Article for Western Mass Women Magazine

 I wrote an article for Western Mass Women Magazine. You can find it under the section Mommy and Me in the March/April edition. You can read it's entirety here or go to the link: 
http://www.westernmasswomen.com/home/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=37&Itemid=123

 

Why Storytelling Matters

Robin Densmore Fuson, Contributing Writer

In every culture you will find story tellers. They are the ones who preserve the culture and heritage of the people groups. They are the wise ones who know the worth of history and learning from the past. In villages around the world, you can find children sitting around an aged man or woman telling stories of the old days. They capture their attention with vivid word pictures. Wouldn’t it be marvelous to see this in our culture? Where children learn about who they are and where they came from? I think it can be done. We all have the capability to do this with our children. Children love stories, and who better to tell those stories than their parents? As parents, we need to be free to tell our stories and our grandparent’s stories to our children. You may be shaking your head and saying you do not have the time or you are not a storyteller. Why not give it a try?
Make it part of your conversation, your life. While you are cooking, talk about the first time you made a special meal or learned to cook. Have your child help you make the bed and talk about where the linens came from or tell them about your first bedroom set. Talk about the first car you drove. Using everyday activities to create a time of remembering and sharing your heritage, makes it part of your life. You will find very quickly that you are a good story teller, because you will hear your children say: “Mom, tell me about the time you…”
Children love to hear stories and have them repeated over and over again. When you read to them or tell them about yourself, you are bonding. Your social, academic, political, and religious views come through. If you want your child to grow up thinking like you, talk to them. If they get to know about you, they will want to talk about the really important things in their lives later on.

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About Robin Densmore Fuson:
With 30 years’ experience as a teacher, Robin Densmore Fuson is currently working on a series of chapter books for grade-school children. Formerly an AWANA missionary, she and her late husband ministered to over one hundred churches worldwide, taking her to places as far as Ukraine and Russia. Now in Colorado, with her husband of one year, she has three married children and ten grandchildren.
Learn more about Robin at: www.robindensmorefuson.com