Storytelling Cards

In the middle of August while we were at the cabin, my mother-in-law, my sister-in-law Dot, and I were browsing through some shops on a rainy morning.  I happened to pass by these three boxes  of storytelling cards, and I knew immediately that I HAD to have them.  My mother-in-law saw the gleam in my eye and how incredibly excited I was about them, and decided that she'd just buy them for me for my birthday.  

Each one of the boxes is filled to the brim with pictures that have to do with the theme of the box.  One box is about an enchanted forest, one about robots, and one about fairy tale characters.  There are no words on the cards, simply a picture.  You use the cards to make up your own story.  

There are, of course countless ways you can do this. You can tell a long story with all the cards in the box.  You can take turns adding to the story each time you draw a card from the box.  You can go through the box and pick the cards you want to make a story (a favorite of Mr. Sneaky Pants).  You can choose a certain number of random cards from the box and make up a story that incorporates those cards.  

The kidlets and I have been having so much fun with these cards. We took them along on our camping trip and told storybox stories in our tent.  We took them with on our trip to North Dakota.  We take them to activities outside the house where people have to wait for other people.  The boxes are small, portable, and easy to incorporate for entertainment purposes pretty much anywhere.  

I've been amazed at the terrific stories Mr. Sneaky Pants and The Banana have been telling using these cards.  Of course, Ya Ya has always been an amazing, creative storyteller.  For some reason, Mr. SP had always balked at the idea, feigning ignorance, and The Banana was just too busy doing her own thing. These storytelling cards have given Mr. SP a place to start.  He's becoming a master of plot.  The Banana goes on and on and on and on, telling extremely dramatic and long winded tales that go in all kinds of directions.  To be honest, I can only understand about a fourth of what she says when she's in storytelling mode, but everything she says is stated with extreme passion and watching her is absolute entertainment.  

I'm also excited that all of this verbal storytelling has given my little people a lot of confidence when it comes to making up their own stories that don't have anything to do with the cards, and I'm even more thrilled about the fact that the storytelling is transferring into the writing and drawing they have been doing in their writing journals.  Mr. Sneaky Pants has a lot of ideas for short, concise stories with a definite plot that he wants to write down in his orange journal.  The Banana goes on FOREVER in her journal, just like how she tells stories with her voice.