Stories shape our world.

Everything start with a story. My career in education simple started with an Early childhood scholastics program were I teaching at a British School. But, it started way before and as far back as I remember my grand-pa telling us bed time stories. Why is story telling so important to children. The stories we hear as children shape our view of the world.

Most small children live their lives in quite a limited environment. Reading stories to children can show them far-flung places, extraordinary people and eye-opening situations to expand and enrich their world.

It can also be a great way of helping them deal with real life situations that they need help to deal with. Researchers have found that the brain activity that occurs when we read fiction is very similar to

experiencing that situation in real life, so reading about a situation helps children work out how to solve it in reality.

Other benefits are reading stories aloud helps children to familiarise themselves with the spoken language - how words and phrases are used to string together sentences, and how various words are pronounced.

It encourages your child to ask questions as the plot progresses, instead of simply reading passively. When children have questions, it means they are thinking beyond the story and its characters, and this can help develop creativity and critical thinking skills.

With an emphasis on language development, our Kindy drama programme at Helen O’Grady helps to develop important life skills for pre-preschoolers, such as taking turns, sharing, listening, following instructions, sequencing and memory skills and vocalising emotions.

Children participate in a wide variety of activities in each drama lesson, which are carefully devised to captivate the children’s interests and stimulate their learning. The curriculum is designed to appeal to children from 3 years before they start ‘big’ school! The weekly lessons, which  include: Dramatic Pay

Creativity

Language development

Storytelling Songs & rhymes

The pre-school drama programme includes different themes which the children can easily identify with and relate to, throughout the term.

Find out more on www.dramaafrica.com