Reading books and Storytelling with Young Children

Jasmin Brackenfield
Sep 18
9 min read

The Waldorf approach places a special emphasis on the power of storytelling and the role of books in a child’s development. Stories can nurture imagination, support emotional growth, and create meaningful family rhythms. Here, we share some storytelling tips, suggest age-appropriate tales and books, and offer ideas for encouraging storytelling and puppetry with your children at home.

Sharing books with children.

Books are an important part of childhood. Children love nothing more than the undivided attention of their parents or loved ones. Sharing a book or story, whether at bed-time or through the day, is a lovely gift for your child(ren) and for your connection with them. Books can also be used to introduce ideas, help children to learn about the world in an age-appropriate way and help children to find a way through difficulties through using a ‘therapeutic’ type of story. Books and stories are nice as a quiet interlude during the day, and we encourage them to be a part of your daily bedtime routine. In the words of Sally Goddard Blythe, in the book The Genius of Natural Childhood:

‘Simple stories told over and over again help children establish a bedtime routine and wind down at the end of the day, and create space for parent and child to spend a few treasured moments together every day sharing an activity and language that goes beyond more mundane, daily conversation. Some of the best bed-time stories that have stood the test of time, tend to draw on musical language, imagination and repetition. The American children’s book Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown is a good example of the genre, and a much-loved favourite with children.’

What types of books or stories are used with kindergarten aged children and why are they considered so valuable?

Books and stories should be age appropriate. For the younger child repetition is good, the children love their rhythm and familiarity of stories and books with repetitive phrases such in The Gingerbread Man, The Three Billy Goats Gruff and The Enormous Turnip. Children love rhyming and poetry, alliteration and the repetition of key words and phrases, all of which can help keep a child interested and engaged in the story. After hearing a story like this a few times, children will begin to join in with the repetitive sections. This also helps develop memory in an age appropriate way. Children remember and learn stories and books by heart long before they can read. And they love to hear the same books and stories over and over again.

As children get older they need longer and more complex stories, books and fairy tales such as Mother Holle, or Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Chapter books are good at this age. We have compiled a book list of recommended titles for different ages, which you will also find on Google Classroom. In her experience, Joan Almon thinks that stories aimed at the elder children in kindergarten do not trouble or harm the younger children in a mixed age kindergarten,which is also good to know if you have older siblings.

‘The best stories for children help them commune with profoundly benevolent laws’ (Mellon, 2000) P112

What types of stories and books are suitable for Kindergarten aged children.

In our weekly packs we share seasonally and age appropriate stories with you. We encourage you to also look into the following types of books or stories. In kindergarten we use all three main types:

Nature Stories and Books

Simple nature stories are suitable for the youngest child, as well as older kindergarten children who still enjoy them. Stories in this way are seasonal and should reflect the seasons around the child. In winter as a kindergarten teacher (not in Saplings) I told Shingebiss, a tale about a little brown duck Shingebiss who battles with Big Chief North Wind and wins! Now we are moving into spring, the nature stories will reflect this season, such as stories about seeds growing, The Root Children is a lovely story which gives a picture of the whole cycle of a year, in a child appropriate way. The picture (on right) is of a book for younger children (perhaps 1-4) and is an abridged version, the full version The Story of the Root Children, also by Sibylle von Olfers is suitable for children 4 and older.

We recommend books which paint a picture, such as Lady Spring , King Winter, The Tomten, and stories about fairies and elves, rather than the more factual nature type books, with photos and labels of animals and different environments. Children live in the imaginative realm and their experience should be more in story form rather than intellectual approaches at this age.

The Wynstones Press books Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter: Poems, songs and Stories are rich sources of seasonal stories and songs suitable for young children. There are lots of lovely nature inspired Waldorf books, see the recommended reading list for these and more titles.

Fairy Tales:

Fairytales expand on the theme of good overcoming evil or overcoming problems. Fairytales vary in complexity and different tales are suitable for different ages and also personality types. We highly recommend that you get a copy of Grimms’ Fairy Tales. and read the ones you are comfortable with.

In almost every fairytale there is either a problem that must be solved, such as how to get the porridge pot to stop cooking, or a confrontation with evil which can take many forms such as the queen in snow white…the milder the problem the more appropriate the tale for the younger children and conversely the greater the peril the more appropriate the tale for older children. Almon, J.

Einstein thought that imaginative thinking was more important than knowledge. When the mother of a nine year old potential genius came to him for advice to further develop hers son’s talents he replied:

‘Tell him stories if you want him to be intelligent, and even more stories if you want him to become wise.’

In kindergarten we deliberately choose to tell stories orally to the children, which develops their internal imagination, ability to picture things, listening skills as well as good language development.

It might be nice if sometimes you tell a child a fairy tale, or read from chapter books rather than only picture books. This helps develop children’s listening skills, imagination and helps with good language development. We give some ideas of fairy tales that are suitable for different ages in the accompanying article titles Choosing Fairy Tales for different ages, an abridged version of an article by Joan Almon.

