STORY TIME

Story time begins in ritual…we come in from outside, have a nice drink of water and light the story candle. "May the story take us by the hand…may it lead us to a special land, may we hear the story as our own, may it guide us on our journey home…"

A woman asked Einstein how best to prepare her son to be a scientist.

Einstein: "Tell him fairy tales."

Woman: "What else?"

Einstein: "Tell him more fairy tales. Creative imagination is the essential element in the intellectual equipment of the true scientist."

We have a story every day. Stories told by heart exercise the children's ability to create their own internal imagery--a capacity at risk today when children are bombarded by so many external images.

Our stories are seasonal and often relate to our themes. We tell a great variety of multicultural fairy tales and folk tales. Many are teaching stories, with rich vocabulary, cloaked in the archetypal language that speaks directly to a young child's state of consciousness. These stories elucidate the hero's journey where humility, curiosity, generosity, patience, and tenacity are rewarded and a stagnant world beset with evil is transformed and renewed. 

We usually tell the same story all week. Each story is told Monday and Tuesday. The children often help with the telling on Wednesdays. On Thursdays we may act out the story in a simple active way. Jane Healy in Your Child's Growing Mind says that theatrics allow all parts of the child's brain to talk to one another. Not all stories lend themselves to multiple tellings, every now and then we may tell several stories instead of just the one over the week.