Tell Me a Story: Using Touch

There are many different ways to incorporate the sense of touch into storytelling and story-acting.

I focused on touch as a starting point when I was working with seniors with dementia. I always had a bag of scarves to serve as props and often brought in other objects (often natural objects that were out of reach for folks living in a facility like seashells or pine cones). Of course all of these objects activate other senses too, but it was important to me to have things they could touch as well as see.

One moment will always stand out to me. A woman that enjoyed our talk sessions but really was not into our acting sessions got swept up into a group-created story about three sisters getting ready to go to a dance. When she agreed to be one of the sisters, I asked her "what color dress will you wear?" She replied, "Blue" and her eyes lit up with delight when I pulled a light blue scarf from my bag . "Yes, that's the color!" she said. She and I draped it over her and throughout the rest of the session, I saw her stroke the scarf while she participated with gusto. I believe it was that moment where her senses got united with her imagination that freed her to enjoy stepping into the group's story.

So here are a few ideas to get started:

1) Choose an object (or objects) to bring into playing with your little person and see how it evolves into a story. With a seashell, you can talk about its colors and textures, listen for the ocean and tell/act a story of the shell' s journey in the ocean. Or imagine what it is like to live inside a shell and act that out.

2) Choose a tactile way to expand a written story that your little person enjoys. An example is having a set of keys to use while reading "Goodnight Gorilla." Scarves or playsilks are always wonderful to become the sea or the sky or other elements of a story.

3) Start with the tactile experience of the here and now. If you and your little person are barefoot in the grass, explore that feeling and let it grow into whatever comes next...maybe being a piece of grass growing. Or telling a story about the toes in the grass that met an ant. Or the toes in the grass that met other toes and took them to meet the brick path by the grass.

That's just the beginning....what ideas do you use with your little ones?

The View from Here & Now

Here and now, I am on a plateau. Somehow so many areas of my life (including finding "a ha!" moments and ideas to blog about) feel stalled right now. My ability to initiate, to create, to make things happen...that ability seems to be set on low (or off). I feel less competent in almost every arena of life. Ugh.

I am not patient with being on a plateau. I am not gracious about being on a plateau. I have all kinds of "good" self-talk about how being on a plateau is also part of learning and growing. It can be a place of integration or a place of regeneration. I am trying, trying, trying to see it as an opportunity to regenerate, to restore energy to heart and mind and spirit.

I attempt to reflect on other plateau times and I know these things to be true. That the plateau is part of learning. I am seeking ways to breathe deeply and take in the view because I know that when things get moving again, that big things may happen.

Improv frames my perspective in this as in many things. I remember after about 2 years of improvising (and I mean IMPROVISING...once I caught the improv bug, that's what I did 4 or 5 nights a week...classes, shows, impromptu get togethers, etc), I just stopped improving. I wasn't able to translate my knowledge of characters and story into action in scenes and games. I floundered. I despaired. It went on for a looooonnnnng time. Friends became performers and excelled. I remained in classes and regressed. And got upset and sad and didn't think it would ever change.

And it did. Slowly without realizing it, it changed. All that head knowledge turned into active knowledge. And I was invited to perform. And teach. And so many doors opened up that I am ever grateful for not giving up. I didn't know what life would look like off the plateau, just that I wanted off the plateau.

Many years later, my perspective is a bit different. I would like to get off the plateau but my hope is I can use this time to prepare for the unknown ahead. I want to feel ready to start saying YES to ideas and opportunities (without obsessing about where are those ideas and opportunities???).


This post is part of the Moms' 30 Minute Blog Challenge over at SteadyMom.

A Girl with a Plan

LP has always been a focused individual. And she has always had plans...I think it a main drive in her early mastery of words was "get these big people in on what the plan is."

And turning 3 has turned up the passion for her plans. She wakes up in the morning with ideas for the moment and the day and goes to sleep at night talking about her next plans with her loveys.

She often bursts from her room after "quiet time" (in quotes because it is rarely quiet) with a list of what comes next. This morning she arrived by our bed with an armful of pandas who NEEDED a walk and then to be wrapped in a blanket while LP ate yogurt with frozen raspberries.

ImprovDad and I are both pretty delighted by her plans. We want to raise a strong girl who can articulate and follow her passions.


Of course, true to her stage of development, interruptions in her plan are met with protest. So I'm attempting to be creative so I still say "yes!" to the plan and her enthusiasm and also can 1) disengage myself when I need a break or have something else I'm doing or 2) there's something else I need her to do (like submit to a diaper change or get her shoes on).

Today as I was trying to wrangle these thoughts into a post, I had the "a-ha!" that some of my delight in LP's plans come from the commitment that she brings to them...it is full commitment of body and spirit.

One of the principles of improv is just that -- COMMITMENT. When we're creating, it is so easy to get scared or unsure or even just plain confused (I've had that moment on stage plenty of times..what just happened?). Commitment is the answer. I've experienced it and witnessed it so many times with improvisors on and offstage. When we commit and really commit with our whole body and spirit, our confidence grows and we start to delight again in the act of creation and the experiences we're having. An example I use in teaching is often in rhyming games which is "a word rhymes with itself -- cat rhymes with cat perfectly. A word rhymes with a similar sounding real word -- cat rhymes with bat and also with a made up word -- cat rhymes with giblat. AND cat rhymes with dog if you say it with enough commitment."

In reflecting on this, I see that I've been in a low-commitment zone. My mind feels a bit fuzzy and I have a slew of unfinished business. None of those projects has hit the crisis mode...and all seem to be in meandering mode. Even my novel is sputtering.

I think I need to see if I can approach even one of these lingering projects with some of LP's energy. If I were to write my novel the way LP tells a story...well, that's an interesting idea... I imagine that I'd be enjoy

Singing to Potatoes by Candlelight

Tonight during dinner, I mentioned how I thought our potatoes probably wouldn't come up. The day after LP and I planted them, we had a week of torrential rain which just seems like too much water. I also fessed up that I don't really know what the growing potatoes would look like and thought I might "weed" them by accident.

LP had a plan (she almost always has a plan these days). She wanted to go out to the garden with a candle and sing to the plants.

A little dialogue brought ImprovDad and I up to speed...and we made the connection to the Frog & Toad story where Toad is worried that he scared his seeds by yelling at them to grow so he plays violin to them and reads them stories.

It would've been easy to talk about it, to story it and to maybe even play act it. LP was suggesting it but not strongly, not insisting on it. AND it was such a perfect moment to surprise LP (and ourselves) by saying "yes!" The dinner clean up could wait, so could the bath. So could every other distraction of the moment.