Susan Perrow tells us about when her six year old son was asked why he liked fairy tales ’…he replied:

“Because they think about what I think about” She continues… This childlike wisdom helped to build another link in my chain of understanding- for a child the imaginative and spirit world could be as real as the physical everyday world. Children seem to have the ability to cross back and forth on this bridge like butterflies. Most adults, on the other hand, struggle to take the smallest steps, like cumbersome many legged caterpillars, from one realm to the other.”

Making up your own stories.

Children dearly love to hear little stories from your childhood, stories that you make up about nature, animals and any story that comes to you. My husband always told our children stories about a little white dog called Rex. This dog always had adventures and there was often a good dose of humour in them too. When we got a real puppy, we just had to name him Rexi! Even though Rex in the story was small and whits and our real dog, Rexi, was large and mostly black.

My favourite stories as a child were the ones my dad made up about a little girl. She was strong and went on lots of adventures. My dad was a busy man who worked far more than 9-5, and still to this day I treasure the memories of the Janela stories, as we named them. My feeling as a child, when my dad told me a story, was that he loved me. It felt close and intimate, like he was truly there with me and connecting, which indeed he was.

Development that comes from the good use of storytelling and stories

Symbolic thinking develops before logical thinking. A child naturally and intuitively understands the meaning of each story. Carefully chosen stories feed the child on a deep level. Ana Abron compared images to seeds, and that they have the ‘power to grow within you.’ Children naturally use images- the internal images developed by listening to stories and these internal images can grow within them. They also develop a kind of creative thinking over time, which can lead to free thinking, which simple factual truths, which come from adult thinking, do not.

Stories also give children food for their imaginative play which furthers these developments.

Doves Garden Nurturing Young Minds Naturally — **Doves Garden** Nurturing Young Minds Naturally

Therapeutic stories: a blueprint of how to overcome adversity.

Indeed all fairy tales end with the good overcoming the bad, giving the child an internal strength and trust in the world. We want young children to feel “the world is good” and that good overcomes evil and that we can overcome challenges. This positive message, and the associated images in fairy tales, give the growing child an inner confidence that they can manage in life and that the world is safe. Many fairy tales can be used as therapeutic stories, such as Mother Holle for a child who is reluctant to tidy up.

Stories can also be told for therapeutic reasons, Susan Perrow has dedicated books on this subject, which give you stories that can help with whatever challenge you or your child are facing. and also tips should you wish to write your own. Healing Stories for Challenging Behaviour is the first in the series, followed by Therapeutic Storytelling and An A-Z Collection of Behaviour Tales.

If a child is struggling say with toileting, a carefully chosen picture book or story can help. It is a way of unconsciously telling a child they are not alone, and this character (in the story) overcomes the problem like this.

Storytelling tips

Storytelling is an art, therefore it takes time to develop and children are not critical, they just enjoy spending time with you and listening to books or stories. So just relax and enjoy the experience. You will improve the more you do it.

For the short time looking at a book together or sharing a story it so helps if you:

Are completely present and available and in the moment with your child.
Stories and books are a wonderful opportunity to relax together and connect with your child, so stop, put your phone away!
Your voice should not be too dramatic as this can frighten the children, the story should be told with a calmness.
Pace the story to suit it and remember pauses.
If you like you can practice telling the story out loud, to hear yourself tell the story and play with emphasising certain phrases, and bringing qualities to the voice that suit the words and meaning of the story.
Create silence and calmness allows the active attention of children’s listening.
Mellow reminds us that “a child’s patient, active attention, which is the foundation of all learning.”

Nancy Mellon in Storytelling with Children reminds us to consider the children’s temperament when choosing books and stories. Phlegmatic children benefit from calm stories (especially involving a feast), whereas a predominantly sanguine child will appreciate stories involving beauty, fairy stories about birds or flowers. Fiery children need to be met with the same energy: danger, a fast pace and a bold plot, whereas melancholic children can

be helped if they hear about tragedy that is worse than their own troubles, this can make them feel like there are people worse off than themselves.

Children love storytelling too!

Do remember that stories are not a one-way affair, passed only from adults to children, and we are missing an important key if we don't turn the tables and make the adults into good listeners. Recent theories point to children's own storymaking as playing a central role in learning and development from the earliest stages.

Children have an inborn drive to develop their own stories about their experiences and feelings, and their brains are built for it. When we work with children as the storytellers, we are responding to and supporting their inborn powers to make sense of the world, to think logically, and to understand themselves and others.

You can also make or buy some simple puppets, with a rectangle of felt, and a head made from wool and stockinette. This can encourage children to make their own puppet shows at home and develop their own creative storytelling abilities over time. Freya Jaffke’s book Toymaking with Children has patterns for standing dolls, which can be made from felt, and made simple (like the ones below). It also has ideas for knotted dolls and animals.

With just a piece of cloth or wool roving and a little imagination plus a knot or two in the right place, you can make a hare, a cat or figure within a short time.