Turning Straw into Gold
Storytelling for Children and Adolescents
When we speak heart to heart to children through stories, hidden treasures awaken between us. Folk tales, wonder tales, myths, and legends from all cultures speak to the child's inner core: instructing, guiding, inspiring and transforming. Once the door to the soul is opened through the storytelling experience, the child can be guided to deepen his or her experience of the story through drama, art and creative writing.
In the young person, an inner conversation that is longing for expression arises out of the archetypal wisdom of a shared story. Mythology, teaching tales, wisdom tales, initiation stories, and biographical stories offer the maturing adolescent a mirror from which to explore the developing world within his or herself. Adolescents can be guided to understand, deepen and express their inner thoughts and feelings through conversations with others, drama exercises and through their own inner conversations with art and creative writing. These methods for working with students will be demonstrated, discussed and practiced.
This is a practically based five-week course for teachers, parents, therapists, and experienced or beginning storytellers who want to gain an understanding of what stories are best told at what stages of a child's / adolescent's development and why, and how to tell stories in a way that is suitable for different age groups. We will explore and practice how to use stories to expand and develop the child's and the adolescent's cognitive, emotional and imaginative capacities. We will also create our own stories that address the challenges of today's culture such as social inclusion, self-image and the journey through childhood and adolescence. The course covers basic storytelling skills and will include presenting a weekly storytelling session for children.