So after dinner, out out to the back yard we went. I held a candle and LP rode on ImprovDad's shoulders. We stood in front of our wee potato patch and made up a song "Grow potatoes, grow." There was a half moon shining through a partly cloudy sky and a few stars peeking through.

And best of all was the smile on LP's face.

This post is part of the Moms' 30 Minute Blog Challenge over at SteadyMom. Go on, click over and check out all the links.

Another Improv Craft Friday

LP's 3rd birthday was yesterday, so the end of our week last week was all about preparing to celebrate.


The main craft activity was making party favors. A few weeks ago, LP and I had hunted through Goodwill for a wool sweater to felt (my first try). So I had the shrunken, felted sweater which I cut and sewed into mini-bags. (These two a few takes to get them the right size to hold the favors and have decent proportions for being held by small hands.) Then I made a version of Rainbow Mama's little people. I've made a few different iterations of these as gifts...I thought making mini-ones was going to go faster but actually small ones took longer. (So glad I was only making 6!)

Then I added dinosaurs because LP loves those dinosaurs.

LP enjoyed playing with scraps, requesting that I cut her some "pie" or "cherries" or "noodles" and had her usual good time with thread.

She also spent an incredibly long time sorting out branches from a bush that she collected.


It was fascinating to me to listen to her talk as she played and I sewed...sometimes she gave each branch a name, sometimes she gave each one (what sounded like) a title of a book and sometimes she used made-up words. As always I am learning that I never know what will spark her imagination and it was fortunate for me that we each ended up able to work on our "projects" side by side.

I linked this post to se7en's Fabulous Friday Fun!

A Tree "Grows" in LP's Room

This was really my improv craft project (i.e. just leaping in without much of a plan and figuring it out along the way) but LP was along for the multi-day ride of making it happen.

I've wanted to add texture and color to LP's room for quite awhile. Since we rent, there are some limitations to what I can do to the walls, etc. After much contemplation, I finally felt inspired to make a felt tree to cover up the closet door. I bought some brown and green felt, pulled out the sewing box and went to it.

While I worked on this (over 5 days), LP supervised, played with the fabric scraps quite a bit, arranged pins in the pin cushion and (my favorite) made "costumes" by wrapping herself in thread. Yellow thread was her duck costume, green thread was her frog costume and red thread was her London bus costume. It brought back many sweet memories of playing with my mom's sewing box (which is mine now) when I was a kiddo.

Here's the closet before crafting:




And here's the progression of a the tree "growing"...I measured the height of the closet and cut the trunk shape freehand and taped it with my trusty painters tape.


Once it was up, I cut down the center (because the closet folds out) and started sewing it through the slats. This took a loooooooonnnnnnnng time. Cool unforseen effect is that the thread loops make the felt look more like bark.


Next up, I cut leaves out of the green felt using my pinking shears and arranged them on the tree branches. These leaves also were sewed on through the slats of the door.


Lastly, I used leaves to make the rest of the crown of the tree on the door frame. These leaves are hot glued together in bunches and then tacked up with green tacks.


I hope LP enjoys it...I had a good time making it!


AND this post is linked up to Se7en's Fabulous Friday Fun

Tell Me a Story: DIY Myth

And so our sleep-deprived story continues....

As LP (and we) serve out our transition time (that uncomfortable time when the old way of doing things no longer works and the new way of doing things isn't yet defined), there are many awake hours in wee hours of the morning.

Not my best time.

I'm trying many new things to shift our nights into a better and more sleep-filled experience. Along with some straight talk about nighttime (which is for sleeping) I'm also developing the story of the Sleepy Bird. I have a (hopeful) feeling that Sleepy Bird will become part of our bedtime and re-falling asleep routines. She has great potential to serve a mythic function.

A few nights ago, LP really settled down as I started to tell her about the Sleepy Bird getting up out of her nest and flying through the night sky, over houses and apartments and all kinds of places that people are sleeping. I was able to spin a long, long story about trees dreaming about tree things and so on. When the Sleepy Bird sees someone not sleeping, she comes and sings a soft, sleepy song to help them go back to sleep.

Last night when I said goodnight, I reminder her about Sleepy Bird, she smiled and softly said "tweet, tweet".

Fingers crossed that "tweet tweet" and lead to sleep, sleep.

This post is part of the Moms' 30 minute blog challenge over at SteadyMom.

Act It Out: Getting Started

Looking over my blog, I realize how heavily I rely on improvised verbal storytelling and have neglected getting into action. The reason is because verbal stories have been what seem to delight and inspire LP's imagination but as I'm working to challenge her to expand her play, it is good to challenge us both into more active storytelling.

Getting started can be easy...while sharing a story (either made up or already known like a fairy tale), find a place to do a little action together. You can flutter like butterflies or wiggle like worms. You can feed each other pretend spoonfuls of the Three Bears' porridge or clip-clop clip-clop around like the Billy Goats Gruff.

You don't have to commit to acting out the whole story to introduce action into storytelling... although acting out whole stories is something I look forward to with great anticipation!


This post is a part of the Moms' 30 Minute Blog Challenge over at SteadyMom.

Jenny on Improv, Kids & Storytelling

My friend Jenny (improvisor and mom of 2) wrote about telling improv stories with kids over at Improv Notebook. Go check it out!

Tell Me a Story: Meandering Along

One of the traps that I fall into in my storytelling is trying to make it all a neat package with a cohesive beginning, middle and end. Yet if I pay attention to LP during storytelling I find she is much more open-minded about where a story goes. It can be a reflection of (or my best guess) of some of her experience in the world. (Sometimes I think my storytelling job is to help build cohesiveness and other times I think it is simply to reflect.)

So today's storytelling challenge is to let yourself meander like your kiddo.

See something shiny in your story...go over there and describe it, explore it, find out what it likes to eat for dinner and oh, wait...look over there! It's a worm in a puddle swimming home. Follow the worm as she wiggle-swims along and then....Hey! Look over there! The worm found an apple to eat and there's an apple tree with a bird's nest in it and the nest has three eggs, one blue, one green and one red. The eggs are starting to hatch and out comes a dinosaur, a turtle and a bird. A little girl named LP climbs the tree and look sin the nest and then.....

well and then, see what happens next and next and next.

Return to Play

Things haven't been feeling so playful lately at casa de Improv-a-mama. LP's sleep is a mess and therefore so am I. I know it is a phase (most likely brought on by the combination of being almost three + starting to use the potty + transitioning to a big girl bed) but still, I've been feeling off my game in all areas of my life.

