The cat is visiting a friend, the kids are in charge of the house and car, all conceivable devices are charged and we are just about ready to board for a 14 hour flight to Shanghai. How exciting!
More later on the other side of the world!
Happy Storytelling.
Cheryl
Storyvalues will begin a new journey in China next week. We head off to Beijing on Tuesday to participate in the CAMP (China Angels Mentorship Program).
For years now, I’ve witnessed the amazing way in which stories inspire stories. When I tell stories to children, they often respond by telling me stories in return, and in most cases they tell true stories from their lives.
This week after telling the story, Stone Soup, a 6 year old boy told me that he had gone to a steak house with his grandparents. After I told the Chinese version of Little Red Riding Hood, a 7 year old girl told me that her dad heard wolves howling outside their house in the middle of the night. Today, after telling the story of Hanukkah, a 5 year old boy told me that I had made a mistake and that he knew the right way to tell the story and began telling it to the whole school. Unfortunately, I had to ask him to wait to finish his story until I finished the assembly and then we would talk, which we did.
Tomorrow, I get to tell stories with a sign language interpreter and can’t wait to hear the stories the students share with me.
Happy Storytelling!
Cheryl Thornton
During a full day of storytelling yesterday, my second assembly was attended by 175 kindergarten students. After an hour of sitting in the gym listening to a variety of stories, the teachers lined up their students and began leading them back to their classrooms. As the lines of 4 and 5 year olds slowly snaked their way out of the gym, I overheard the most extraordinary sentence that could only be spoken in a nursery school or a kindergarten class, with the exception, my husband added, of a senior’s nursing home. A young student teacher noticed that the end of her line was not moving because two small boys were frozen in place in what could only be described as a stand up wrestling match. One boy had the neck of his classmate’s shirt in his mouth and his pants were half way down his backside. The 19 year old student teacher, seemingly experienced with such shenanigans, looked at the tableaux and said in a bored voice, “Pull up your pants and get back in line.”
I’m so grateful that I get to witness these moments and wonder what tomorrow will bring.
Happy Storytelling!
Cheryl Thornton
Yesterday was Halloween and I told ‘scary’ stories’ to my Thursday group of 5 and 6 year olds.
After telling the Chinese folktale, The Brave Girl and the Monster Snake, a little boy told me he had a video showing a capybara being eaten by a python and thought it was too bad the capybara hadn’t heard this story about how to survive a monster snake attack!
Happy Storytelling!
Cheryl Thornton
Last week, after telling the story of The Ghost Dog and the Milky Way to a group of grade 1 students, a six year old little boy raised his hand and said, “I know dinosaurs used to be real, but they are extinct now. I think ghost dogs were real too. Were they real before I was born?”
The spoken word is so powerful. Stories seem believable because listeners actively participate by creating mental images of the narrative. If you can imagine it, it becomes real, right?
Happy Storytelling!
Cheryl Thornton
Each Tuesday I tell stories to a class of 2 and 3 year olds. We had our first class this week and as always, I was amazed to see the powerful effect myths and stories have on young listeners.
When I stepped into the classroom on Tuesday morning, one little boy was crying for his mommy. Having seen this sort of thing many times before, I knew it was best to get started right away, before they all started crying. I began telling the fable of the Lion and the Mouse. After establishing the jungle scene, the weeper stopped crying and started listening.
When I finished the fable, a bright-eyed little 3-year-old girl said, “Do that again! Start from the beginning!” She wasn’t sure what is was that I had done, but she wanted more.
Next, I told the first labour of Hercules, and the little boy who’d been crying, shouted, “More,” with gusto!
By the end of the 30 minute period, they were all sitting silently, fully engaged in listening to stories from long ago and far away, like old hands.
Happy Storytelling!
Cheryl Thornton
Last week, school started in our part of the world and I was asked by a principal to help kick off the new school year with a storytelling assembly.
At the beginning of the presentation, I invited the gym full of students to join me on the Storyteller’s Journey, to discover their own voice and learn to tell their own story. Throughout the hour, many eager children helped me dramatize ancient world myths and even on the first day of school 200 children sat attentively engaged in the mysterious narratives of long ago and far away.
After the assembly, I suggested that they practice their new skills by re-telling one of the stories at home. I asked which story they might like to tell and several children raised their hands and answered my question.
Ten minutes or so later, as I walked from the gym to the exit passing various lines of students snaking their way down the hallway in search of their classrooms, a willowy 6 year old boy spotted me, stepped out of line and said, as if continuing an interrupted conversation, “It is hard for me to decide which story to tell because I liked them all! I might not actually get the chance to tell one because I’ve got to get the hay in before winter, but I’ll try.” The principal had mentioned that the school was located in a strong farming community. With that, the young farmer and newly christened storyteller, waved good-bye and set off in search of his long gone classmates.
Happy Storytelling!
Cheryl Thornton
“The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure.” – Joseph Campbell
Joseph Campbell identified the stages of ‘The Hero’s Journey’, as found in archetypal stories from around the world, to equate to those found in our own personal lives.
He stated that the transformations of childhood, adolescence, adulthood, middle age, old age and even death all hold the potential for us to awaken to our greatest, most ‘heroic’ selves.
We live next door to an eight year old boy named Kayden. Whenever we see him playing outside he is wearing either a cape or a sword. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Kayden just ‘be Kayden’. He’s a fireman, a train engineer, a police officer, Batman, Superman, Robin Hood, Harry Potter, King Arthur, a mail carrier, a ship’s captain, an airline pilot…
To Kayden, every day is a hero’s journey. He is busy internalizing the heroic storyline through his own creative interactions with life. With the support of his patient and insightful parents, he’s setting the tone for his own journey.
By all accounts, it will be heroic…
Like most kids, Kayden spends most of the day in school, acquiring the necessary information needed to matriculate through an educational system that is less about ‘heroism’ and more about facts, standardized testing and working within a shrinking budget.
Is this any place for a superhero?
– Matthew Giffin
Yesterday, my group of grade 6 and 7 Storyteller Apprentices were joined by the grade 8 classes to listen to Greek myths, stories from the Arabian Nights and First Nation tales.
11 to 14 year olds are such a baffling age group. They can swing wildly from being bored out of their gourds to electrifyingly engaged and enthusiastic.
During the first story I told, from the 1001 Arabian Nights, I asked a seemingly comatose group of grade 8 students for volunteers to portray the genii and the fisherman.
To my great surprise, most of their hands shot up in the air! I chose two amazing 14 year olds boys to help bring the story to life, both of whom had participated in the Storyvalues Storyteller Apprentice program the previous year.
When I first met these two guys 14 months ago, they were very sceptical of ‘the whole storytelling business’, shy and hesitant to perform in front of others.
Their transformation over the six months working together was truly spectacular. I was thrilled to see that it hadn’t been temporary; they performed with gusto and pride, helping to set the tone for the rest of the session.
Like in the 1001 Arabian Nights frame story of Shahrazad and the sultan, I honestly believe that stories have the power to transform and heal.
Once a storyteller apprentice, always a storyteller!
Happy Storytelling!
– Cheryl Thornton
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