6 tips to improve your storytelling and delight children

“My son asked me to stop telling him bedtime stories. He said that his father read better and that I should stay with him in the room, to learn how to do it. I thought it was funny and I’m trying to assimilate his style, but I already explained that I have a disadvantage because I’m an engineer and my husband is a publicist”, says Sabrina Mabel, mother of Heitor, 5 years old.

But it seems that having a background in humanities does not guarantee good performance in storytelling for children. Lawyer Juliana Cortez, for example, is confident when speaking in front of a judge and colleagues, but stops with a book in her hand when putting her twin daughters Rebeca and Renata, 3 years old, to bed. “I lose the timing to put excitement, even I find myself boring telling stories. They don’t complain, but I feel sorry for them,” she says.

Sabrina and Juliana made outbursts of this type in a group of mothers on Facebook and had the empathy of many participants, who identified with the difficulty. Is it your case too? So let’s try to solve it!

Beatriz Peres, an educator specializing in children’s education, and actress Priscila Amorim gave MdeMulher six tips to improve storytelling and delight children. “The main thing is not to feel ashamed and apply a few simple techniques. Everyone can tell stories in an exciting way”, guarantees Priscila.

Let’s go then!

Read the book alone before introducing it to the children.

It is necessary to be familiar with the story when telling it, to know all its unfolding. “The storyteller must be the ‘owner’ of the story, know it by heart and skit, from beginning to end and backwards, because children often want to remember something that has already happened and it is not possible to keep turning the pages in search of an answer. The answer must be on the tip of the tongue to be fluid, to be nice to everyone”, says Beatriz. “If there are breaks, the mother is nervous, the children are bored, everyone loses.”

This mastery you can only get by reading the book before using it as the pre-sleep lure. Read as many times as you deem necessary until you feel confident about the story.

Practice telling the story aloud

Once you’ve mastered the story, rehearse it out loud. Decorate, but in a pleasant way: think about the rhythm that fits in each section, in the continuity of the plot. Priscila shares a trick she uses when preparing to tell stories at parties (her side job): “Record your story and listen to it later to check where you can improve or if you’ve already reached perfection.”

Add personal touches to the story

You don’t have to tell the story exactly as it’s written – that would get boring, actually. Adapt phrases to your family’s reality, delete a passage or another that could scare or sadden your children, add something related that has already happened to the little ones. Remember: you own the story.

Create voices for the characters

Have you ever thought if everyone had the same voice and spoke the same way, in the same tone? It would be boring, wouldn’t it? The same goes for books: think of each character as a different person, with voices and ways of speaking that go with their personalities. Here it is also up to invent faces and mouths that fit in each line. “Do not be shy. The children love it and the storytelling is much more engaging”, says Priscila.

Use toys or puppets to support the storytelling

In addition to voices, characters can have faces – puppets or toys. “Up to the age of six, children join in the game, they ‘believe’ that voice comes from that accessory. You can use it without fear and knowing that it will please you”, suggests Beatriz.

Extra tip: some books already come with puppets and finger puppets for each character, which greatly facilitates the life of the mother who is always on the run and can’t or doesn’t even know how to go in search of spare toys.

Ask the children to participate and give their opinion during the story

Remember the personal touches given to the story? Use them to invite children to participate in this moment – ​​they don’t have to be passive listeners. It’s also nice to anticipate, with a little bit of suspense, what’s going to be on the next page, ask them what they think is going to happen. It’s everyone’s moment!