories other than at the time of the bath, it should be done then. Choose your story time wisely, so that your child will look forward to it with pleasure, rather than dread, because you happen to choose a time when he would rather be active. The time should not be too long at first, because at eighteen months your child's attention is short-lived.

Activity Source: From Crib to Stroller, Parent-Educator Series 1, Leaflets 0-12, Birth to Three Years by Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, 1961