Parenting Tip: The 7 Step Guide to Child Development Using Teaching Material with
Child Stories
by 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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