storytelling

The art of storytelling is lost in so many families these days. I think of Pa telling Laura and Mary stories from his childhood or my grandmother telling us stories from hers. How many families these days just sit around telling stories, both real and imagined, as a form of bonding and enjoying each others company?

A few months ago, I decided to invest in a set of storytelling cubes that I found on etsy. They turned out to be a huge creative investment for the small price. Each cube is hand-drawn with 6 different items/people/places of a magical or fairytale quality. The kids have played with these cubes, alone, with each other and together as a family for hours on end in the few short months we've had these cubes. One of my favorite activities around 3rd-4th grade was for my teacher to give us a list of words (usually holiday related) and have us write a story including all of the words from the list. This is my version. (And it's infinitely more fun to do as a family.)

(The story that Elizabeth and I made up from the cubes above.)

Once upon a time there was an eagle of the west magical land. The eagle soared over the kingdom every day to hear the lovely harp music that wafted up through the trees every afternoon. Every day when he heard the harp music, he came down to visit his friend, Julian, to hear about the stories and wonders down on earth. The eagle's favorite story to listen to was the story of the magic carpet that Julian used to own that had been missing for over 20 years now. One day the eagle of the west magical land saw a 3-headed giant on the magical carpet that said "Julian" on the bottom. The eagle snatched up one of Julian's arrows and dropped it in the direction of the 3-headed giant. The giant held up a shield and blocked the arrow. The eagle flew down to the Enchanted Garden to eat a carrot which turned him into a warrior. He was strong and he knew it so he grabbed a nearby house and flung it at the 3-headed giant. All that was left at the end was a giant helmet and the magic carpet that he could return to Julian.