Thursday, March 20, 2008

Conversations and Stories



Today at MOPS, we made Conversation Starter Boxes. I had never heard of such a thing before. In essence, it's a box of suggestions for starting conversations with your kiddos. Basically, we started with a tin container, much like the old band-aid containers we used to use as kids. Then we used scrap booking papers and embellishments to decorate the outside of the tin. Then, we were given sheets of conversation starters to place in the tin to pull out to start a conversation. I like the conversation starters that we were given, but I may need to add to it as my kids get older. I found some lists here and here and one that I really liked is here. The last link has some storytelling starters which were particularly interesting to me.


I like the concept of this tin but I don't think we have much use for it now. The three year old does not need any prompting to start conversing. She handles that quite well on her own!


Another thing I learned today is that Spring Equinox is also World Storytelling Day. We celebrated by telling stories around the dinner table tonight. Our daughter loves stories and will ask for them non-stop. I love to hear, "Momma, tell me a story about..." She is getting quite good at storytelling as well. She loves to retell the stories that we tell her. Her favorites are stories from when we were children. She loves to hear about the funny and crazy things Mom and Dad did as kids. She is also getting quite good at telling her own stories. Some of them are stories of what has really happened to her but most of them are made-up. I love to listen to her tell a story using just her imagination as a guide. Her favorite audience member is her baby brother. Many times a day I will catch her telling him some sort of story while he quietly watches her enamored by her facial expressions and voice inflections.
This image is the World Storytelling Day logo, designed by Swedish storyteller Mats Rhenman. I love how it blends people together into a circle representing the stories that connect us around the globe.

3 comments:

  1. I think this is a cool idea. Actually, it is not a new idea to me but I really like your containers that you made. I think the containers add a nice touch to hold the "cards" for convo starters. Maybe, in my free time, I will make a container as well!

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  2. Free time?!?!? When do we ever have that? I'm glad you like these, I made the extra one for you. Just tell me which one you want.

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  3. You are too sweet! Thanks for thinking of me. You must have known this would be right my alley! Either one would be great, so, you choose.
    Thanks.

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