Parenting/Family Telling

Here are some posts about storytelling and families.  Enjoy!


Play is the Best Way: Using Language Games At Home and In The Classroom

Language based games are any game you play that focuses on using language creatively, listening intently to another person, stretching your vocabulary, and solving problems.


Words, Words, and More Words: Our Kids Need Them

They can't learn language if they don't hear us speaking. They can't develop deep vocabularies if they don't hear us speaking. They won't develop conversation skills if they don't hear them modeled. They won't develop visualization skills if they only interface with screens that give them all of the images. The basis of all things literate start with speaking.


You Have To Be Carefully Taught: Reflections on MLK Day.

I was almost seven months old the day Martin Luther King Jr. was killed.  My mother was living in Beaumont, TX with my elder brother and me.  As a young army wife, she was undoubtedly getting ready for her next move to Fort Benning, Ga.



Currituck County: Traveling, Parenting, Performing, Oh My!


First night I was here, Mel and Andy had a cocktail party with 'light' refreshments that were a whole dinner.  I normally have one glass of wine every few months, I had four in the last two days.

My daughter was in the Diary of Anne Frank last weekend as Anne Frank.  I missed the last show since I had to drive out here.

My son was in the Diary of Anne Frank last weekend as Mr. Kraler.  Did I mention I missed the last show?



Story Parenting Teenagers: A Run Of The Mill Conversation.


Last night at dinner, my husband asked a simple question.  “Honey,” he said to me, “What would you like to do for your birthday?”

“I don’t know.”  I told him, “I haven’t really thought about it.”

“Well, we are going to be celebrating it on the fourth since you’ll be out of town on the sixth.”

My fourteen-year-old daughter looked up.  “What do you mean?  She’ll be home most of the week of her birthday.  Why are we celebrating on the fourth?”

My husband gave her a look.  “What’s the problem?  Have you got something going on the fourth?”

“Yes.”  She replied.  “I’m planning to overthrow a small republic that day.”


Antonio Sacre - Can I hit my child with a Chancla to get him off the playground? How parents can use stories to make difficult transitions slightly better.


How did my Cuban grandmother do it? She should throw her chancla, her slipper, out of the window, and like some magic boomerang, it would travel through little Havana in Miami to the playground, hit me and my two brothers on the head, and return to her hand in one second flat. She’d put it back on her foot and continue cooking, and we would sulk home through the Miami humidity.


Reader's Bill of Rights


I can never be reminded of this enough.  We have these posted all over our house.  It helps to remind the parents that it is okay if the kid is reading the same book for the fiftieth time.  It's not like the grown ups aren't guilty of this.  I reread the books I love all the time. It is like spending time with an old friend.



What is school for anyway?

I am always astonished by the lack of funding for education.  I am always frustrated by the lack of funding for arts positions in the schools.  I am always flabbergasted by the extreme ignorance our politicians seem to display when cutting willy nilly at our children's and therefore our nation's future.  I grow despondent about the whole thing.  I don't understand this lack of willingness to educate children, of course, those cutting services do not think they are unwilling to educate our children.  They claim to be making education better.  


Family Time….Build Your Relationships On Stories


I don't plan to do a great deal of posting links to other blogs on my blog, but I just read a piece that speaks to storytelling in families.  This piece is about something called 'deep listening', a process where you just sit with what the other person is saying to you, hold onto it and let it sink in to your thoughts before you talk about yourself. 

Literate Household - Boosting Literacy in the home

     I came across the concept of Literate Classroom almost fifteen years ago.  it is a simple idea.  The classroom should have a variety of books.  They should touch a wide variety of subjects and they should range from simple books all the way up to books that are outside the age range of the kids in the classroom.  The books should be in all parts of the classroom and children should have time over the week to read in class.  They can either select a book from the bookcase or they can bring one from home.  it is a simple idea, and it promotes literacy. 

No comments:

Post a Comment