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Storytelling allows elders to transfer values and meaning to younger generations

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mary-ann-mccoll-704728">Mary Ann McColl</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/queens-university-ontario-1154">Queen's University, Ontario</a> If you spent time over the holidays with elderly relatives or friends, you may have heard many of the same stories repeated — perhaps stories you’d heard over the years, or even over the past few hours. Repeated storytelling can sometimes be unnerving for friends and families, raising concerns about a loved one’s potential cognitive decline, memory loss or perhaps even the onset of dementia. <a href="https://tenstories.ca/">Our research</a> at Queen’s University suggests there is another way to think about repeated storytelling that makes it easier to listen and engage with the stories. We interviewed 20 middle-aged adults who felt they had heard the same stories over and over from their aging parent. We asked them to tell us those stories and we recorded and transcribed them. We used a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/14439881211248356">narrative inquiry approach</a> to discover that repeated storytelling is a key method for elders to communicate what they believe to be important to their children and loved ones. Narrative inquiry uses the text of stories as research data to explore how people create meaning in their lives. <h2>Transmitting values</h2> Based on nearly 200 collected stories, we found that there are approximately <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/scs.13121">10 stories</a> that older parents repeatedly tell to their adult children. The hypothesis was that repeated storytelling was about inter-generational transmission of values. By exploring the themes of those repeated stories, we could uncover the meaning and messages elders were communicating to their loved ones. The ultimate purpose was to offer a new and more constructive way of thinking about stories that we’ve heard many times before, and that can be otherwise perceived as alarming. <h2>Here’s what we have learned:</h2> <ol> <li> There are typically just 10 stories that people tell repeatedly. While 10 is not a magic number, it does seem to be about the right number to capture the stories that are told over and over. Interviewees felt that a set of approximately 10 allowed them to do justice to their parent’s stories. </li> <li> Among our interviewees, a significant number of their parents’ stories – 87 per cent — took place when they were in their teens or twenties. A person’s second and third decades are a time when they make many of the decisions that shape the rest of their lives; a time when values are consolidated and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2013.863358">adult identity is formed</a> </li> <li> What’s important about the 10 stories is not the factual details, but the lesson that was learned, or the value that was reinforced — values like loyalty toward friends, putting family first, maintaining a sense of humour even in hard times, getting an education, speaking up against injustice, and doing what’s right. </li> <li> Key themes in the stories reflected the significant events and prevailing values of the early to mid-20th century. Many of the stories revolved around the war, and both domestic and overseas experiences that were formative. Many of our interviewees heard stories about immigrating to Canada, starting out with very little, seeking a better life and working hard. Stories often reflected a more formal time when it was important to uphold standards, make a good impression, know one’s place and adhere to the rules. </li> <li> The stories elders tell appear to be curated for the individual receiving them. They would be different if told to another child, a spouse or a friend. </li> </ol> <h2>Tips for listening</h2> Our research offers some tips for listening to stories from elders: <ul> <li> Focus on just 10 stories. It can make the listening seem less overwhelming. </li> <li> Write them down. Writing challenges us to get the story straight. </li> <li> Notice your loved one’s role in the story, as the message is often contained in that role. </li> <li> Be attentive to feelings, sensations, tension and discomfort. These can be signals or clues to the meaning of a story. </li> <li> Finally, remember these stories are for you — selected and told in the context of your relationship with your loved one. As such, they are a gift from a loved one who is running out of time. </li> </ul> <h2>The importance of receiving stories</h2> Storytelling is an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cad.20067">essential human process</a> and a universal experience associated with aging. Neuroscientists suggest that storytelling has practical survival value for individuals and communities, <a href="https://www.jonathangottschall.com/storytelling-animal">as well as social and psychological benefits</a>. It may be as powerful as medication or therapy for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.1018">overcoming depression among elders</a>. Storytelling becomes especially important <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2017.1396581">when people become aware of their mortality</a> — when they are ill, suffering or facing death. People don’t necessarily tell the same stories over and over again because they’re losing cognitive function, but because the stories are important, and they feel we need to know them. Telling stories repeatedly isn’t about forgetfulness or dementia. It’s an effort to share what’s important. Our hope is that by better understanding elderly storytelling, caregivers may be able to listen in a different way to those repeated stories and understand the messages they contain. Those 10 stories can help us to know our loved one at a deeper level and assist our parent or grandparent with an important developmental task of old age. This research offers a constructive way for caregivers to hear the repeated stories told by their aging parents, and to offer their loved one the gift of knowing they have been seen and heard.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197766/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mary-ann-mccoll-704728">Mary Ann McColl</a>, Professor, School of Rehabilitation Therapy, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/queens-university-ontario-1154">Queen's University, Ontario</a> Image credits: Getty Images This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/storytelling-allows-elders-to-transfer-values-and-meaning-to-younger-generations-197766">original article</a>.

