Kindergarten Tip: Story Dictation

Today, I have a quick homeschool tip for you.  A simple story dictation (your child makes up a story aloud for you) can encourage so many wonderful things in your young child/student.  I got this idea from my mom, and it has become one of the best parts of our school days.

I got a small journal and have dedicated it to Caleb’s stories.  Everyday he tells me a story of his own creation, and I write it down.  Sometimes I am scrambling to keep up.  His stories tend to ramble excitedly from one point to the next (sometimes action moves and large hand gestures are included) and my pen is trying to catch it all.  Please forgive my grammer and spelling in these stories as I am writing a mile a minute!

I love it!  His imagination is letting loose, and I have it saved in this journal.

These stories have been a great “starter” to lots of conversations for us.  We talk about plot, characters, cause and effect, order of events, story title, etc.  He is learning all these things as a kindergartener without feeling like he is learning.

In his mind, he has his mom’s sole attention, and he is getting praised to think and dream up the most imaginative stories.  I know our boys love for us to tell them a story before bed.  This is Caleb’s special time to tell me what ever he wants to come up with.  It is easy to see what he is in to when you read through his journal.  🙂  Creativity is a big part of our school days.

Sometimes I come up with a “subject” for him to tell his story about.  Often I tell my own short story about the same “subject” that he used.  This step models the use of the same subject while teaching all those great story elements I mentioned above.  He loves this time.  His stories have greatly improved since we started this a month ago.

**You can see we are also working on writing the date, and he is starting to write that at the top of his journal entry for me.**

At times he is more tired and doesn’t want to think up a subject.  I have seen story blocks or story stones and have wanted to create my own.  I have not gotten to it yet, but I think they would be a fun way to change this assignment up from time to time.  I love the simple painted story stones that A Happy Wanderer came up with for her son.

The simple picture could help ignite a story in Caleb’s mind, or he could pick out a few and combine them all into one story!  I think the concrete item would help him to hold and get excited, rather than for me to just say aloud a subject.  It is a different way and helps spice things up.

Since I have not created my stones yet, I came up with stamps for today.  Caleb needed a little guidance on what to “write a story” about.  I placed two stamps on our journal page and he created a story with them both.

We are loving this quick yet really valuable tool in our school days.  Even if you don’t homeschool, I think it would be a fun activity to do with your child.  They are only young once and we will miss their creative imaginations when they are grown.  Why not help foster and encourage it, while preserving it in a journal!?

Thank you so much for stopping by, and I hope you are having a great week!

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