This blog is dedicated to kids who have shown me many ways of reading story books – here is compilation of few of the ideas I stole from them.
- Open a story book and start from any page.
- After reading the text in the story – read the pictures aloud or with silence. How the lines are made, what all pictures, color, what else the characters are thinking,
- Read one part of the story and ask the child to read another one.
- As you read add your imagination – “If I was in this place………..”
- Add irrelevant details – not written in the text, not in the pictures also. “So when she was going to fetch the water, she was wearing red saree and had one flower in her head”. This is granny;s favourite – when they used to tell stories, they would add lot of masala “this used to happen in our time and your father used to do that”.
- This is my favourite, my son used to love it – make funny stories together.
- Add emotion in your story – do not stay at good and bad, nice and sad. Talk in detail “so he was feeling overwhelmed with the work he had to do, his face became small like a papaya, and he will not even get time to breathe, sometimes he would stay breathless for some seconds, so he could finish his work”.
- Make it real, add your experience – so he went for hunting. I also for hunting once when I was 12 yrs old. I went with my uncle who stayed in Bandipur, His house was near the jungle and he was very comfortable with lions.
- Connect before you convince – he became greedy and then he decide to steal more money. Does this happens with you? I have never been to stealing any jewel, it happened with me when I went to a sweet shop.
And after reading this you think the story reading is only for small kids, think again. I like story telling with biiiiiiiiiiiiig kids too :).