Paul Arinaga
Copyright 2006 Paul Arinaga
Child stories are an excellent way to promote child development.
You can use teaching material along with children's stories to
teach moral lessons, factual knowledge or emotional intelligence.
The beauty of using child stories in this way is that children
learn without feeling like they're "learning"; they learn by
osmosis.
Using stories to teach also gets children to really think about
things. They can actively get involved in the story rather than
just passively listening to it or reading it.
So, how can YOU use stories in this way? When you follow these 7
simple steps, you'll find that using stories to teach is
incredibly easy, and fun, too!
#1 Decide what you want to teach
What do you want your child or students to learn? How do you
want them to feel at the end of the "lesson"?
#2 Ask specific questions about events or characters from the
story
Questions such as "why did this happen?", "why did Santa do
that?" or "how do think Billy felt?" are good examples. Try to
get children to "analyze" the story - to think about why
something happened and its consequences, the motivations and
feelings of characters, etc.
#3 Relate the story to the child's own life/experiences
This is KEY - by doing so the child will assimilate the
lesson(s) of the story. It becomes more real and personal for
the child. Ask questions like "how would you feel if..." or "do
you ever feel like [character]?"
#4 Use props and visual aids
This is particularly useful for teaching factual information
(e.g. anatomy), but you can also use it to provide visual cues
that help children get into the story (imagine it more easily)
and remember it better.
#5 Have them get physical
Besides getting them to think, you can get them to act out the
story, perhaps even creating their own version of it. They'll
really feel like the story and its lessons are a part of them.
Moreover, when children move their own bodies, the story becomes
more real and personal for them. This also helps kinesthetic
learners.
#6 Have them relate the story to the larger world
After you get them to relate the story to their own experience,
you can really expand a child's mind by having him or her relate
the story to the larger world.
#7 Create a lesson plan
It's obviously good to prepare, but you don't need to spend a
great deal of time on it, and even parents can create a simple
lesson plan. You can also find ready to use lesson plans and
children's stories at:
http://www.child-stories-bank.com/teaching-material.html.
Conclusion
In my experience, "success" and "happiness" are not determined
so much by talent and (technical) knowledge (although they are
important, too) as they are by character and emotional
intelligence. By using child stories to help build character and
emotional intelligence, you can put your children or students on
the path to lifelong success and happiness.
About the author:
Paul Arinaga is founder of the Child Stories Bank.
http://www.child-stories-bank.com The Child Stories Bank
provides FREE original children's stories as well as resources
to help writers create and get their stories published, and a
directory of child storybook illustrators.
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