About Storytelling

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Stories are everywhere and we thrive on them, especially the good ones. We appreciate skillful storytelling in books, magazines, newspapers, movies, plays, television programs, advertisements and commercials, audio recordings, jokes, songs, poems and gossip. We learn from stories, we are often entertained by them, and they are essential developmental tools for children. Tippity Witchet's Beantime Stories on our site are great for young listeners and readers, but we don't stop there. The Young Writer's Workshop helps children learn to compose thoughts and create stories through the use of illustrations and unfinished sentences. Very young children can dictate words to parents and begin to understand the permanance of words when the stories are read back to them. Older children can use the same pages to write their own stories. Listening to a good storyteller can be a rich experience for your child, too. Check with libraries and schools to learn about local performances. A good friend of ours has a real gift for telling stories. Mary Jo Huff is constantly telling stories, leading workshops and speaking at early childhood conferences. The appearance schedule on her website (www.storytellin.com) will give you an idea of how popular she is. Audiences young and old love her because she jumps into her role and brings characters and their stories to life and because she has many years of practical early childhood experience. Cool Books. We've recently had the pleasure of collaborating with Mary Jo on a series of four activity books for home and classroom published by Monday Morning Books. Jerry contributed a story idea and scores of black and white illustrations to accompany Mary Jo's amazing collections of finger plays, chants, songs, stories, puppet patterns, and dramatic play ideas. These are for children Pre-K through 2nd Grade and can be ordered from Mary Jo at Storytellin.com. Read great insights on Storytelling at The Call of Story site. This site was created as a companion to a television special on storytelling produced by KBYU Television in Provo, Utah in association with Osric Productions. It includes a calendar of storytelling events around the country, guidelines for family storytelling, and, among its recommended links to other sites, a link to our own Beantime Stories. Copyright 2003 Jerry Jindrich. All rights reserved. Revised 10/1/2009.