Developing Real-Life Experiences Into Stories
Young kids are eager to hear real-life tales from their elders.
Articles within this series
- Overview
- Developing Real-Life Experiences Into Stories
- Ideas for Making Up Stories
- Next Steps / Related Information
Share Your Own Stories
You’ve got television beat hands down. A study done in the '80s showed that storytelling had a much greater impact on the minds of children than television did. They remembered much more from the stories.
David Sidwell at the Utah State University Oral History Program explains, “Storytelling demands that the audience share with the teller in creating the pictures, actions and emotions of the story.”
Young kids are eager to hear real-life tales from their elders. Writer Eudora Welty remembers this from her own childhood. She writes in her autobiography:
Long before I wrote stories, I listened for stories. Listening for them is something more acute than listening to them. I suppose it’s an early form of participation in what goes on. Listening children know stories are there. When their elders sit and begin, children are just waiting and hoping for one to come out, like a mouse from its hole.
Here’s how to develop your experiences into stories to tell your kids:
Keep a story journal. Put down little summaries of stories from when you were a kid. As funny or interesting things happen to you now, take a few minutes to jot them down or enter them into a digital file. They’ll be fresh in your memory when the opportunity to tell a story comes up.
Add in stories from other generations. Most people love to tell their stories; they just need a little prompting. Stumped for questions? Start with old photos. Want a story from all angles? Get relatives together and kick around memories of the same event. For those who are serious about gathering family stories, the Center for Life Stories Preservation* has many helpful tips.
Don’t always connect stories to a moral. We all know how useful it is to underline a point we’re making to our kids with a similar story from our own life: “When I was your age.…” But don’t miss the sheer pleasure of cuddling up close to a child and just sharing an interesting memory.
Make your own picture book of a family story. Buy a small photo album and put pictures in from a recent family trip, or use photos to illustrate a story you’ve told your young child. Preschool kids love stories to be told and retold. While you retell the story, they can follow along with the pictures.
Basic Plots You Can Use
When my boys were little, they loved to play with action figures. They often asked me to join in. I tried. But it seemed like most of their interaction went like this.
Action Hero #1: “I am getting you with my super power ray.” Action Hero #2: “Uh uhhh, ’cause I just got you with my mind melt!”
Then followed lots of plastic clacking on plastic. I lasted, on average, about 10 minutes before my mind melted.
Then one day, I decided to send the boys’ little men on a quest. I set up different pieces of furniture as islands, put some toys on each one to cause the travelers some kind of problem, and put their heroes on a boat. Off they went, and I made up the situation at each stop.
One of those boys is now almost 16. The other day, as we were driving and I was telling him about this article, he recalled that story. Island by island. Event by event. “That was so cool!” he said.
Basic plots can transform your children’s playtime. They can also guide you as you make up a story, or as you create one along with your children.
(Some of these story ideas are linked to stories I’ve started on my website. Try reading one aloud to your school-age kids and ask how they would continue the story!)
Quest. The main character goes on a journey. She can be out to find something or someone, to get back home, to right a wrong. Along the way, problems crop up.
Examples: Little Red Riding Hood, The Wizard of Oz, The Incredible Journey
Story Ideas:
- A puppy is lost and has to find its way home
- A boy tries to return buried treasure to a spooky house (Story-starter*)
Rescue. Someone’s in trouble, and your hero has to save them. There can be one villain, or a number of obstacles. (Try it from another point of view and make it an Escape.)
Examples: Rapunzel, Charlotte’s Web, Finding Nemo,
Story Ideas:
- Your son has to climb a mountain and defeat a dragon to save the princess
- A mouse has to rescue his uncle from the mean house cat (Story-starter*)
Contest. Two characters go head to head to win a prize, or to out-trick one another.
Examples: The Tortoise & the Hair, Brer Rabbit Tales, sports stories
Story Ideas:
- Your son has to climb a mountain and defeat the evil wizard to save the princess
- A super-hero has to stop invading aliens (Story-starter*)
Mystery. I find with kids, it’s best to keep mysteries fairly gentle — along the lines of something having been stolen, or something mildly spooky.
Examples: Encyclopedia Brown Books, Magic Tree House Series
Story Ideas:
- What is the mysterious monster in the lake?
- A monster wants to find who has been stealing sheep (Story-starter*)
Change. The main character overcomes a weakness or a challenge. He grows.
Examples: The Ugly Duckling, The Little Engine That Could, Scrooge
Story Ideas:
- The dog who learned to like cats
- The bully who becomes nice
Lists of Good Read-Aloud Books
The landmark book in the area of reading aloud i The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease. He has a recommended list online*; the full list is available in his book.
Family Literacy Foundation* recommended books, organized by kind
100 Picture Books Everyone Should Know*, a list by the New York Public Library.
The Read-Aloud Registry*. Anne Letain, a teacher and librarian in Alberta, lists good read-aloud books by grade level.
A children’s literature expert* shares her picks.
Keep in mind, the books in these lists were chosen for their ability to keep a child’s attention, not for their content or appropriateness.
*(Note: Referrals to Web sites not produced by Focus on the Family are for informational purposes only and do not necessarily constitute an endorsement of the sites' content.)