Toto Tales

IT’S THE END OF THE HOLIDAYS!!! so for the last few days, I have told at a number of storytelling sessions/activities and taken my 4 year old daughter to a few too. After a few too many row your boats, I began to wonder why whenever young children are around (3-4 year olds), so many of us resort to the ‘twinkle, twinkle little star’ and ‘baa baa black sheep’ favourites? Is it because we are comfortable that they [the little ones] will be comfortable? The familiar is safe and so we don’t need to challenge ourselves too much?

Now, it’s not that I don’t like these rhymes or feel that we should never use them, I do myself on occasion… but my worry is that many people believe that young children are simply incapable of handling ‘bigger’ stories. If you have ever had the pleasure of seeing the incredible piece of theatre ‘WHITE’ by Catherine Wheels, then you will know that stories seep into the soul regardless of age. Any two year old will have recognised the extreme injustice so perfectly demonstrated.

I believe choosing the stories we expose our children to is immensely important. Long before school as we now know it existed, our education everything we thought, believed, aspired to, etc was brought about through stories. our focus on stories from across Africa, I wish that children will be as familiar with Anansi the spider as they are with the Gruffalo. I wish that their dreams would involve outwitting cunning Sungura (Hare) and celebrating the wisdom of tortoise. I wish they would grow knowing why Dedan Kimathi fought as he did, who was Queen Nzinga of Angola and that they wonder where the Golden Stool of the Ashanti really came from. The incredible stories of the orishas from the Yoruba. The dense layers of these stories are rich in content, so full of wonder and quite simply beautiful to listen to.

A storytelling friend of mine of Indian origin, Malaysian upbringing and currently resident in Singapore told me how her father introduced the great epic Mahabharat to her from a very young age.

An immense story, a epic saga that scholars have difficulty interpreting. She remembers at the age of 3 or 4, her father sitting down at breakfast and feeding her the tiniest little tidbits from the story, that when pieced together many years later, revealed the full story. Sitting down with a three year old and recounting hours of story will not work but  by letting little seeds settle deep inside, he ensured that those seeds were nurtured and did grow. These BIG stories are necessary to give our children a greater sense of the world around us. Do they get it? Probably better than many grown ups!

I was horrified to hear a squeaky clean adaptation of The Little Red Hen story a few evenings ago. In the new version, the hardworking character feels sorry for those other poor lazy souls and decides to share her cake, or whatever it was with them. EXCUSE ME!!!!!!! What is going on? Yes, charity is a great thing but we are sending mixed signals, allowing them to think that certain behaviours are acceptable, when they most certainly are not.

Let us not be afraid to share bigger stories with tiny people. The way we tell it may be different but the essence will get through and difficult though it may be, we need to acknowledge that sometimes it’s a good thing for our children to experience stories that are not the Disneyfied, singing, clapping happy type.

Do you think they CAN deal with more? Let me know what you think.

Toto x