| SLEEPTIME STORIES - Murray the Shark Series |
| We hear a lot about the importance of reading books to children, but the importance of verbal storytelling is less emphasized in western culture. At Caramal, we believe children should have both, as both forms of learning stimulate different brain processes and areas of development. The benefits of audio (verbal) storytelling rather than picture books or videos are: |
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In verbal storytelling the words and sentiments are expressed with such animation that children become acquainted with the force and power of language. |
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Children also learn the art of concentration and visualization - important facets of brain development. |
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Their vocabulary is expanded as new words are introduced and then reinforced by repetition and re-phrasing throughout the story. |
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As children are drawn into the story, they are unconsciously, but effectively, familiarized with complex sentence structure and sequencing of events. |
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Through the dialogue between characters, children learn socialization skills, manners, and the art of conversation. |
| The characters in Sleeptime Stories are sensible, caring, responsible, with a high level of cooperation. Everyone is appreciated and included. The characters and unique settings are developed and expanded further in each subsequent story within each set, so kids have a sense of growing and developing with their storytime friends. |
| Caramal does not use violent or 'evil' characters or plots, as many children's stories and videos do. We do not believe it's necessary to include scary characters, or to have bad things happen in order to hold a child's attention. Our stories involve exciting plots, or a puzzle to figure out, and hold children's attention rapt. Also, because our stories are designed as bedtime (or naptime) stories, we want to send children off to sleep with good feelings, thoughts and dreams. |
| Sleeptime Stories are great for tired mums and dads too! Simply pop a CD into the player and cuddle up with your child for an interesting, educational story that also puts them to sleep by the end (hopefully!). Or, you can use the Sleeptime Stories as a tool to help teach your child how to go to sleep on their own. |
| Jini Patel Thompson (the author and storyteller) has recorded the bedtime stories she uses to put her children to sleep. She discovered that by keeping the endings consistent - with the characters tired after their adventure and all saying 'night night' to one another - that her kids quickly picked up the cues and automatically went off to sleep at the end of the story. There is also a stage in most of the stories where the characters are confronted with a problem or puzzle and they use deep breathing to still their bodies and allow the 'answer' to come to them. This results in the listening child deepening their own breath along with the characters, which also helps calm their body down and prepare them for sleep. Hopefully, after one or two nights with Sleeptime Stories, your kids too will automatically drift off to sleep. But just in case they need more time, we've included half an hour of soothing, nature music at the end of each story. |
| Sleeptime Stories have been tested with real live kids and they are appropriate for children aged 2 - 6. |
What can storytelling offer?
Children have an innate love of stories. Stories create magic and a sense of wonder at the world. Stories teach us about life, about ourselves and about others. Storytelling is a unique way for students to develop an understanding, respect and appreciation for other cultures, and can promote a positive attitude to people from different lands, races and religions.
- Paula Stoyle, British Council, Jordan |
| How children benefit from hearing stories: |
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Hearing stories stimulates the imagination. |
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Hearing stories instills love of language in children and motivates them to read. |
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Hearing stories improves listening skills. |
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Hearing stories improves many language skills, such as vocabulary, comprehension, sequencing and story recall. |
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Folk and fairy tales teach lessons without didacticism and stimulate emotional development. |
| - from Children Tell Stories, by Martha Hamilton and Mitch Weiss |
| Storytelling communicates ideas holistically. As a result, listeners can get complicated ideas not laboriously, dimension by dimension, but all at once with a new gestalt, which is transferred with a snap. |
| Storytelling is our native language which we know how to do at the age of two. Abstract language by contrast is something that we learn at the age of eight or later and becomes a kind of foreign language that we rarely feel as comfortable in as our native language, storytelling. |
| By drawing on this natural age-old method of communication, storytelling helps us make sense of a chaotic world by connecting us with time and space and human purpose of a sequence of events so as to make sense. |
Stories can communicate deep holistic truths, while abstract language tends to slice off fragments.
- John Seely Brown, Steve Denning, Katalina Groh, Larry Prusak |
Benefits of storytelling in education:
Storytelling is the oldest form of education. Cultures around the world have always told tales as a way of passing down their beliefs, traditions, and history to future generations. Stories capture the imagination, engaging the emotions and opening the minds of listeners. Consequently, any point that is made in a story or any teaching that is done afterward is likely to be much more effective.
- from Children Tell Stories, by Martha Hamilton and Mitch Weiss |
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