“Storytelling? I’m already reading books to my child – isn’t that enough?”

Your child DOES get a lot out of reading books (which is why we’ve done a several episodes on that already, including https://yourparentingmojo.com/readingbooks/ (What children learn from reading books), https://yourparentingmojo.com/reading/ (How to read with your child), and https://yourparentingmojo.com/003-your-toddler-isnt-reading-yet-neither-is-mine/ (Did you already miss the boat on teaching your toddler how to read?).

But it turns out that storytelling benefits our relationship with our child in ways that reading books really can’t, because you’re looking at the book rather than at your child. If you ask your child what kind of story they’d like you to tell, you also get incredible insight into both their interests and concerns – I can attest to this, as I’ve been singing story-songs about poop and various kinds of baby animals who can’t find their mamas on and off for several weeks now (we had an incident a few months back where she couldn’t find me in a store).

In this episode we also discuss the ways that people from different cultures tell stories, and what implications this has for them as they interact with our education system.