Experiment 2: Sharing Stories
Or, how I became "Story Aunty"!
T'was the summer of 2023. My son's old daycare invited me to do a few story time sessions as part of their summer camp for kids aged 8 to 12. This time, my boy was not my audience, but my partner.
The children at the camp loved the experience we put together. They read aloud and discussed what they would have done if they were Venkat. Then we did magic tricks and experiments together. Everyone loved the activities in the book and many of them brought back their completed puzzles and art the next day.
Story camps are a great way to bring stories to older children who aren't fond of reading. Voracious readers in storytelling camps will read by themselves in a corner, while children who aren’t natural bookworms benefit from company and a little guidance. Respecting the child's preference makes the camp enjoyable for everyone.
After the summer, I held online story sessions on Sundays where children would read aloud and talk about my stories. We also played games like, "learn the word or change it?" We'd take a word that was a little difficult for their age and decide whether I should keep the word in the story or replace it. Spoiler alert - kids mostly wanted to keep the word once they learned its meaning.
My sessions took me one step further in engaging kids. But we made no progress in making things easier for parents. It was yet another thing for parents to coordinate. And so, I don't do Zoom story time anymore.
The seed of the story camp idea is sound. But the delivery needs reframing. And so, I've kept the format of the books, but I have tweaked the design a little to help parents with their goals. Some parents like to read to their child. Others read with their child. And still others choose these stories to support a child's independent reading habit.
I've seen children carry these little books around. One parent told me that her son keeps his book near the doorway and takes it on car rides. And one day, a child I did not know came and waved her friend's copy. She asked me, "Aunty, how come you never gave me one of these?" I smiled and replied that I'm working on making them available to all children, even those I don't know!