The Story Effect
Bewitching animation movies. Flashy cartoons and captivating songs. Why would anyone want to ‘Read’?!
Bewitching animation movies. Flashy cartoons and captivating songs. Why would anyone stare onto a paper/a screen and of all the things -‘Read’?! I often hear this from my kids. They are so awed by the characters and colours on the screen that it takes an extra effort to make them read or listen to a story. They love storytelling, but they don’t want to ‘read’, if you get my drift. But why even take the effort?
If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.
Albert Einstein
The simple reason is – to fuel the child’s imagination. Einstein believed creativity and the development of the imagination to be the most essential elements of intellectual development. He claimed that the equipment of a true scientist was a fully developed imagination.
Cartoons, animation movies and other visual effects can be tantalizing to a kid. However they are all passivity – passive information presentation – which is why parents at times choose to switch on the screen — to switch off the brains. Reading, storytelling or listening to stories give wings to imagination and active involvement in the present moment. Stories are the frames of reference through which kids make sense out of their surroundings and the world. Kids learn from stories about what to feel, say or do OR not-feel, not-say or not-do when a particular incident occurs.
Everyday more research and reports are released, shouting out the hazards of increased screen time in children. Young people who spend seven hours or more a day on screens are more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with depression or anxiety than those who use screens for an hour a day, finds a 2018 study published in the journal Preventive Medicine Reports. The data came from more than 40,000 kids ages two to 17 and was collected as part of the Census Bureau’s 2016 National Survey of Children’s Health.
So what do we do? Should we snatch away the tech goodies and take our kids back to the stone age? Or do we find more ways to engage them with minimal screen time? How about reading them a good story while they colour? How about storytelling – letting them create or retell a story?
TheStoryGenie.com gives you the perfect opportunity to engage your kids with empowering stories. Not just adult fantasies marketed as children’s fairytales! We work at collecting empowering stories from all around the world. We have like-minded people and forums trying to get the best of impactful stories and folklore for our children.
Let us reclaim our kid’s childhood. We are so excited for us! <3