Color everything - there are no lines!
Here's a simple one that I'm getting a lot of mileage out of these days.
Color - which in improv is all about description, to verbally color in the scene, character, story, moment, etc.
LP is very into (and loyal to) her stuffed buddies. Yesterday the way out of a tantrum/meltdown of the "I'm not napping" origin (a very long one at that), was when I started to describe Mona Cow who she was holding onto. Something like this:
I "colored" for at least 10 minutes, maybe more. This could easily turn into a story. In this instance, LP was inspired to have Mona Cow want to read a book so we read the books of Mona's choice (Goodnight Gorilla and Mrs Wow Never Wanted a Cow).
Variations: Describe what your little person points to or is looking at, ask your little person questions to help with the description or just tell a descriptive story (no action necessary, all scene setting and then it can be foundation to come back to and expand into an action story...if this evolves with Mona Cow, I'll share it)
I find this really good for me when I'm feeling uncreative, overtired and a little cranky...suppose I could've used a nap too.
Color - which in improv is all about description, to verbally color in the scene, character, story, moment, etc.
LP is very into (and loyal to) her stuffed buddies. Yesterday the way out of a tantrum/meltdown of the "I'm not napping" origin (a very long one at that), was when I started to describe Mona Cow who she was holding onto. Something like this:
Once upon a time there was a cow named Mona Cow. She was a brown cow, a light brown cow with dark brown spots. She had two eyes. She had two soft brown ears and two small soft pink horns. She had dark brown hooves. She liked to stand on her back two legs....she wore her favorite sweater. The sweater is orange with pink trim.And so on, and so on...really stating the obvious. LP would cue me about what was most interesting to her that she wanted to hear again ("she had horns") or more about (as she kept playing with Mona's sweater to see if it would come off).
I "colored" for at least 10 minutes, maybe more. This could easily turn into a story. In this instance, LP was inspired to have Mona Cow want to read a book so we read the books of Mona's choice (Goodnight Gorilla and Mrs Wow Never Wanted a Cow).
Variations: Describe what your little person points to or is looking at, ask your little person questions to help with the description or just tell a descriptive story (no action necessary, all scene setting and then it can be foundation to come back to and expand into an action story...if this evolves with Mona Cow, I'll share it)
I find this really good for me when I'm feeling uncreative, overtired and a little cranky...suppose I could've used a nap too.
posted by Susan at
6:50 AM
2 Comments:
Interesting correlation with that NPR(?) mention of the woman who recorded her kid falling asleep -- the girl would talk for half an hour or so, and what she was talking about was in fact the probable events of the following day . . .
When our hero the LP got all upset about not being within eyeshot of mama and daddy, one thing that stilled the storm was "coloring" her day: we were going to go to the park, and eat a snack, and come home, and read some books, and have some lunch, and we'll have avocado and cheese and water and then we'll read some books and take a nap, and mama and daddy are at the store, and they're going to have some lunch, and see a movie, and . . . . .
it ended up not quite being like her day, but the story was enough to calm the flood for awhile . . .
Color! :o)
Glad to have some independent verification that it helps our girl out...I've noticed her using it some on her own yesterday and today, being much more descriptive of her beloved menagerie friends....Tonight she didn't want to go to sleep and kept semi-shouting "Cora play the guitar." Which is true, our 5 year old friend Cora was playing the guitar when we went over there for dinner. What helped move through it, was holding her and talking for a moment - coloring the memory...then she was able to lie down and head off to sleep.
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