We were very fortunate to have Patricia Rubano visit Sandy Hill to preform a puppet show and lead a discussion for parents. Using simple felted creatures as characters and silk scarves to set the scene she demonstrated we all have a host of characters at our fingertips. Little buzzing bees hung from a twig & danced over the blue silk rivers. Felt flower children woke up & put on their petal hats for the evocation of spring! The earth mother, made from a little fabric, felt and an old sweater shrink to fit, orchestrated the performance. So very sweet and very simple.
After the show we discussed Storytelling and its role in our lives and how we tell stories to our children.
We discussed how the stories we tell are integral to the mind's growth and have the power to heal, teach and make sense of the world for the thinking and feeling child.
Please enjoy the supplemental readings & links provided by Patricia:
1. The genius of a Natural Childhood by Sally Goddard Blythe
2. How to create stories for children who are having fears and nightmares by Nancy Mellon
3. From a lecture by Joseph Chilton Pearce summarized by Carol-Jean Swanson
4. "Storytelling conveys language and story plot structure, which enhances reading comprehension. "Poor readers of every age have difficulty connecting between what they read and what they already know. Telling a story provides a road map of information, ideas and characters to the listener and when coupled with a discussion of the story, the student learns that the purpose of reading is to acquire information and insight." The oral story holds the attention of the listener and this process of focusing a group's attention spills over into other educational activities enhancing social skills and confidence. (US Dept Education, 1988;ERIC, 1988; NCTE, 2008) pg. 32 of Aric Sigman's Practically minded
5. 5. The Poetry and Meaning of Fairy Tales by Rudolf Steiner
6. From Childhood and the growing Soul by Caroline von Hydebrand:
The Health Giving Effect of True Imagination
Ursula Grahl (Shared with us by Connie Manson)
Abstract thoughts by themselves have no strength, but every abstract concept can be turned into a picture. When we behold a picture, our feeling too is engaged—and if the picture is a true one, it has a harmonizing influence on the body—it makes us well. When we merely turn our gaze inward and ponder over our troubles and difficulties, these tend to grow insurmountable, and we become more and more entangled in them. But when we behold them reflected in outward pictures and can look at them objectively, then we can inwardly free ourselves from them and find strength to overcome them. Indeed, there are few difficulties with which man is faced, but there are fairy stories which offer a
healing remedy.
Fairy tales bestow upon us another precious gift—and that is the unshakable faith in the power of metamorphosis. Nothing is so hopelessly bewitched, wither in fairy tale or in human life, but that somewhere there is a healing magic that can release it.