So I've been trying to remind myself to find some improv structures to add play into our day when it isn't coming from me in any kind of organic way and when I find myself saying a lot of "no" and wanting to sneak away to read or websurf the second LP's attention is on anything else. I find the structure so helpful AND it takes a lot of pressure off needing to be creative. So the main structure is find something (anything) to say "yes" to and then play with it.

Today play also served some other aims as well.

On our rainy walk, a beanbag purple cow (named "July the Space Heater"...after the cat at preschool and her favorite object) became the vehicle for play. I would place July in a bush and then start looking around calling "July....LP, where's July?" And LP would trot over and find her with joy. July got in trees and fences and behind trashcans and then got to try out a tire swing. And (here's the bonus), LP walked so much more than usual. She's been wanting to be carried everywhere and I so want her to walk more without me becoming a nag about it. Hurray for July the Space Heater and walking Hide and Seek! (And hopefully the extra exercise will help on the sleep front)

Then at lunch, LP was asking and asking and asking for "parfaits" (a la Fancy Nancy of the book of the same name). We save ice cream for a special dessert for Shabbat evenings so I said no but offered to make almonds into French "almondine" by slicing them. She was totally into them and enjoyed asking for another almondine (I sliced them one at a time at the table). Bonus was getting the extra healthy food in her.

Even finding these little bits of play in our daily routine lightens the mothering load that lack of sleep was making feel quite heavy. Remembering that simple "yes" and then just letting an activity grow from that almost always leads to new discoveries for us.

This post is part of the Moms' 30 minute blog challenge over at SteadyMom...go on, check out what other moms are blogging about.

Tell Me A Story: Poetry

My fallback storytelling is to start with what is in front of me. I use details from what I'm looking at or something we did that morning or some concrete event and tell stories from there.

And I've realized that is quite useful, it also can be limiting when I only rely on those techniques.

And I've also realized that LP has NO PRECONCEPTIONS about poetry and all the delightful things that make something poetic (simile, metaphor, imagery and so on). So all the fear voices in my head that criticize my poetic efforts are now dismissed.

So recently I'm reminding myself to play with those things and tell a story about the trees talking with the stars in the sky and a cloud's adventure floating overhead and to imagine eating ice cream is like eating a snowdrift.

This also evolved into a game yesterday when LP was cuddled up in my lap after we spent a good bit of time attempting to plant potatoes (various mishaps occurred, it is quite possible they won't come up). I blew on her and said "Mama is the wind and LP is the tree with lots of leaves" and she giggled. After a few times she started to rock against me and I said "LP is the ocean crashing into Mama as the beach." And she said "crash, crash" getting more intentional in her movements. After a minute or so, she cuddled in again and said "I'm a bird" and when I said "and I am a nest" she said, "Where's mama bird?" So I became that instead.

It was sweet and playful and seemed to fill her up more than a cuddle on its own. (This is pretty crucial these days when I am so hungry for her to play more independently).

"You guys sing..."

I've been noticing and delighting in LP's evolving storytelling. She's moved from responding to more and more initiating.

Now instead of "Tell me a story." she will say "Tell me a story about a space heater who had a cold and needed a cup of tea."

The same is true for songs...she's been saying "Sing a song about a Wild Thing named Violin Case who wants her Mommy."

These requests are so alive and energetic as she moves toward taking on more and more creative control of the stories. I'm reminded how like so many developmental leaps, it is building on the many, many stories I've told, ImprovDad has told, books we've read, stories we've created together ~ some fun, some boring, some logical, some nonsense ~all of these contribute to the magic of now.

Today in the car on the way back from a hike in the Oakland hills, she was calling out to us "You guys sing a song about Sarabbi walking Lulu the dog wearing poodle shoes." (Sarabbi is her new name for herself)

And so we did. And then another and another. All different, all directed by LP. My favorite car ride as a family to date.

Happy New Year, LP ~ I'm looking forward to all the stories we have ahead of us in 2010.

Tell Me a Story: Perspective

LP is in love with a Wild Thing.

We went to the Sendak exhibit at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco and interacting with the two "live" Wild Things was the highlight. Actually the only light because once LP met them the rest of our time in the museum was spent "Wild Thing hunting" so we could find them again. (The actors in those costumes were really great especially since they couldn't really see and had to have a museum staff member directing them where to aim their lovely masked faces and furry waves and high fives.)

So LP got to choose a stuffed Wild Thing at the gift shop; it was truly difficult choice as she told me "I love them all." And so Violin Case (yes, that's the Wild Thing's name and no, I have no idea why but it kinda works) has become a part of the family.

I love the name Violin Case because it so exemplifies the freedom of LP's stage of life. She likes the sound of those words so why not a name? I enjoy so much of that part of LP's play these days...one of Violin Case's buddies at our house is the space heater (named Feather). And really, why not a space heater (as long as certain safety rules are followed). Big huzzah for the imaginative freedom to be friends with people and live animals and plants and stuffed animals and all kinds of inanimate objects.

And now for the storytelling connection....the night after Violin Case joined our family was truly epic in the lack of sleep. Epic. Even for us, the house of insomnia and bad sleep. And it was just LP and me because ImprovDad was out of town. There was singing, there was cuddling, there was rocking, there was soft music and back rubs....and a story.

I told LP the story of Violin Case's day from Violin Case's perspective (rather a la Coduroy). Even despite the miserable early morning hour it was a fun way to tell a story. It was especially fun to explore what Violin Case's thought about LP and our home and the new friends she met like Feather.

So that's my new storytelling start...taking the freedom to choose a different perspective.

This post is part of SteadyMom's 30 Minute Blog Challenge.

These are a few of our favorite things...

As 2009 hurtles to a close, I thought I'd share a few of our favorite things on the books and music front. One of the many wonderful things about being an improvisor is that everything is grist for the improv mill...just like common advice for writers is to read a lot, same is true for improvisors. The more diversity we are exposed to, the more choices our imaginations have as possibilities when we start making things up.

So here's some music and books we enjoyed (and occasionally both combined):

Top Songs of 09
LP gets very attached to songs. We started the year with the incessant refrain of "My Favorite Things"...thank goodness I love Julie Andrews and the Sound of Music because that song was truly on nonstop. Here's some other songs that took several spins on our cd player and ipods:

"Choo Choo Boogaloo" by Buckwheat Zydeco (on the album of the same name)
"Riding on the Buggy" by Phil (on the album Turkey in the Straw)
"Shoveling" by Tom Chapin (on the album Family Tree)
"Roller in the Coaster" by Justin Roberts (on Putamayo's Folk Playground)

A few artists got major play with more than one song in the rotation...pretty much anything by The Carpenters, Asheba (wonderful, local artist, one of my favorite children's performers and I've seen many in a past life in arts-in-education) and currently The Allman Brothers.

