episode 5
===
Welcome to Stories That Stick with me, Laura, as your resident storyteller. I'm here to show you how oral stories inspire and captivate minds young and old. Tune in each week to hear a compelling story and join in meaningful conversations. I'll be digging deep into the heart of storytelling, connection, and listening.
So whether you're a kid, teacher, caregiver, grandparent, or simply a lover of stories, this podcast is for you. Join me as you get lost in another world and discover how stories shape our lives. Here's to the next page in our story.
[00:00:40] Laura: Hey everyone, I've got one of my closest friends, Ade Hofmann, here and we're gonna chat about none other but storytelling and getting outside. of course, I know her so well and instead of me introducing her, I'm gonna let her share a little bit about herself and what has gotten her to where she is in her life and career now before we dive in.
[00:01:03] Ade: Hi, everybody. Welcome. Welcome. Glad you're here today. My name is Aid Hoffman. You can find me on Instagram on nature play all day. I've been teaching outdoors now for just It's about seven years. I left the traditional teaching classroom and traded, I like to say, I traded fluorescent lights for sunshine and I never looked back.
And it's been really incredible. Uh, teaching outside has changed like just my whole life, not just how I teach, but how I see the world, how I am at home and all of that. And really being outside and being in nature and with nature, with children has been a really powerful experience. And so I'm excited to talk a little bit about that today, especially when it comes to literacy.
I mean, a lot of times people are like, if you're just outside all day, you're not learning, which is not true. So, I think we could probably tackle that today too, somewhere along the line. But yeah, that's the short version of what I'm doing in my life.
[00:02:04] Laura: Absolutely. Yeah. And so, one of the ways that, we fell into each other is through this, , nature and play based online internet community.
And, , I was so excited one day when I saw you sharing,, that you use story stones. And I think a hidden secret of yours is that you are quite the artist. Correct. Yeah. I know you would say maybe not, but you are. So I'd love to hear a little bit about Yeah. I, um, story stones, how you use stories
[00:02:32] Ade: outside. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I actually, story stones are one of those things that are like everywhere, but they, they didn't really resonate with me. , I actually think I was listening to.
One of the presenters at Kristen RB Peterson's Camp Play, and she was talking about storytelling outside. And she mentioned story stones. I was like, Oh, okay, I'm just going to do this. And so I did, I had, I walked in that day into the classroom and all the kids started to arrive. And I was like, okay, everybody, I have something in mind that I want to do.
And like, if you see an interesting stone that's small enough to fit in our hand, come bring it to the table and I'll share with you later what I'm going to do about it. So this kind of like mystery started of like, what are, like, what is she going to do with these stones? So just. And when I create anything that I bring into the classroom, any offering, I collect the things with the children.
So they're already connected to it, which feels really, really important. So they help collect these stones unknowingly what they were for throughout the course of the day. And then a closing circle, which is optional. I, uh, I had a sharpie and I had a bowl of rocks. And. I asked a couple of different children to name just random things, you know, I got things like swords, ice cream, unicorns.
I don't know, weird things, um, that don't seemingly go together. And, um, it was quite a mystery to them why I was asking them these questions. So I would draw like a very quick sketch, like a line drawing on each stone, and then put them back in the bowl. Once we did like a handful, maybe six or seven of them, not everyone had a turn.
Um, we would, I'd invite Two or three people to come and pick one and put it out on the stump in front of me. And then in any particular order, and then I would be challenged to tell a story based on, you know, the unicorn, the sword and the rainbow or the flower, the shovel and the cloud or whatever. Um, and so.
That's how I brought them into the classroom. I think I've had them before, but never actually utilize them. And I think that this is a really good example of like, when you're actively building something with the children, it has more inherent meaning and you're going to want to use it more. You're going to want to be around it more and, um, interact with it more.
So, um, I use those during circle time, um, which is again, It's one of those things, right? Circle time is like great or not great, but it's optional in our classroom. So, um, those who are there, want to be there. I've also left the story stones out at our puppet theater. And, um, children will create their own stories.
Um, which is really magical to watch. I love, love that.