Mind

Encanto, TikTok and the art of social storytelling: why music is not just for listening anymore

We need to talk about Bruno. The theme song from Disney’s hit movie Encanto (We don’t talk about Bruno) has become the <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/we-dont-talk-about-bruno-encanto-number-one-hot-100-second-week-1235028035/">first song from an animated movie to top the US charts for multiple weeks</a>. How did this come about? The answer is, once again, TikTok. The short-video platform is <a href="https://mashable.com/article/encanto-bruno-tiktok-trend">again behind the creation of a hit song</a>. TikTok is changing the music industry, how hits are made and how the platform opens a new way to discover new artists and new music. At the heart of the phenomenon are viral challenges or trends, in which creators use short clips from a song that are re-used by thousands or millions of other users in their videos. While TikTok videos do not count towards the Billboard charts, activity on the platform directly drives music consumption on streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. Over <a href="https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/year-on-tiktok-music-report-2021">175 songs that trended on TikTok in 2021 charted on the Billboard Hot 100</a>, twice as many the year before. But how do trends, challenges, and memes make hits? The answer lies in how music has become creative material for social storytelling on TikTok, and how storytelling works when videos are only a few seconds short. <h2>Social storytelling with music</h2> Tom van Laer, associate professor of narratology at The University of Sydney Business School, explains what makes for good storytelling, "For a good story, you need three things. A story has a plot and a character… That’s the minimum for a story. For a good story you need a third thing, which is a dramatic curve." And this is where the music comes into play. When a challenge or trend emerges on TikTok, it always features the same clip from a particular song, which serves as a common story element across all those videos. As van Laer explains, "What you then get is a certain cultural capital or cultural knowledge that is already there. So then every new iteration is just added to that. And if you’re on the inside, if you in the know, then that is still something you could easily follow because you see the one video of 15 seconds only as another event in the bigger story." Because the clip is instantly recognisable by the audience it ties together all the videos that make up a TikTok challenge or trend. It acts as the meta-narrative that allows each creator to contribute their own interpretation of the story. This can take the form of imitations, such as in the <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@jamie32bsh/video/7058186727248235782">“Jamie Big” trend</a>, based on a original video that has been viewed more than 200 million times. It shows a man dancing to Nelly Furtado’s Say It Right in front of his bathroom mirror. Thousands of videos have <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@misskimnayoon/video/7069596684229102849">since imitated the original</a>, whereby a creator always films themselves in front of their bathroom mirror, switching to the original video on the beat change of the song. Other trends work by offering different interpretations of the same story line. A good example is the <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@scottyjames31/video/7061168649796717826">“Things that just make sense…” trend</a>, set to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9FMvfvkBro">Che la luna</a>, a version of a classic Sicilian folk song. In this video contributors film themselves showcasing the features of a particular location, each doing the same characteristic hand gestures. An example is Australian Olympian Scott James<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@scottyjames31/video/7061168649796717826"> filming his room</a>at the Olympic village in Beijing. Because the audience always recognises the characteristic song, they are instantly familiar with the story’s plot; they know what to expect and can thus simply enjoy each interpretation of the theme. The music provides the glue that holds together a social story, collectively told across many videos. A challenge or trend is thus a form of social storytelling, with the music acting like shorthand to provide the context for all the videos. We Don’t Talk About Bruno has provided material for a number of different trends, each driving its popularity. And besides the many Encanto fan edits featuring parts of the song, there is a <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@alex.berglund/video/7060618332025900334">particular clip </a>with a catchy hook that underpins a story-line in which creators try to do a task in the first take of the video and after the beat change reveal why the task is so difficult. This features dance moves from the Encanto movie. <h2>Music as creative material</h2> To understand what makes TikTok such a powerful platform for the music industry, we must “unlearn” music as something we just listen to. On digital platforms like TikTok music is rapidly becoming a material for creating, for self-expression, for storytelling. Virality is then a by-product of the use of music as creative material for collective storytelling - one that provides the canvas, or meta-narrative, for each creator’s interpretation of the emerging story-line. With the most popular songs sometimes exceeding <a href="https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/year-on-tiktok-music-report-2021">20 billion views on videos they soundtrack</a>, the scale of the phenomenon gives the platform its <a href="https://theconversation.com/love-it-or-hate-it-tiktok-is-changing-the-music-industry-171482">transformative role for the music industry</a>. Image credits: Disney This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/encanto-tiktok-and-the-art-of-social-storytelling-why-music-is-not-just-for-listening-anymore-178021" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.

