Storytelling is big around our house. The tiny person is totally into making up her own universe filled with adventures, conversations, friends and a bit of drama to keep it interesting.

I’ve always been excited about her penchant for telling tales. But, there are definitely times when the stories veer off into the “We’ve obviously been watching WAYYY too much TV lately realm.” So, I’ve been looking for ways to get her thinking less about the Backyardigans and more creatively, but also chronologically, putting pieces of a story together like a puzzle.

No expectations of the Governor General’s Award being won any time soon, just some basic beginning, middle, end stuff. But, how the heck was that going to work?

Then, local Kindermusik educator Carol Anne Parkinson forwarded me an e-mail and handed me the perfect solution - story boxes.

This easy project had amazing results and it was something that not only gave our daughter a great way to keep her stories going, it also let her work on fine motor skills and a sense of accomplishment in that she pretty much made the whole project.

Here’s what you need:

- An old tissue box
- Old magazines (we used thrifted Chirp magazines from SVD)
- Scissors (safety for the preschoolers)

Directions:

- Let your tiny person(s) cut shapes, creatures, signs, words, anything at all out of the old magazines and stuff them in the tissue box.
- Then, pull the pieces out - 3 at a time - and have your kiddos make up stories using the images they just pulled out of the box. We took three out to start the story and, after getting one part done, grabbed three more to continue and let it grow until we had all of the pieces out and had told a very long story.

It sounds ridiculously easy (which is why I like it). But, I was totally blown away at how much our daughter got into the whole thing. You could make story boxes on different topics, with themes to go with other home learning projects, or even put snapshots in the box and have your kids tell stories about the family and friends.

It’s a great way to get their brains cranking on a chilly Autumn day.