[00:05:23] Laura: Ah, that's so cool. Now, it's interesting. I would say just in the last, couple years, I've shifted more in my practice to be much more child led. And whereas maybe 10 years ago, when I first used story stones, I would have gone to Michael's and found like the smooth pebble stones and gotten Mod Podge and put some stickers on it, like maybe taking into consideration the kid's interest, they're interested in insects or reptiles or whatever, and kind of create them based on their interest.
And then slowly over the years have evolved to where, exactly like you're saying, I would instead say, let's collect some, or let's find some, tree cookies, or Even sticks where you could write words on them if that worked for your group. , but I think involving them in it and then asking them for the ideas, you're always, we're always going to see,, their investment in it is so much more rather than When we do the behind the scenes, just making the material to then offer to them, to tell a story.
So that's, that's pretty cool. I want to hear more about this puppet theater. Tell me, what does it look like? I can only imagine what it looked like in your previous program.
[00:06:35] Ade: Um, so that's a tradition or a practice that I took from another program that I worked at. And it's very simple. It's two stumps with a plank across it.
Um, It was there in my old, old classroom before I started working there. Um, but the one that I had in my last program, we built together. Um, and so I would, I set up two stumps and a piece of wood and then, you know, as I often do, I start working on something and then the kids will come over and I'm like, what are you doing?
What are you doing? I want to do that. Like, you know, I don't think that's a good idea. And they'll just, you know, impose their beautiful ideas upon me, um, to improve whatever I'm working on, which is. Like one of my favorite things is to be corrected by children Um or re guided and so we built the puppet theater together and then
we strategically placed the puppet theater and the two stumps with the plank in between two decent sized trees and then tied a line and then sewed a piece of fabric.
With a, you know, like a tunnel through it. I'm sure there's like a sewing term, um, and then threaded the two pieces onto the string, whatever you call it. It wasn't actually string, it's like rope, um, so it withstands and we leave it up all year round. We don't take it down when it's windy or when it's rainy.
I just leave it out, um, in the element. So they have a curtain to open and close, which is extra dramatic and exciting for them to like, yeah. Begin and
end or like end in the
middle and the
kids did the sewing. I didn't do the sewing.
Um, so most of the things, this is kind of a theme that's unraveling here is that I'll have an idea.
Invite the children to think on it with me. And then we execute the idea from start to finish together. It will take you much longer to do it that way. Um, but the investment, like you mentioned earlier, And the connection is, you know, it's unparalleled to something that we were just whip up the night before.
And that is how I used to function. Um, even up to my first year teaching outside, I would just stay up very late making many things that I thought were going to be great ideas or have a list of projects that my partner could help me with in the weekend for the classroom. And I then just, it just struck me.
I'm like, I could do this with them. This is silly. We can learn together and we can do this together. And so that is how our puppet theater is made. It is very, or was, was very rudimentary, so much to the point that it was very wobbly. We tried to problem solve by putting wedges of wood underneath the stumps to make it even.
We tried nails, we tried screws. We even replaced the top with an old piece of pallet. That didn't quite work. So we had to take it all apart, rebuild it several times. And what's so beautiful about the puppet theater is. We um, I mentioned earlier, our circles are optional. So my co teacher is an excellent storyteller and she's a beautiful singing voice and so she'll conduct these beautiful little puppet shows and anybody can come or go at any time during the show and they'll see that happening or I'll conduct a show out of my brain and I try not to use books all the time so that I encourage children to use their own imagination and uh, You then see them doing that at random points in the day, and they'll draw an audience, um, and they'll interact with the audience and they'll express like what they want the audience to do.
So they're practicing using their, you know, their voice, you know, exercising different, you know, aspects of power and things like that. It's really, really incredible. Um, and those are the moments where I'm sitting, standing in the classroom. And I realized like they don't actually need me right now like they and that's like, that's it.
That's what it's all about. So we just have to plant the seed like the idea and sometimes that looks like an offering. Sometimes that's like a verbal invitation to help me build something or questions. Um, but anyway, yeah, the, the, the puppet theater is. It's really great. And it doesn't have to be fancy.
