The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1932-04-28
When To Begin Story Telling

"oh ~ AOS" SIuIy 4cluuS
The best, as well as the oldest
and simplest way of giving a child
his introduction to literature is
through the ancient art of story
telling. Long before the child can
read for himself even before he
can focus his eyes on pictures! he
will find joy and meaning in the
sound of his parents voice and
the expression of his face.
When the baby first begins to
show an interest in the voices of
his father and mother, he is
roadway for his first story. It is
time to start singing little songs
to him, such as "Rock-a-Bye Baby
and time to play the immotal pat
a-cake." Of course the baby will
not understand the words, but he
will enjoy the rhythm and the
cadence.
Finger plays of all sorts are a
delight to children of this age, and
the part their own hands or feet
play in the tiny story gives them
the joy of acting it out" This
Little Pig Went to Market is the
most familiar of the finger plays,
but there is abook by Mile
Poulsson which suggests many
more of the same type.
The child of two is thrilled at
seeing pictres of familiar objects,
things he sees about him every
day. AS soon as he begins to show
an interest in pictures. he should
be supplied with one or two stout
books which contain pictures of
familiar objects. The book should
be sturdy enough SO they will not
tear in small awkward fingers.
One Of the most successful books
Of this type Is Mrs. Steikert's
First Picture Book" Pictures of
shoes, beds, men, children, dogs,
cars, spoons, all are exciting be-
cause these are things which are
understood.
The two-year-old will listen en-
tranced while mother points to the
various parts Of the picture and
says somthing like this: "See here
are the wheels Of the car. Let's
count them, one, two, three, four.
And here is the door where the
people get in when they take a
ride. This is the top, painted
black. When the car goes it says
sBurrrrrd'. Perhaps you do not
feel that this is very good story
nor any story at all! and it isn't
when judged by adult standards,
but the two year old is completely
absorbed in it because he has the
whole way to go. That is, he
knows nothing whatever about
anything, and is eager to know all
about everything. He wants to
learn the names of things, what
they are good for, what color they
are and what they say.
mother thing we must remember
in telling stories to such young
children is that the attention span
that is the length of time they can
keep their minds on any one thing
at this age is very short. Most Of
them are not interested for more
than three or four minutes at a
time.
! Care must be taken that the pic
ture books we use for story telling
have good illustrations. Many OBJ
jects on one page are too confus-
ing to q very small child. Large,
single truthfully-colored pictures
are best. Children also like to have
a new picture for each incident of
the story being told. The book of
Little Black Sambo" has been a
favorite with children from three
to six for years. Much of its popu-
larity is due to the fact that there
is a single, bright, simple illustra-
tions on each page, with single
story incident to go with each
picture. Children cannot imagine,
or picture for themselves, enough
Of the story being told If there is
but one picture to help imagina-
lions along; and consequently,
are not much interested in the
story without pictures. They do
not reach that stage Of maturity
until they are experienced five