Thoughts

Thoughts 

I have survived the long series of sessions with pre-schoolers. The staff say they are very happy and have invited me to return next term for a one-off special storytelling.

Certainly I have made many mistakes - but that is what learning is all about - and many of my difficulties were the result of having the same children over and over again. Somehow I had expected that they would love to have the stories repeated, just as they do with bedtime stories. I was wrong... they wanted new stories every time, which stretched my abilities and forced me to do a lot of research.

Now that was very good for me! It has stimulated me into reading and finding more stories for my main storybasket. I had become lazy. With over 12 hours of stories in the basket, I was happy to keep on telling those old favourites. It is time to find new ones.

The next stage of my learning starts now. I have been booked for 10 days of community festivals over the summer - just the sort of events I have found most difficult because of the confusion, noise and the presence of very small children in the audience who do not enjoy most of my stories.

That was my main reason for  trying to learn how to tell in a pre-school, and I am feeling better prepared. There will be some suitable stories for the very young ones in my basket. I have now had lots of practice in coping with a distracted young audience. Let's see if I can start to enjoy telling to mixed family groups.

The first festival is in a few days - a camping weekend for people with special needs, their families and their carers. It should be great fun. I will let you know...