Also books that are songs like Raffi's Baby Baluga and Natalie Bernard Westcott's Skip to My Lou were happily read/sang all year long. (I enjoy Westcott's illustrations so I pick up anything at the library that she's written or illustrated.)


Favorite Kids Books
LP and I are major library hounds...and we got through lots and lots of books. These are the ones that stand out and came home with us multiple times (mostly picture books although some are also available in board book form):

I've always loved Bruce Degan's Jamberry and this year we discovered Daddy is a Doodlebug -- an instant hit in our house.

Olivier Dunrea's gosling books especially Gossie and Gossie & Gertie

Farm Fresh Cats by Scott Santoro... a quirky book about the day that something extraordinary happens on Farmer Ray's farm.

Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson

The Mouse and the Buddha by Kathryn Price

Count by Denise Fleming

Time for Bed by Mem Fox

Hush Little Baby by Sylvia Long

Poppleton books by Cynthia Rylant and Mark Teague (early reader book)

Night House, Bright House by Monica Wellington

Owl Babies by Martin Waddell and Patrick Benson

The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco

The Alphabet from A to Y with bonus letter Z by Steve Martin & Roz Chast

Joseph Had a Little Overcoat by Simms Tabak

And pretty much anything by Dr. Seuss, Sandra Boynton or Ezra Jack Keats.

When Someone Else Says "Yes"

My Aunt J is visiting us for a week which is fabulous in so many ways. Many of those I had expectations for (like childcare --- woohoo!!! --- so I was able to say "yes" to some freelance work this week) but the best thing I've seen is the way she notices what LP is interested in and says "yes" to it through her actions.

Like many of her cohort, LP is a nature collector. Happiness is being outside, making bouquets and collecting bits of nature - olives, flowers, grass, dandelions. And fall leaves have been her delight.

And a wonderful thing Aunt J is doing for LP, is that every morning as she walks to our place from her b&b, she picked up something special for LP...a large handful of yellow gingko leaves or a twisty branch with light green leaves or some bright red maple leaves. Such a wonderful start to their connection every morning.

Ah, yes...it is lovely to have one's little person seen by another.

Improv for Tired Parents

Narration is one of my favorite things to turn to when I am feeling weary and LP wants more and more and more from me. A day like today.

I simply narrate what she is doing and spice it up with a bit of color/description. Sometimes choosing a genre helps keep it fun too. When I'm narrating, I start with what is actually happening and then embellish a bit. Sometimes LP accepts offers from my narration and other times they are just for my own entertainment. (My own sitting or lying down entertainment!)

For example:

Nature Documentary
"LP sits on the floor lying in wait. She picks up Norma Chimp to help her track down the missing blanket. With Norma in one hand, she is ready."

Sports Announcer
"And next on the couch for the world's biggest pillow pile is LP with the green pillow! She stacks it carefully...and oh! The pile is falling. LP is under the pile and look, there....she is up again!"

Newscaster
"In today's top headlines, LP is going for the world record of hanging on her mama's leg."

Today's post is part of the Moms' 30 Minute Blog Challenge over at SteadyMom. Thanks Jamie for the continued inspiration to get up a post up on Tuesdays!

A Novel Update

So I did it. Yes, yup, sort of can't believe it but it is true. I wrote a novel this month. Saturday afternoon at 1:32 pm, my word count for NaNoWriMo was validated at 50,050 words.



It feels amazing to have written so many words in such a short time. My novel isn't finished (not by any stretch of the imagination). Yet the bulk of it is out in its baby-step form and now I can edit and write, write and edit and fiddle and fuddle around with it.

And then see what comes next.

One thing that is coming next is a lovely month of improv holiday shows. Let It Snow: An Improvised Holiday Musical opened last night... if you live here in the Bay Area, come on by and see us for an evening (or Saturday matinee) of a classic Broadway-style musical created on the spot by the Un-Scripted Theater Company.

The Kindness of Strangers

Another Tuesday and I'm happy to participate in the Moms' 30 Minute Blog Challenge. See what other moms are blogging about over at Steady Mom.

LP and I just returned from 4 days in Boston and it was a whirlwind of activity, family and friends. Overall, a great trip and since it was a short trip packed with things to do and people to see, neither of us got adjusted to East Coast time so it has been an easier return to our daily life.

Along the way, we experienced many kindnesses large and small. I've realized over the years that the practice of improv has helped me become a better observer of life. I'm more aware of body language and eye contact and more likely to engage with strangers who are "available." As I've grown more willing to be take social risks (saying "yes" to someone who is available for interaction), I've also become more willing to ask for help when I need it (completely against my New England DIY upbringing).

What a gift that was to me on this trip!

So thank you to the strangers who helped us:

*The TSA folks in Boston who helped retrieve the Kleen Kanteen I left on the plane on the way in and helped me get through a particularly hectic security line on the way back

*The family that took a turn listening for our names to be called to get our seat assignments so I could take LP for a much needed diaper change

*The flight attendant who took pity on me in my quest to board early simply to deal with the carseat (no, no, no said the airline) and took it on with him when he got on the plane

*The older woman who was fun conversation during our extra hour wait in Logan Airport and who came to sit with LP on the plane and read to her so I could go to the bathroom alone

*The passengers on both flights who helped me get the darn carseat off the plane (If we travel much more, I'm getting a CARES harness and checking the thing)

Happy Thanksgiving all around...and if you are in the Bay Area, remember Let It Snow: An Improvised Holiday Musical opens this Friday! We perform a full-length, Broadway-style musical set in the hometown of one of the audience members. It is a great way of traveling for the holidays, without all the hassle!

Write, write, write!

This blog post is part of the Moms' 30-minute Blog Challenge over at Steady Mom.

Ten days in and I am still an active participant in National Novel Writing Month. Which is thrilling for me. I hit my initial goal of 10,00 words (50,000 words is the goal of the project) and set a new goal of 30,000. After sitting on that for a few days, I realized that I should just leap for the big one....so my new new goal is the whole shebang of 50,000 words.

19,250 words down; 30,850 to go.

Things I've discovered:

*LP is willing to go head to head with my desire to be writing. She has upped the whining ante but also is having some breaks in the whine when she is distracted by entertaining herself in play.

