Friday's Kind Words: Stories as Inspiration
After reading your newsletter about stories as inspiration, I just had to share some of the ways my 4 year old son has been inspired. As soon as we finish a story, he gets a twinkle in his eye and tells me what he wants to do or create based on the story he just listened to.
This photo shows the mud pie stand he made after listening to Martin and Sylvia's "Lemons and Mud." I have to admit, I was a little hesitant because I didn't want him to be disappointed when no one bought a mud pie. But being the natural manifesters that children are he did have some customers! Some men taking a neighbors tree down stopped over to buy one mud pie each - the cost was a handful of grass! Recently, my son has gotten into Junkyard Tales and after listening to "The Train" he spent the rest of the afternoon using silks, wooden blocks, legos and his train set to recreate the scene of the story complete with all the animals, the different areas of the junkyard and, of course, the train.
I have countless examples like this, and in fact, I have to read the description of each story carefully to make sure it's something feasible to spend the rest of the afternoon doing! Once we listened to a Martin and Sylvia story where they were spending time in the playhouse and my son announced "I want to build a treehouse this afternoon." Inspired myself by the wonderful example of the characters Momma and Daddy, I tried to figure out what we could do rather than saying that wasn't possible and we spent a pleasant afternoon making an outdoor fort.
We have been listeners for almost a year now and I can't thank you enough. We first heard about Sparkle Stories when I became pregnant with my second child and my older son stopped napping. I was so tired that I almost compromised my ideals and considered introducing television.
I am so glad I found Sparkle Stories, which is enriching my son's inner world rather than diminishing it as I feared introducing tv would have. Now one of my favorite times of day is snuggling on the couch for quiet time to listen to a couple of your magical stories. I am fairly certain I am inspired by these stories as much as my child is!
~Melissa Teske
