5 Ideas to make storytime fun for your kids
Do you remember when you were about 5-years-old and your private tutor was teaching you mathematics? Remember how boring you thought it was because you struggled to focus?
Fast forward to present day...and it's you trying to get your 5-year-old's attention, what a struggle.
According to under5s.co.nz children, especially preschoolers, have short attention span of about 12 minutes. Once you fail to get their attention within 10 to 12 minutes of engaging them, it will be pretty difficult getting them to stay focused on whatever it is you're trying to get their minds on.
Now, Let's say you want to start a culture of telling your kids, nephews or nieces, interesting bedtime stories, just before they fall asleep, how do you go about it so that they're enthusiastic to listen? Here are some tips we think will help you do the trick.
- Choose the right story - whatever story it is that you choose to tell your kids, should be interesting enough to grab their attention. Yes! Most importantly it should be age-appropriate. That's the first step to captivating their minds.
- Establish a connection with the story - Just like any good orator will do, you have to create a strong connection to the story it is that you're telling these little ones, so that they can feel and imagine your words as you speak.
- Put on a show - You have to be fully prepared to put on a show to get your kids interested in your storytelling. Some times you'll jump, scream, dance, and express yourself as though you're acting out a script. Sometimes you may be required to use objects to illustrate characters in your story as you tell it to your kids.
- Sing along - There's no better feeling to storytelling like when there are different episodes of sing along's. Just like Maria's singing in The Sound of Music (the movie) the kids will get hooked on your stories and will look forward to storytime every night.
- Summarize your story and ask for learnings - It's good to associate moral values to any story you tell your kids, to help them build their moral compass and learn about life. So, after each story, summarize key learnings and ask them what they learned. It'll help you know how engaged they were and it gives room for questions as well.
Hopefully, you get better at telling bedtime stories to your kids and the little ones around you. If for anything, it helps you develop a special relationship with them.
Hope this was an interesting read. Don't forget to like and share with your friends.
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