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The Very Best Kids Activities Posts of 2013

I shared my most popular posts (per Google Analytics) a few days ago, but this guest post tutorial on how to tell bedtime stories by my fabulous husband Mike was an easy favorite pick as my favorite of the year! Mike tells our kids these stories every single night he is home, and they are one of my kids’ favorite family traditions! Mike’s stories pretty much always feature Yoda, at some point, and they often incorporate other Star Wars characters, but you could take his guidelines and adapt them for any kind of storytelling you like!

Our family is on a bit of a storytelling kick – as you probably know if you follow me on Instagram. So many of my fondest childhood memories involve storytelling! My dad would tell us silly, silly stories about how he met my mom (different every time), as well as how he “found” us kids. My grandma is an amazing storyteller, and I loved her stories growing up and have been working on this skill for a while. I have been (slowly) working my way through (affiliate link) Healing Stories for Challenging Behaviour – the Kindle version, actually, and I really like it! So if Mike’s notes leave you wanting to learn more, I recommend Susan Perrow’s book for a more structured approach – although, really, the most important ingredient is to have fun and not worry about perfection!

Do you tell stories? Did you grow up hearing stories? Family stories are as important – probably more important, even, than the made-up version – happy stories as well as sad ones.

If you’re looking for ways to get your kids involved with storytelling, pretend play is a great way to start (blocks, small figurines, and dress-up clothes). My kids have also enjoyed using pictures as story prompts, as well as making up fingerprint-based characters that tell stories.

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MaryAnne at Mama Smiles

MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.

12 thoughts on “The Very Best Kids Activities Posts of 2013”

  1. SO great! I’m teaching our discipleship school on storytelling today. So great that you have great storytellers in your life.

  2. I think in our stories Ben 10 and Super Samurai regularly need to save the day and do some “dishums” too :) I wish I could do story-telling… I am not at all good, I can read books, but inventing my own and telling on the spot, is not something I am good at!

  3. You chose a great post! I love your story telling traditions and I can see now how Mike can be a wonderful story teller :)

    1. I loved stories of my childhood and other people’s childhoods growing up – and so do my kids. Those are the stories I tell, most of the time, and Mike makes up most of the fanciful ones :)

  4. You have inspired me…I don’t know why it took me so long to catch on…but my kids always want to here stories …and I think they have to be real…and my memory is failing…now I can tell them all the stories they want! :)

  5. Elisa | blissfulE

    That storytelling book sounds amazing! I love that you’re developing this skill – one day you and Mike will be the beloved grandparents “who always tell the best stories.” :)

  6. My husband would probably drop some Star Wars reference to his storytelling too! We don’t do too much made up storytelling unfortunately, but my eldest son does great making up his own. Usually I’ll prompt him to write or make a storybook or, after we’ve read some of his books, ask him to make up his own stories.

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