nap quilt, and begin to spin your yarn. It can be long or brief. It doesn't have to be Newbery-prizeworthy material. It just has to “star” the character he dreamed up.
And from now on, whenever you want to give him a little extra reward or bribe him into napping more willingly, you can tell him a story about his favorite character.
This is a serial story, not a cereal story, so you won't be bringing milk and sugar to bed with your child at naptime—but you will be bringing your imagination. You'll probably also want to do some advance planning though it is possible to “wing it.”
For this activity, you want to write a story in advance. Not word for word, written down, but at least general thoughts of who the characters are and what's going to happen to them. You want the story to have at least four “cliffhangers.”
On Day One of the story—let's say Monday—you put your child in for her nap and tell her the story. Stop the story in the middle, at a cliffhanger point. It doesn't have to be a throat-gripping, heart-stopping cliffhanger; in fact, it's better if it isn't. It can be as mild a cliffhanger as, “When Jeffrey got up onto the carousel, he could hardly believe who he saw sitting on the big, gold horse!”
Who did Jeffrey see? Your child won't find out till tomorrow, though you can remind her a couple of times on Tuesday morning that you're going to continue the story when she goes in for her nap. And true to your word, you will. Although she'll find out on Tuesday who Jeffrey saw when he got onto the carousel, you're going to end Tuesday's story at another cliffhanger point. Perhaps it will be when Jeffrey, having discovered his grandma from Maine on the carousel, suddenly sees one of the horses wink at him. He asks his grandma if she saw it too, but she hadn't seen it. Just then, the horse's tail twitches. Is the carousel magical? Or is there some other explanation?
Your child will have to wait till naptime tomorrow to learn what happened next and why the horse on the carousel seems to be alive. And of course, even though you reveal that mystery then, you're going to end the day's installment with another cliffhanger. So if she wants to find out the answer to what happened then, she'd better hurry up and get ready when you announce the next day that it's naptime!
You don't want to drag these stories out indefinitely. After four or five days or a whole week at most, tell your child, “I'm going to finish the story today. Hurry up and get ready for your nap!” You might want to start another story soon after you end the first one.
Tell your child that you are going to tell him a story about himself and he is going to help you by filling in the blanks. The first time or two you'll have to prompt him quite a bit. But after that, he'll get the hang of it and fill in the blanks as soon as your voice “hangs” and you pause and look at him expectantly.
You might start with, “Once upon a time there was a boy named____.” Look at your child expectantly with one eyebrow raised, and if he doesn't get what's expected, coach him, “It's your turn. It's a story about you. Fill in what's missing: What's your name?”
Then you can go on, perhaps saying, “He had two older brothers. Their names were____.” And again, if he doesn't pick up on what he's supposed to do, prompt him: “What are your brothers' names?”
The story might continue, “His favorite toys were____. His favorite food was____. His favorite stuffed animal was named____. The thing he most loved to do was____.” And continue on like that.
This “story” doesn't have to have a plot, adventure, conflict, and resolution, or any of the things that make for a good yarn in published fiction. It's enough that you're telling a story about him and that you're giving him a chance to chime in with the “right answers.” He'll love it!
Though not every parent has enough fiction-writing ability to make up stories that are totally original, there are plenty of parents who do just that. Instead of making up stories about elephants or puppies or firefighters or just any old kid, however, why not make up a story about your child? He'd love to “star” in a story!
The more conventional way to do this is: If your child's name is Bryan tell him a story about a boy named Bryan and describe your story's Bryan in such a way that it's obvious you're talking about your child. This is a fine way but I have a different approach.
Start your story this way: “One day you were walking down the street when suddenly you saw a box….”
If you remember your grammar lessons, the conventional way of doing it is “third person”—“he,” “she,” or “they;” The way I'm suggesting is “second person”—“you.” Tell your story in the second person and draw your child right into it.
This isn't recommended for the youngest of nappers who might be confused by the second-person format and think the stories are actual events they just don't remember. But try it on your older nappers.
In most storytelling, the words precede the pictures, but in this activity, the pictures come first. Cut a picture out of a magazine. The picture should show either a person or an animal as well as something more. Either the person or animal should be doing something (even something as simple as a person looking at his watch would be all right) or should be shown in some surroundings, preferably something more than just a typical living room.
Now show the picture to your child and ask her to make up a story about the picture. You can prompt her: What is the person's name? Or, if the animal is a domestic animal or horse, what is the animal's name? What is the person or animal doing? What does your child suppose the person might be about to do? What does she suppose the person might have just done? If the person is outdoors or in a car or on a bike (or any other form of transportation), where might she be going?
When she answers, you can then ask follow-up questions, prompting her to supply further details.
(When she gets up from his nap, you can suggest she draw more pictures of the people in the story, if she wants.)
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