*Participating in Steady Mom's 30-Minute Blog Challenge the past few weeks has helped me see that I can write in a restricted amount of time. While I try to a chunk of time of 30-60 minutes at least once a day, I've also discovered I can pound out 100-200 words almost anytime I get my fingers on the keyboard.

*I would not have been able to do this challenge years ago. Back then I think the goal-oriented word count focused nature of the beast would not have inspired, where as now I'm somewhat addicted to checking my word count.

*It feels great doing something that is completely for me.

*LP is less likely to interrupt me if I stand up while I write.

*The temptation to reread and edit is so strong; I have to constantly remind myself that crafting the novel, forming its shape and honing and refining character and action are all a future activity, now is just about letting the words flow.

*Improv is so helpful for the writing process! Whenever I'm stuck (say every 10 minutes or so), I use some improv activities to trigger my imagination and get going again. Here's two of my favorites with links to descriptions (I modify them to use for writing):

• Color/Advance (also called Narrative, Color, Emotion)
  

This is my main one. When I'm stuck on the action, I move to coloring in the picture or feelings. When I'm tapped out on those, I see if I can move the action forward.

• What comes Next?
  

I use the most simple version of this...really I just take a breath and ask myself "what comes next?" and try to take the simplest, smallest thing that comes to mind.

• Ask for a suggestion/blind offer

Sometimes it helps trigger my imagination to get something from the outside to work with...much like starting an improv scene from nothing is often more challenging that getting some kind of audience suggestion (a location or name or feeling). Last night I asked LP what the next word in my novel should be and she replied, "Please." (Which surprised me but also says a lot about what's been going on around here). So that will be my next word and I'll find out where that goes.

From a lots-of-things-happening the rest of the month (like a show opening! Let It Snow goes into previews on Nov 19th!) (and teaching "Every Day Improv" next Sunday), it is going to get more and more difficult to find pockets of time to write AND I'm going to keep pushing forward and writing words as fast as I can.

Saying "Yes" to Me

This blog post is part of this week's Moms' 30-Minute Blog Challenge over at Steady Mom.

Last week, I had an important “yes” experience. One that was all about me.

I was fortunate enough to have a bodywork session with Marion Rosen; she is a phenomenal 96 year old powerhouse of a woman who created a school of bodywork, The Rosen Method, that is practiced internationally.

The actual experience was very simple. I lay on a table. She put her hands on me and occasional did some very light manipulation and made some observations and suggestions. Very direct observations and suggestions. I felt a sense of release both on the muscular level and in my psyche during the session and since then, I have felt more lively, more awake and more able to do and not just drag through the day.

One of her observations that hit home (for there were many, she is an insightful being) was that I hold back and don’t reach for what I want.

Immediately I thought of my writing and how often I have put it aside. For good reasons and for not-so-good reasons. Because of work or exhaustion or fear of not being interesting enough or just plain good-enough. I’ve put it aside because of anxiety, because of ambivalence and sometimes just because. There are all kinds of reasons that I haven’t written much these past few years (motherhood is just one of them albeit a BIG one) but I've had a nearly lifelong struggle to give myself space to live a writing life. Writing is the experience, is the place that I miss, I long for and that I don’t reach for despite that longing.

Blogging (which I started doing in late January of this year) has helped me have a little writing practice in my life. Yet to really embrace the reaching, to really say “Yes” and “YES AND” to my own creative desire, I need to dive into something whole-heartedly.

So I’m participating in National Novel Writing Month. Which is completely crazy, over my head and impossible. The goal is to write 50,000 words in the month of November. WHAT? Where is the time to write that many words ~ never mind craft the kind of story I want to create?

And I’m doing it. I’ve never really thought about writing a novel before. In my earlier writing life, I mostly wrote plays with a smattering of short stories and poetry. So this is all new, uncharted territory.

I’m saying yes to my own impossible impulse. And that feels good.

And I'm curious to see if it will refresh my saying "yes" to LP's big inspirations.

Is there something lurking in your life, waiting for you to say "YES" to let loose inspiration?

A Stroller Adventure

This blog post is part of this week's Moms' 30-Minute Blog Challenge over at Steady Mom.

Last Monday was our first day of childcare swap. Our little bud Z came over to our house for a few hours after preschool.

It is about a half hour walk from preschool to our house. So I had LP and Z in a double stroller (which is surprisingly more heavy than the weight of the two kids plus the weight of the stroller). About two minutes into the walk, it started to rain. And Z didn't like the snacks I brought. And LP & I aren't wearing raincoats (at least Z is). And it starts to rain harder. And harder.

The kids were actually pretty relaxed about the cold rain coming down but I was not a happy camper and we still had a good 20 minutes of walking to go.

And so a game was born.

I started with an open question about what they could see from the stroller. That didn't inspire anything, so then I asked Z if he saw anything in the large bush up ahead.

"Lions! I see Lions"

What a delicious offer to all of our imaginations! So we spent a few blocks looking for lions and even occasionally roaring at them. Sometimes I'd ask one of the kids to describe something or point a lion out to me and sometimes Z would spontaneously point one out. This evolved into being in the jungle as we went down a block with lots of greenery reaching over the sidewalk.

It made a challenging walk home fun and certainly took my attention away from the rain and all the other things going on in my head (wondering if Z was going to be happy playing at our house, my self-criticisms of not having LP & I in raincoats and so on and so on).

This is a great "quickie" improv activity.

First, make an open-ended offer to your kiddo's imagination (like asking "what's in that bush?" or "who's hiding under that leaf?"). You can play with the scope of the question (in my story above, my more general question of "what do you see" didn't get any response from the kids but focusing on the bush inspired Z's imagination.

They will either 1) ignore you because something else is cooking up in their minds already, 2) ask the same question back to you or 3) give you an answer that opens a door to more.

Then build on it. Which can be really simple. See the lion they see and then be excited to see the lion they see. Find out what the lion is doing in the bush or move on to another bush and see if there's a whole jungle of animals on your street.

One of the wonderful things about an activity like this is that it doesn't have a specific beginning, middle and end. So you can stop and start as their (and your) interest dictates and those lions will be waiting for you to rediscover another day.

5 Ways Improv is Good for Families

This post is part of the Moms' 30 Minute Blog Challenge.... I love this challenge, it reminds me of some of the best improv games because the "hoop" to jump through to succeed (i.e. write, edit and post a blog entry in 30 minutes) is also an invitation for a different kind of creativity than when there isn't that "hoop."

