A Story for Thursday: What is it?

What is it? What is a story for Thursday?

A Story for Thursday is dedicated to the stories that I tell for a reading programme I volunteer at. I have been volunteering for a nationwide reading programme for more than a year now. It started with my signing up as a volunteer for the library (National Library Board, Singapore) and concluded to me telling stories every week. The reading programme is named; KidsREAD. It caters to children from ages 4 to 8 years old, from low-income families. It was started in 2004 and has grown in strength ever since. Each KidsREAD club has a set of children's story books, teaching resources, writing materials, puppets and so on. The materials are for the purposes of the reading programme. Volunteers tell a story or stories to children and then engage the children in an activity afterwards. The children attend the reading programme for an hour every week. 

It has been an enriching and exciting journey for me. I met many children along the way and received many sweet notes/drawings from them. I have been so involved with the reading programme that I decided to conduct an academic research on the programme. More importantly, I also get to tell stories to children. I love telling stories to children. It is absolutely joyful and gets better all the time. Initially, as a younger teenager, I was not very good with storytelling. I got nervous and anxious and would start messing up the words I was saying. I think it was pretty awkward in the beginning. Nevertheless, they say practice makes perfect. I did not stop and continued to tell stories, only to get better. Eventually, storytelling to children became a natural thing for me to do. I am truly grateful of all the storytelling experiences that I gained. 

I encourage all educators, parents and people working with children to attain a certain set of basic storytelling skills. It does wonders to any storytelling/reading activity that you have with children. With experience, I found that the skill of the person telling the story affects the interest of the child towards the book/story. Everyone understands that having a good amount of interest and proficiency in language and literacy goes a very long way for children. Hence, I feel that it is only right for everyone (working with children) to tell stories well. 

In short, 'A Story for Thursday' is simply a reflection, write-up, summary and record of my storytelling activity.