Last week, I was invited to read stories to children in a community centre as I am one of the members of my school’s volunteers’ team. In fact, telling stories is not as easy as I thought.
Actually, good communication skill is an essential element for story-telling. I seldom chat with my friends, let alone children. Since I have promised to do so, I could only try my very best to tell the story. To my surprise, the situation was not as bad as I thought. Unexpectedly, storytelling is quite fascinating and meaningful. Let me share the experience with all of you.
Some of you may think I would tell the story like Red Riding Hood, Snow White, and so on. In fact I did not. On that day, when I reached the community centre, suddenly a toy was thrown to me. I succeeded in catching it quickly. Then, I found out that it was because a boy did not want to help a disabled girl to catch the toy. At that moment, I changed my plan of telling Red Riding Hood, but to tell ‘A Mermaid’s Tale’.
The story begins with a mermaid stranded on the shore. A fisherman, Lutey, discovered her and asked if he could do something to help her. The mermaid sobbed, telling Lutey that she was cut off on the rocks. She had to get back to the cave, otherwise her dad would raise a storm in anger. Lutey was willing to help her and promised to take her back to the sea. Eventually, Lutey succeeded and got a comb with power as a present from the mermaid.
As we all know, children usually could not sit patiently. In order to attract their attention, I prepared some toys, including the mermaid, Lutey and a colourful comb. They all stared at the toys with their shining eyes. But it was not enough. I smiled to them so that they would feel comfortable. Furthermore, I changed my voice to pretend that I was the mermaid, Lutey and the narrator. I spared no effort to make them immerse in the story. Looking at their facial expression, I knew they enjoyed the story.
By listening to my story, the children understood that they should help each other. Then, they stopped arguing. What’s more they strived to be the first ones to help others.
I experienced that storytelling was in fact not a boring task.Looking at children’s beaming face, I felt a great sense of satisfaction. More importantly, I have learnt how to communicate with children—to be frank and sincere. I am grateful to have this opportunity to serve. If there is another similar activity, I will definitely join it without hesitation.