A Story Ritual That You Can Introduce To Your Family
First things first, have you sent your submission to our story competition? If not, hurry, you have a few days left. Please share with your friends too!
On to more fun now… this week we are going to talk about story content and story rituals.
Parents often ask which stories are best suited to their children and how they can find them. Content is, of course, important but how we share that content will have a much bigger effect on our children.
As teenagers, even adults, we rarely remember the words and phrases of the stories we read many times over as children but we will definitely remember the connection that stories fostered in our families.
We remember feeling safe as our parents read us bedtime stories, we remember lying in bed imagining what it would feel like if Peter Pan swept in from the dark and we also remember the comfort stories brought us when we were going through a difficult experience.
Often these memories are linked to rituals – patterns of behaviour that we repeat in our families so that they sink into our understanding of who we are.
You may already engage in family rituals without realising that you are doing so but if you feel called to introduce a few more, to strengthen your relationship with your children by giving them a space through which to express themselves openly, then read on to see how setting up a story jar can work for you.
The Story Jar Is An Easy Ritual That You Can Introduce To Your Family.
The Story Jar
All you need for The Story Jar ritual is a see-through jar and small squares of coloured paper on which children can write their feelings or thoughts during the day. If children are too young to write you can use colour coded papers (tell the children that red is anger, blue is calm, yellow is excited, etc.) or images printed in advance.
Encourage the children to place a message in the jar whenever their mind is heavy with thoughts and their heart heavy with feelings. This allows children to have an outlet for their thoughts and feelings even when you are busy.
Looking through the jar gives you insight into the energy in your house each day or each week. The children receive the message that their feelings are valid and recognised, whilst you get time to process the information that they are giving you before deciding on the best way of approaching it.
Choose a time to pick a few messages out of the jar together and tell each other what each message means through a story. Helping children project their feelings onto imaginary characters allows them to be more open, more courageous.
You can start by saying, ‘Once there was a boy/girl who [insert feeling] because when [insert what happened] they were [insert consequence of what happened].
Encourage the child to continue the story and take the role of listener.
Free Resources from some Wonderful Children’s Authors:
A number of children’s authors are supporting us by offering free access to their work or reading their work online. Here are some that you can follow and share:
Oliver Jeffers: https://www.facebook.com/oliverjeffersart
David Walliams: https://www.facebook.com/WorldOfDavidWalliams
A whole library of digital children’s books: http://www.openculture.com/2016/08/enter-an-archive-of-6000-historical-childrens-books-all-digitized-and-free-to-read-online.html
A Note for Maltese Families:
Merlin Publishers has waived copyright over the following audio books. You are invited to download them for free and to share
Jake Cassar isalva r-renju tar-Re Pankrazju IV (Book 1) (Clare Azzopardi) – https://app.box.com/s/hkycaaak8khrfddsb5s4ah2n6drkr4dh
This is the first book in Clare Azzopardi’s
Jake Cassar
series. There are 9 others as print books, so if you like this audiobook there’s plenty more that you can order online and read
Imeldina (Sandra Hili Vassallo) – https://app.box.com/s/79yxqofkfyz7i4nvqb6iaykd8ecss8gd
For a younger age group, Imeldina is this sweet girl always getting into trouble. More basic text for children starting to acquire confidence to read on their own. Again, for anyone interested in more there’s two sequels (in print, not audio) and a spin-off about Imeldina’s cousin, Mikelin.
Arloġġ u Tila (Roberta Bajada) – https://app.box.com/s/c9l8rd1wqf79o56wgfgkg3yrm41bls27
This is a full-fledged novel for ages 9+. Combines adventure, magic and appreciation of art as the plot revolves around (real-life) famous paintings and one of Salvador Dalí’s bent clocks that, here, has magical dark powers! There’s a sequel – in print – to it, called Arlekkin Isfar.