Music

5 ways that reading with children helps their education

For book lovers, reading to children may seem obvious. Why would they not want to pass on their love of literature? However, researchers have shown there are more benefits for both adult and child that come with reading than just building a bond – particularly when it comes to education. A lot of research has been done into the effects of children engaging with literacy related activities at home. Much of this focuses on the early years, and how the literacy environment helps to develop emergent literacy skills. Shared book reading early on <a href="https://kundoc.com/pdf-picture-book-reading-with-young-children-a-conceptual-framework-.html">stimulates language and reading development</a>, for example. But the home literacy environment doesn’t stop being important once children have learnt to read. The opportunities that a child has to read at the home, and parental beliefs and behaviours, continue to impact on children’s reading throughout the school years. Here are just five ways that reading with your child can help their general education. 1. It opens up new worlds Reading together as a family can instill a love of books from an early age. By taking the time to turn the pages together, adults can help children see that reading is something to enjoy and not a chore. Some schoolchildren read because they like it but others do it because they will be rewarded – with stickers in a school reading diary for example. Those children who read because they enjoy it read more books, and read more widely too. So giving your child a love of books helps expand their horizons. 2. It can build confidence Children judge their own ability to read from observing their classroom peers, and from conversations with parents and teachers. When sharing a book, and giving positive feedback, parents can help children develop what is known as self-efficacy – a perceived ability to complete the specific activity at hand. Self-efficacy has been shown to be <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.02056/full">important for word reading</a>. Children who think they cannot read will be less inclined to try, but by using targeted praise while reading together, parents can help children develop belief in their own skills. 3. It can build positive reading attitudes Studies have shown that the more opportunities a child has to engage with literacy based activities at home, the more positive their reading attitudes tend to be. Children are more likely to read in their leisure time if there is another member of the family that reads, <a href="https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1598/JAAL.48.3.1">creating a reading community</a> the child feels they belong to. Parental beliefs and actions are related to children’s own motivations to read, though of course it is likely that this relationship is bidirectional –- parents are <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2F0708-5591.49.2.89">more likely to suggest reading activities</a> if they know that their child has enjoyed them in the past. 4. It expands their language When reading a book together, children are exposed to a wide range of language. In the early stages of literacy development this is extremely important. Good language development is the foundation to literacy development after all, and increased language exposure is one of the fundamental benefits of shared book reading. Shared book reading early on can have a long-term benefit by increasing vocabulary skills. And if they encounter a word they don’t understand, they have a grown up on hand to explain it to them in a way that makes sense to them. When children are taught to read while sharing a book, it can improve alphabet knowledge, decoding skills, spelling, and other book-related knowledge (such as how to actually read a book). Doing something as simple as sounding out the letters of a word they do not understand can vastly improve a child’s skills. 5. It can help their speech and language awareness Formal shared reading can also involve the use of intonation, rhythm and pauses to model what is known as prosody. This is not a skill that is directly taught, but by simply pausing when needed or changing the tone of your voice can help children develop fluency when reading aloud. This is one of the reasons that shared book reading is not just for pre-schoolers. Demonstrating what is involved in reading complex text aloud fluently is very valuable for children of all ages. You don’t need a lot of money, or even hours of spare time to read with children. Even small efforts can have big benefits. Nor does it have to be just at bedtime. Sharing a book, a magazine or a comic can take place any time of the day. The most important thing to remember is to have fun. Interest in reading emerges from enjoying it with a parent. If you’re interested and make an effort, it can have a huge impact on a child’s engagement with reading.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99046/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> Written by Emma Vardy, Research Associate, Psychology of Education, Coventry University. Republished with permission of <a href="https://theconversation.com/fives-ways-that-reading-with-children-helps-their-education-99046">The Conversation</a>.

