Storytelling is an ancient art that is valued around the world. It is an important part of a child’s education during his or her growing up years where parents make use of stories to teach a child essential skills and knowledge to help the child make sense of his or her surroundings. Storytelling can happened in various ways, with the most common being the parents reading to the child before bedtime. This activity has been coined bedtime stories, and it is popular among both Asian and Caucasian families.
In a single parent family, it is more important to find time to build your children’s characters when they are young. Children from single parent family usually have it harder when they enter formal schools; therefore, it is always a good idea to start building their characters when they are still young. How can you build your children’s character through storytelling and what can you teach them? Let us explore the different ideas.
1) Morals
Your parents might have taught you morals through myths and parables when you were young. These same stories have been passed down for generations and it is also your responsibilities now to share these myths and parables to your children. Parables are especially important because they hold so much meaning. They are in fact meant to teach children moral ethics and the meaning or purpose of life. Using stories to teach your children morals is also a perfect way of showing them the cause and effects of doing something that is immoral. When you repeat these stories over time, children will remember the moral ethics and the way to behave much better than if you would just tell them what to do.
2) Manners
Another prominent character-building benefit from storyteller is using stories to teach your children manners. In today’s interconnected world, manners are social skills that one cannot live without. As an old saying goes, “manners maketh man” and you will be doing your children a favour by teaching them manners like how we were taught by our parents. Your children will go a long way in life just by having good manners.
3) Strength and Perseverance
In many children stories, the protagonist would usually go through certain trials before reaching a “happily ever after”. In stories such as these, children learn about strength and perseverance. They would grasp the concept of working hard towards their goals, shouldering the trials and making it through with inner strength and perseverance. Such qualities are essential for children to learn so that they will be able to go through life’s challenges in their adult years.
4) Logic
Logic may not be always present in children’s stories, especially those with certain fantasy elements in them. However, for older children, you can teach them logic by asking them if they think that the stories are a reflection of reality. By teaching them to differentiate between stories and real life, you also train your children to understand the reality of life and how they should bring logic into everything that they encounter in their lives.
5) Imagination
Besides all the above qualities, storytelling also helps to build your children’s imagination. They would begin to remember the story’s plot, its characters and then use their imagination to picture how everything looks. With this training, your children will hone their creative skills that will help them to get out of unpredicted situations in their later lives.
All the above can build your children’s character and help them to grow up into logical individuals who can differentiate between right and wrong. Your children will also be individuals who would stand by their own principles, set their goals and pursue them in the right manners and attitudes. They would become valued individuals in the society and can be independent in all that they do. All it takes for you as a parent is to help them by using storytelling as part of their education through their growing up years.