This is a blog post I've been toodle-ing around in my mind for months but I keep thinking I need to get the idea and wording "just right" so I haven't written it at all. Nothing. Nada. Til now...deep breath...here goes:

Improv is good for families...I knew going into creating our family that improv has been good for me as an individual (helping me with my overwhelming shyness, opening new doors to my creativity and ability to create with others, opening my eyes to new careers and more) and as a partner (ImprovDad and I met in an improv class and have used improv to help us through some rocky moments in our relationship). So it made sense to me that improv would be good for us in our parent-child relationships and as the 3 of us became a family.

Two nights ago, I had my "a-ha! This is it!" moment.

Dinner has been pretty challenging recently...we're trying to both include LP in conversations and also teach her some basic non-interrupting manners (which disrupts any flow of conversation). In the midst of some fussing about something, LP looked at me and said "gorilla." So I repeated "gorilla" and pounded my chest with my fists 5 times while making a funny noise. She looked at ImprovDad and said "gorilla." He did the same. She went back and forth between us a number of times and then ImprovDad said, "LP...gorilla" and she did it and laughed (so did we). It was joyful to find this playful interaction where we were equal participants. AND (as a bonus), it satisfied something for LP, so we were able to finish dinner in a much more relaxed and pleasant way.

Here's my 5 improv-family takeaways...Improv is good for families because the practice of improv:

1. Enhances appreciation of each family member's creativity and uniqueness.
2. Builds ensemble-- in this case, a sense of being a family ---by creating together.
3. Combats materialism -- all we need is ourselves and a willingness to share our imaginations. We can create any environment, scenario or situation using what we've got right now.
4. Creates optimism -- the heart of improv practice is saying "yes" to each other which makes the world a more positive place AND we experience how "yes" makes things possible.
5. Provides experiences where children & parents can play as equals.
   

Enjoying the Moment

LP's imagination is blooming. I overhear it in her dialogues with herself and her toys, in her growing conversations with us and in witnessing her play.

She scribbled on a piece of paper and put a paper penguin on top of it and announced "The penguin is lying down in the mud."

She got a notion to wallpaper the built in cabinet and had me supplying her the painter's tape (every parent's best friend) to put up her newspaper strip "wallpaper."

One of her favorite games involves casting herself as Gossie, ImprovDad as Gertie and me as Ollie (all from Olivier Dunrea's gosling books). She puts on ImprovDad's dress boots (which are deep red) and clomps around the house ordering us around in true Gossie style.

It is phenomenal to think of all the things that are happening in her brain, all the connections being made, all the neurons firing in new zippy patterns that allow her creativity to emerge.

And despite my deep delight, it is easy to want to look away, get distracted with other things even when she is pulling on my leg for me to play too. Yet I know that taking in and enjoying these moments is fuel for getting through the more difficult times. The spillover meltdowns that she has always been prone to that are now fueled by more intense feelings and experiences. The ten thousand interactions during the day where she swings between fiercely wanting independence and desperately wanting to be held and carried. All developmentally on cue. All of those things the work she needs to be doing. All of those behaviors are part of the whole that comes out in her imaginative play.

So I try to breathe deeply and take it in...enjoying her creativity, her storytelling, her imaginative flow and then...breathe more deeply through the other parts.

Stories that Travel

LP and I are newly back from a trip to the East Coast to visit a bevy of family. A really good time AND disorienting for LP in all the ways that you'd expect for a 2.5 year old away from Improvdad and home and routine.

Now I thought that making up stories together would fill hours of plane time but she was having none of it. She has figured out that plane trips are about all the mysterious snacks & toys in the huge backpack...an improv story is a good time but alas, cannot be wrapped up in tissue paper like a present. (Although one can give each other pretend presents but that's a game for slightly older kids...and a different post).

The time & place for improv stories was when LP needed comfort, when she was feeling overwhelmed and tired and missing home. AND the stories she desired were about familiar characters in familiar places doing ordinary things.

LP has a group of characters she likes to hear stories about. We often also sing songs about them too. I cannot remember the evolution of them but they are here to stay. So I introduce you to....the Guy and the Fly and the Noisy Cow. Since they are old favorites, I started to tell her a story about the three of them going to the backyard to play.

At the end of the story, she asked for another. I followed an impulse and asked her "same story or different story?" LP replied "same story!" and I told her the same little tale about the Guy and the Fly and the Noisy Cow playing in the backyard at least 4 times. Then the same repetition of story about the Guy and the Fly trying to wake up the Noisy Cow from a nap.

I love it when I am surprised by what stories can give us...in this case, the stories were a security blanket, a reminder of home and a way to connect and get grounded again.

Tell Me a Story: Getting Started

Some folks are more comfortable than others spinning stories. It seems like I often hear or read about parents/aunts/uncles/grandparents/nannies/etc who tell fantastic, episodic stories.

Kind of intimidating for the rest of us.

So start simple. There's no pressure for a made-up story to be a certain way or even "good." What is "good" in relation to stories anyway? If you and your little person enjoy the experience, then it is good.

Start with something small that really happened.

"Once upon a time, LP was waiting for the bus with her mama. It was a hot day and they waited and waited and waited."

Then make an offer that can trigger your (and their) imagination. Words like "suddenly" and phrases like "all of a sudden" can be magic in inspiring what comes next.

"Suddenly a giant bumblebee flew over to them and offered them a ride."

If you get stuck for plot, move to description and color the story.

"The giant bumblebee has 3 black stripes and 3 yellow stripes. It was very fuzzy and was wearing a bright, pink scarf. "

You can alternate between "suddenly" moments to move the action of the story forward and descriptive moments until you're ready to wrap the story up.

LP & her mama climbed on the giant bumblebee's back and flew home. They invited the bumblebee in for a snack. They all had tea and and graham crackers with honey.

Some stories will be of the moment and then are gone. Others will capture your little person's imagination and then you have the foundation for episodic stories. (A post on that topic coming soon!)

One Activity Improv Challenge Follow-up

I had a lot of ideas for mess-making. A LOT of ideas thanks to many friends and some internet searching. Most of which didn't get used but the warm up to focusing on saying yes to the mess was helpful and fortunately, ideas don't go bad.

And in focusing on saying "YES!" to messy projects for a week, I learned (or relearned) a number of things.

• Process, process, process...it is all about the process. LP was totally happy playing with the shaving cream so we didn't get around to adding food coloring or paint. When I set up paper mache, she wanted to play with the ripped up newspaper, the cardboard, the tape and the glue in turn but wasn't interested in putting those elements together. AND I also had reinforced that LP's body is her favorite canvas.
  

• If you love it, do it again! LP is always a fan of playdough and clay. She was particularly happy with the homemade playdough that I made with this cornstarch/baking soda recipe. I think she used this at some point every day, some times on its own and other times with paint and toys.
  