Books

Who is the storyteller in your family?

Rose Osborne, 67, was a registered nurse for 45 years before retiring to become a personal historian, owner and creator of <a href="http://www.writemyjourney.com/" target="_blank">Write My Journey</a>, a life story writing service that turns memories into a beautiful hardcover book. This is the second part of Rose’s monthly column on life writing. <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/family-pets/2017/01/rose-osborne-guide-to-telling-life-story/">Read the first column on how to preserve your life story here.</a> Becoming the family storyteller is a privilege and a responsibility. It is about leaving a legacy fundamental to the fabric of society – family stories. Anyone who embarks on the journey of documenting their family history is doing so because it matters to them. This alone will bring truth, beauty, and love to the pages and its readers in years to come. The family storyteller is providing a link within the family to member’s dreams, strengths, and challenges that will be woven into the lives of present and future family members. However, it does come at a cost. It can be expensive and is definitely time consuming. It is an active and creative process and may seem like a straightforward task but the revelations that are unveiled will, no doubt, be rewarding and sometimes difficult and unexpected. For one example, family members may have different perceptions of events and may hold many secrets tight to their chest. Preparation for your creative journey Once you have made your decision to be the family storyteller, don’t let doubts and uncertainty daunt your progress. Be content to start with a little trepidation and embrace your commitment. Deal with any procrastination by understanding its origins, e.g. “I don’t know where to start”, “I have too much material”, “I enjoy telling people I am writing my family history even though I have done little” or maybe “I’m busy – but I’m going to do it”. Here are a few hints to consider before you set sail. <ul> <li>Is your family history about your life journey and your reflections and interfaces with the family or is it a composite project for all family members to contribute? This decision will decide how you write. Some people solve this by writing two books – their personal memoir and a composite family album. Others just throw it all into one body of work and produce a deliciously rich tapestry of family history.</li> <li>Decide if you are going to include some local, cultural or world history in your work, e.g. wars, depression, and other such events significantly impact people’s lives. The social media world of today is a totally different world to the environment your great grandparents grew up in and future readers may not understand this distinction unless they are told.</li> <li>Decide if you are setting a time frame for completion or just letting it flow. While this seems a minor point, timelines keep us focussed and can always be readjusted. A realistic and generous flow chart can stop you from becoming bogged down on one subject or task. Months spent over-researching a topic or endless time spent waiting for relatives to respond are time-wasters and serve no purpose other than to fertilise resentment and anxiety. </li> </ul> Information gathering Information gathering is time consuming and expensive. Be strategic and deliberate in your efforts and make the most of all your opportunities. <ul> <li>It may be a good idea to sabotage part of an annual family gathering or create a specific Family History Reunion to display all your collected materials and a rough outline of the story so far. You may decide to do a PowerPoint and oral presentation telling of your progress. You can ask questions and engage the relatives to tell their stories. Contacting people individually and trying to get past their “Oh I don’t have any stories” is time consuming and frustrating.</li> <li>Discussions with small groups are a wonderful catalyst for memory tantalising. People will feed off each other with their stories and forgotten facts. Ask people to bring along a photo, piece of jewellery or ornament and talk about the history behind it. Be specific in your questions and allow people to tell their story without interruption.</li> <li>The sense of smell is a wonderful memory jogger. It may be a favourite family biscuit dipped in tea, baby powder, Vicks VapoRub or a freshly cooked pizza straight out of its home delivery box.</li> <li>Memory, however, is tricky and people remember things differently. Be prepared for different interpretations of the same event. You could perhaps revert to fact checking of dates but whether your great-great grandparent’s marriage was arranged or a love-match could be harder to prove. Alternatively, you could include both versions and allow the mystery to continue. </li> <li>Your photos need to be scanned to become digital. Encourage people to get their photographs scanned professionally as this will improve the quality of the final product. If any photos need restoring, encourage the photo owner to get this done as a benefit to them and to the family album.