Children are full of stories. They may not even always realize they are telling them. When they play with each other, or even alone with their own toys, they invent settings and characters and mold stories out of their inventions. Not to mention the stories they excitedly rattle off to anyone who will listen It almost seems a shame to simply let so much imaginative material flit away into the atmosphere.
So why not capture those stories? Listen in while your children are playing and write down their stories as they unfold. Naturally, they will need some adjustment and editing when you are finished writing them down but you never know until you try what will come from the exercise.
Why not recruit your other parent friends to do the same thing? You could collect all of the neighborhood children’s stories into a keepsake book for all of you to share. “As Told By the Children of Mockingbird Lane.”
Or use those flurries of imagination to teach your children how to write. As their language skills develop, their storytelling will evolve as well. Why not help them document that? Of course you won’t want to try this every time they dive headlong into an elaborate fable but once in a while, why not hand them a pencil and sheet of paper and ask them to write their story down for you rather than telling you aloud?
Stick with them while they are doing it so that they don’t feel like you are using the writing exercise as a way to quiet their motor mouth. Show them that you are truly interested in their story and want them to write it down so you can keep it forever. You might find that after a few attempts at this, they will start doing it on their own, unknowingly developing their writing skills, both grammatically and aesthetically (handwriting practice) while they are sharing the stories in their head.
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