• There is always room for more YES! LP wanted cornstarch and cornstarch and more cornstarch to play with. She made a small "snowdrift" and rolled around in it and wanted more. Sadly we were out but oh, how I wished for a huge box of cornstarch to see what would happen.
  

• Ask myself "why not?" When I didn't want to do something, I asked myself why...when LP wanted to add playdough to the paint, my first reaction was "no" but really, there's no reason why not. This question also lead me to some rearranging. LP has an easel but it despite her love of doing things art-related, it wasn't getting much use. Now the easel is on an easy-to-clean-up mat (instead of the hardwood floor) and has open space around it (at least lessening the opportunity to paint and color "accidentally" on other things).
  

• And ask myself "why not?" again. By focusing on saying yes to mess, I also was giving myself space to look at when I say "no" (or want to say "no") and check out why. I also was able to pay attention to how to make our transitions out of messy play a better experience for us both (start early, give lots of verbal prep and break it down into small steps...I've tended to be all gung-ho and then go "oh no! I have to make dinner" and rush from one thing to the next which is not the way to go for this 2.5 year old).
  

So it was a worthwhile experiment and one I'm sure I'll do again.

Improv Crafting

Improv is a state of mind...it is a way of thinking about and experiencing the world.

The core principles as I've learned them (say yes and yes AND, make your partner look good, trigger your partner's imagination and celebrate failure) are truly and deeply a part of my life. I use these principles to reflect on my relationships and interactions and I get a burst of glee when I find a new place in my life that has room for improv.

I like to make stuff. I don't enjoy following directions and I am totally challenged on the spacial front...learning to craft like an improvisor has been a relief! It is a mini-journey rocketing forward now that LP is full-on into the arts & crafts experience.

I do often looked for reference points and help on complicated projects (or ones that I had a need to "get right" like the quilt I made for LP before she was born with mega-help from friends). AND I'm finding myself more and more willing to jump in and figure out what will work using the inspiration of the moment and the materials at hand.

LP is starting to have an interest in kitchen play, so I dug up some felt and set out to make a mess of cherry tomatoes. They are a little odd and lumpy but totally easy and satisfying to make and even more satisfying to watch her play with them.

As I made them, when thoughts about making the "perfect" cherry tomato would arise, I could let it go -- realizing that LP loves to turn books into puddles, a cooking spray can into her friend the rapping frog and flowers into ice cream. She doesn't need perfect (in fact, even these might be more representational than she likes)...and I was happy to discover to see that I don't either. Yes!

Warm Up to Play, Part I

Yesterday at the playground, LP was a bit out of sorts. Not a tantrum out of sorts (lucky for me) but a kind of wandering around in a bit of a listless way, not finding anything engaging out of sorts. Even the swing, which she'll usually enjoy for as long as possible, was of limited interest.

Turns out she was warming up for round 3 (or maybe 4) with the cold we've been sharing back and forth for the past few weeks. But in the moment....frustrating because I was hoping finally getting out after many days of being cooped up at home would be liberating for both of us. (Usually I'm the one with the higher needs at the playground because I find playground socializing challenging...I'm working on it but it brings out all of my shy awkward self. Today the need was all LP. And she is at the blissful part of life where you just don't have to put a good face on things.)

After almost an hour, we ended up sitting in a patch of sand and LP was half-heartedly pushing some sand around. I started to dig and made up a little story with actions something like this:

Once upon a time, there was a dog who liked to dig, dig, dig. And she went dig, dig, dig and put her bone in the hole. Then she went cover, cover, cover and pat, pat, pat to hide the bone.

"Do it again," says LP.

Ah, a spark of interest. So rinse and repeat...I think we did that simple story with all the digging and covering action (a small piece of wood in the sand was the bone) at least 6 times.

And then something caught her eye and she was off to explore.

She was still not her usual self but somehow that activity together warmed her up to play.

Which got me to thinking about warm ups. When I teach, facilitate or lead a session be it improv, teamwork, communications or drama therapy, I always use warm ups. And I spend time in the planning making sure the warm up leads into the main activity.

With LP, she's so often just ready to go, to play, to explore, to imagine...I really hadn't been thinking about warm ups. And now that I'm thinking about it, I'm seeing that coming up with some warm ups for me would be helpful for all the times that I'm distracted or tired or not in the mood when it really is time to play....that'll be part II - warm ups for us big people.

Storytime: Working Out the Fear

The nights have been long this past week; LP has entered a phase (hopefully a short phase) of waking up around 12:30 screaming.

The first two nights, it seemed to be night terrors connected to a mask she was fascinated by at a Mexican restaurant. The next night was a mystery. The next two nights seemed to be because I wasn't home at bedtime (for the first time in a loooong time, too looong a time). And the last two nights have been because she is trying to drive me over the edge (not far to go right now, the sleep deprivation is severe). Is it a new habit? More night terrors? Teething? Growing pains? A mysterious phase that will work itself out because that is what happens...things change and change and change.

LP & I did work through the mask fear by using stories. (During the day, storytelling did nothing for us in the middle of the night.)

Over 2-3 days, most of the stories we told together were about the mask. Some were in passing, some were sitting down and focused and some were while sculpting masks out of sand at the playground.

The mask was described again and again (green with big eyes and a red tongue sticking out); the mask made friends with Gumby (they do have being green in common) and a frog (hmmm...more green, I'm sensing a theme in LP's life), AND then the mask learned the dreidel song and sang it with LP ("I have a little dreidel, I made it out of clay..."). Learning the dreidel song seemed to be the thing that put her fears about the mask to rest.

Maybe someone could do some stories with me to work out my fear of never getting enough sleep?

Storytime - take a new path off a familiar trail

Today was my drop-in improv story group at Habitot (habitot.org)....This has been my first month and it is a great lab for ideas and learning experience for me.

The age range of the kids in the drop-in group as been a few months old to around 4 years old...my practice lab at home with LP is exclusive to her specific 2 year old development so I have to bring a focused improv mindset to work with the range of abilities and interests int he room.

Today I experimented with using a mix of the familiar to get started and then following/creating a new story based on the participation.

I prepared for my internally titled "Chicken Story Day!" by reviewing the stories of Chicken Little and the Little Red Hen and remembering to bring my props (a stash of homemade seed "pods" I've been making - all stuffed with green fabric to pull out to make plants grow and lovely generic blue, green and yellow large pieces of fabric to serve as whatever was needed).