</li> </ul> Sitting in the narrator’s seat The narrator is in the driving seat of the family tale. As any good driver will tell you, you need to pay attention to the twists and curves in the road and manage the hills and gullies. You are the decision-maker and your name goes in the book. You will decide if all the research and writing is to be done by you, if others will contribute sections or if the project will be done as a group. Dividing the writing between different people will mean there will be different writing styles and perhaps a conflict of information, but this may not be a problem for you and could add to the tapestry. If someone is contributing to the writing, you should ensure that you as narrator have editing rights. It is wise to make it clear this is a family album and not a venue for an airing of disputes, bad blood or gossip. You might find these hints helpful. <ul> <li>Be relaxed about the project. It is best for the project to start simple and grow as the family tree of stories and information grows. </li> <li>Make a list of five brief stories that are classics within the family. These can be used to start your project off as story ideas and examples.</li> <li>Make a list or complete a family tree of everyone in the family. Chose a key person in each family group who is willing to be an active supporter of the project.</li> <li>Collect as much information generically as you can. For example, give the family a list of basic information to provide, e.g. full names, maiden names, date of births, pet’s names, place of residence and anything else you want gathered for consistency across the family.</li> <li>Organise relevant photos and memorabilia including letters, certificates, etc. into sections and scan them.</li> <li>Start anywhere in the family story – just start.</li> <li>Work in bite size projects.</li> <li>Be in charge of the structure and don’t let it run you. In other words, just because something happened do you need to include it if it doesn’t add value to the overall work? Don’t let some topics dominate and others get a mere mention. Keep some similarity within the topics of each chapter, otherwise, you will have a tangle of stories that readers will find hard to connect. </li> <li>Keep a little distance between your personal feelings and the family tale and stick to the facts.</li> <li>If you are narrating stories from different time periods, ensure you are clear on the relevant context. For example, your great grandmother may have lived 30 kilometres from town which in her time was a difficult journey but in modern times using a car, that journey would be negligible.</li> <li>Remind your contributors (and yourself) that trivial details don’t add up to depth. For example, listing the holidays enjoyed, the name of the ocean cruiser and the seat number of the flight are pretty trivial details.</li> <li>Your readers are going to want to know about moments, about how you felt, what it was like, funny and sad things that happened.</li> <li>Try and include descriptions in your stories of moments as if you are talking directly to your readers, wanting them to feel as if they were present.</li> <li>Use language and words that you would normally use, even a little jargon and slang is colourful, if that is part of your family scene.</li> </ul> The total cost of doing family history is expensive. You can decide to deal with it all yourself or ask family members for contributions. You could also increase the amount of the Family Album so everyone at least contributes to the final bill. Enjoy your family life story and make the time. If you want more information, read your way through <a href="http://www.writemyjourney.com/">my website</a>. There is lots of information you may find helpful. If you would like to chat about Write My Journey writing your family story, give us a ring. Rose is writing a monthly column exploring all aspects of memoir writing. If you have any questions for her, please leave them in the comments below. Related links: <a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/lifestyle/family-pets/2016/09/kath-williams-remembers-childhood-in-1960s/">Remembering all that mum did during my childhood</a> <a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/lifestyle/family-pets/2016/09/carolyn-legrand-tracked-fathers-lost-brother/">I tracked down my father-in-law’s long lost brother</a> <a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/lifestyle/family-pets/2016/09/connecting-children-with-the-natural-world/">Connecting children with the natural world</a>

Family & Pets

Is the art of oral storytelling dead?

Once upon a time, in a place not so far away, four small children were enjoying a fun-filled trip to their grandparents’ home. The sun had slipped beneath the horizon, and bedtime had arrived. “Please can you tell us a story Poppy!” begged the grandkids, their little faces bright with anticipation. For they knew this meant one thing: The chance to listen to their beloved Pop as he conjured up weird and wonderful tales from the depths of his imagination, while the kids lay in wait, wearing silly, satisfied smiles, eager for what would be said next. This act, known as oral storytelling, harkens back to a simpler time – long before our world was overrun by all things technology. It was the way our ancestors ensured their own tales were going to live on and or included the sharing of those famous fables and fairy tales that marched on through every generation. But somehow in the crazy whirl of modern life, this art has become almost extinct. Enter Morgan Schatz Blackrose, author and storyteller extraordinaire with over 28 years’ experience, who is determined to see this wondrous activity reinstated as the norm in our homes. “From the time we are able to talk, each and every one of us has a story to tell,” Morgan says. “Children learn to love and trust listening to lullabies, they learn to laugh with finger and face rhymes, they learn coordination and rhythm with lap rhymes, and they learn to how to appropriately participate and express themselves through storytelling. “There are numerous literacy learning outcomes that children experience with regular participation in storytelling sessions, but most importantly they learn to listen to their own thoughts and the words of others.” And while reading to children at home is the message parents are pushed to receive, Morgan says that telling them your own tales should be given the same weight of importance, as the art of oral storytelling is vital in the emotional, social and cognitive development of our kids. “Oral storytelling has a flexibility that reading a book does not, because telling a story is not governed by the text but by the relationship between the listener and the teller,” she explains. “In this direct communication, the heart listens as well as the ears, and mutual feelings of love and trust are kindled in this shared intimacy.” To this end, storytelling is an act of love, evoking emotions that will be remembered long after the story is over. “The stories may or may not be remembered, but the feelings of joy and fun in the shared experience of storytelling will always be remembered.” And while we may not always realise it, oral storytelling is still very much present in our daily life today. “Oral storytelling is how human beings from all cultures communicate with each other in their daily lives,” Morgan says. “Ask a question and you receive a story as an answer. We call these stories anecdotes, riddles, tall tales and jokes.” For parents who want to introduce oral storytelling into the lives of their own children, but are unsure where to start, she says, “Storytelling is not a test. So what if you forget the exactness of it – you’re telling the story your way. Children want to know what your life was like as a kid, so tell them about school, the games you played, your friends, the characters in your family, the trouble you got into. “And if it’s painful? You determine what you want to share and when. There is no set text so you can add or omit what you like,” Morgan says. “Many parents tell stories from their cultural tradition and/or their family history. “The stories of parents and grandparents help children to understand their heritage, history and identity, as well as helping to forge strong and loving bonds between family members.” Morgan’s final plea so this forgotten art of oral storytelling lives on, is this: “Turn off your phones, shut down your computer screens, and sit down and tell a story – any story, even if it’s a joke. Story begets story, so someone will share another one. “If older members of your family visit then ask them to share a story. If you like, bring out a photo album as a prop. “If you find the formality of creating a storytelling space too difficult, then take the opportunity to spontaneously share a story whenever you can, or at mealtime ask the question: ‘What did you like best about today?’ A story will certainly follow.” What do you think? Do you still regale your grandkids with tall tales? Share your thoughts in the comment section below. Written by Donna Webeck. First appeared on <a href="http://Stuff.co.nz" target="_blank">Stuff.co.nz</a>. Related links: <a href="/lifestyle/family-pets/2016/08/why-grandchildren-need-grandparents/">4 reasons grandchildren need their grandparents</a> <a href="/lifestyle/family-pets/2016/07/how-to-help-your-grandchild-love-learning/">How to help your grandchild love learning</a> <a href="/lifestyle/family-pets/2016/07/best-way-to-communicate-with-teenage-grandchildren/">Best way to communicate with teenage grandchildren</a>

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