I also used familiar songs and let them get a "twist"...starting with "Hello, everybody, it's so nice to see you.." which the kids know from a bazillion storytimes, music groups, etc and using that song to "wake up" the different animals on the farm.

The Chicken Little story had a chicken puppet using one of the seedpods so then I passed them out to all the people - big & little- to work together in planting a full crop that we planted, watered, helped grow, harvested and finally feasted on.

Although neither story wandered too far off the familiar path, I think this has a lot of potential as a "story prompt" when my making it up well is dry. The LPs of the world can always help trigger our imaginations to tell the story of the three golf carts when we were headed off to tell the Three Little Pigs again.

On a funny note, LP spent most of the session amusing herself with different puppets and other farm props in the area except for coming up to me on a fairly regular basis to say "sing a song." So then...there were songs (one improvised from scratch, one take-off on a known song and one version of "Twinkle Twinkle" as sung by ducks).

Silly Stories

My friend Trina and I were talking about linear vs. nonlinear storytelling and how the story-spine guides a particular kind of linear story. She's in educational publishing and is also bilingual (Spanish) so had some insights into how an emphasis on linear stories is very American.

For variety, treat your kiddo(es) and yourself to a nonlinear wordplay or story treat!

There are many, many examples in children's literature and these often are based in funny rhyming and made up words and just plain old delicious word play.

A few ideas:

Rhyming words back and forth. LP loves to do this and the "rules" such as they are include any word rhymes that she says, we can repeat words and make up words ("ishkaboo" and "blue" and "new" all rhyme with "new")

Tell a story about a favorite animal and see how far you can get with rhymes (see if you can let go of making "sense"). For example: There once was a duck, a lucky duck, lucky dippy ducky duck who drove a truck with lots of pluck into muckity muck. (That satisfies for a whole story sometimes). When we build on that, I ask LP a question like "what did the duck do next?" or "who did the duck meet?"...sometimes it simply loops back into the rhymes we did (if I remember them, otherwise it is all new territory) and other times moves forward as the duck and crocodile nap for awhile, while they smile in a pile that went for a mile.

A purely gibberish story. Gibberish is a made up language that anyone can speak...it can be as simple as "blah blah blahblahblah blaaaaah blah" (think the adults in the Charlie Brown specials) or in an animal language (The cow told a story "Once upon a moo, moo moooo moo moo"). Use inflection, intonation speed, emphasis etc to give meaning to it. You don't need to know what the meaning its, this is all about playing with language.

Sound effects story...all about adding those fun noises. "Walking through the mud I squish, squash, sploosh. The rain pitter-patters, patter-pitters then comes down with a whoosh! "

Those are my first thoughts about it...please do share your ideas too!

Expectations

LP loves to do art.

I love that LP loves to do art.

In particular, she's very engaged in painting (especially painting herself - especially painting her arms and hair). Sometimes the clean-up is tedious (for me) and tearful (for her) but so easy to say "yes" to - at least most of the time - the intensity of her concentration wows me.

LP's Grandpa made her a fantastic easel so she has anytime access to crayons. She digs the crayons and will dabble a little in drawing with them but mostly, she wants to art direct. Which I have come to realize that I'm resistant to because I really, really, really want her to draw on her own. (I have no "high art" aspirations for my toddler - just your regular amazing scribbling/doodling kind of thing).

I had no idea that I harbored this fantasy world and it has surprised me how hard it is for me to let go and just enjoy the authority of her art direction. As someone who is a bit self-conscious about drawing, it is actually pretty fabulous to draw pages of eyes, toes and belly buttons (sometimes connected with other body parts, sometimes not).

I'm so curious where this will go...just need to remind myself that this is the path we're headed down and that it is the one of LP's choosing.

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:

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.

Story Spine

One of my favorite improv exercises is also a great tool for telling stories with babies/toddlers. Called the story spine, I learned it from Kat Koppett (a most fabulous improvisor/teacher/trainer and mom...check her out at koppett.com) who I think learned it from the originator, Kenn Adams.

Here's the structure (just finish the sentence and voila! you have a story)

Once upon a time...
Every day...
Until one day...
Because of that...
Because of that...
(repeat "Because of that..." as often as you like)
Until finally...
Ever since that day...

Optional ending line: The moral of the story is...

Seem familiar? Most fairy tales and a lot of kids' stories as well as novels, movies, etc fit in this story structure. Simple & brilliant!

When LP was a very small one, I would use this to make up very short stories for her. It evolved into part of our nighttime routine. Bath, diaper &pjs , milk, swaddle and a made-up story. For awhile I got into a groove of an ongoing made-up story (starring Baby LP, of course with her friends Baby Bird and Baby Turtle). The stories were oftensurprisingly moralistic to me. Maybe as a new parent, I needed a world that was very black and white in terms of right and wrong. It was a comforting stance although I seem to be back to a more seeing the gray, humanistic, and well, blurrier view of things.

Over time, realizing that LP wasn't judging the stories AT ALL, I started to relax and let myself be more playful, explore new avenues, nonsense avenues...and let my daily experiences, the real where I was at, filter in. Well, perhaps more than filter in...in one particular episode Baby LP saved the day as she protected her friends by scaring off the terrifying squirrel with projectile spit-up.

Now that LP is older, this structure supports our telling stories collaboratively. It is an activity that we can do almost anytime and almost anywhere (particularly good for public transit). Sometimes LP participates by finishing the sentences and other times by my asking her questions (who did the frog see?). (Many of our stories feature frogs or crocodiles. Those are the hot topics in our house these days.)

Sometimes it even evolves into telling a story one word at a time. These are particularly short stories but she seems to enjoy them a lot. I wonder if it feels like being equals? (More on word-at-a-time story in another post).

I do still get caught up in judging our stories sometimes. They are often simple. I have to remind myself that if LP is engaged, it is happening just as it should. AND I am able to stay engaged by keeping alert to opportunities to see what else we can do with the story spine.

Also, stories for kids often are simple.

And repetitive. Repetitive. Repetitive. Again? Really? We just read that book 5 times...how about this one? Nope. Read and repeat. Storytell and repeat...AND I find it easier to introduce something new...some bit of color or filling out a moment or acting out an animal noise. Anything helps sometimes.

One new thing that has emerged very recently...LP likes to start off our collaborative stories the same way and then changes one element that then effects the outcome. For example, a story a few days ago was about a pterodactyl and pterodon who need a dog to help them out (the pterodactyl gets stuck in a tree after it was flying along very fast) was changed significantly when LP, after a lot of thought, made it a crocodile who comes along to help out. Very different kinds of solutions become possible with a crocodile!o