We have, you know, like bulk mannose puppets, too, that we bring in and outdoors that we keep in a special box. But, um, you know, they use sticks. They use dinosaurs. They use their water bottles. They use whatever, they'll make things out of wood and watercolor and drawn. I mean, they use all sorts of things.
So it doesn't have to be fancy. And that's something that was hard for me too. Um, and maybe this translates to storytelling is, you know, it doesn't have to be perfect. And there is no such thing as like the wrong way. Um, and your way is probably going to look different than someone else. And that's really great.
Um, it's actually better.
[00:11:34] Laura: Absolutely. It's, you know, I was thinking so many things as you were sharing. I mean, mostly I was trying to visualize what that looked like. And then also thinking like, Hmm, I always in my learning spaces, you know, wanted to have some type of, you know, puppet theater, but like in a physical classroom, there's only really is so much space.
And so having like a, a structure per se, like that, that then maybe is taking up the space I always struggled with, but there, the years that kids did. Kind of get a big box. And before we knew it, that's what it was becoming. It was always so cool to see them take on, like you said, that kind of stage actor role where they're like, maybe not just being puppeteer and storyteller, but also like managing the behind the scenes or the audience or those , other things.
, but the other thing that I often come back to is as well, , The times that I have wanted a puppet theater or something, I'll come back to like, well, I wish I had, puppets. I mean, I know you and I both have, a fondness for the beautiful. What brand are they that I can't think of right now puppets, the folk
[00:12:36] Ade: manis, I think.
Yes, I'm saying
[00:12:38] Laura: it right. But yeah, right. So when it's right, especially like I have like two or three of their little finger puppets. But popsicle sticks and paper and, , creativity or their imagination. , my daughter right now, I've been noticing like her favorite way to tell stories is with her fingers and she's just using like two fingers down and two fingers down her index and her middle finger and they're just like doing this like dance and she's talking in her pretend voice and she's literally using her finger so I could just picture children using the plank there right is the space and just their fingers just yeah a rock a stick or something more elaborate if they wanted and I think like you said it's so easy for us as adults to overthink and be in our heads, right?
And I know something that you talk so much about are like our play barriers and like what it means to like get out of our own way and really You know, share the space with children. And I'd love to think some about like, so what are some barriers that may come up in classrooms , or learning spaces, when we are saying, Hey, let's get outside and , let's provide opportunities for children to tell stories and us to listen, because I truly believe children are telling stories all the time, right?
Their play are stories, but are you listening to their stories? , what's the barrier to that? And then also, as adults, like, tell stories. And what's the barrier to that, , and what are some ways we can support our listeners around this?
[00:14:19] Ade: What are your thoughts? I have lots of thoughts, which is not shocking, , but I would say there's kind of like two things that come to mind right away is, , you know, I like to tell people I'm a recovering perfectionist, , and I think a lot of us are.
, we strive for perfection, but something that I continually remind myself that a mentor of mine told me years ago is that perfect is a lie. It's not actually real. Like what's perfect to me might not be perfect to Laura. What's perfect to Laura might not be perfect to someone else. And so it's all kind of,, it just varies on who the person is and like, why do we get caught up in like this thing that really only matters to like just us.
And, you know, like we were just talking about with puppets in the puppet theater, like at the end of the day, like it just is basic. Like when it, I think one of the podcast episodes I just recorded actually was about worksheets. And when kids want work, schoolwork to do. A piece of paper on a clipboard with a crayon or a pencil is like fine, like they don't need instructions or like an outcome.
It's a very basic. It's a very kind of like boiled down like what you need to do. Any of the things that we do in an outdoor classroom. And, um, so when it comes to listening, I think we have to really release this need for like control. And that's where perfection comes from. It's like, we have to control this thing.
Cause if we have all of the moving pieces, like just right, like we're protected and like, it's great. It's going to be perfect. I, I, nothing can get to me. And you know, it's like, it's kind of silly when I say
[00:16:01] Laura: all of that out loud. It's like,
[00:16:05] Ade: but it's not about me. Like my role in the classroom, like I didn't become a teacher so that I could do X, Y, or Z, or I could collect accolades.
I can became a teacher because I love children and I can't like right now, my life, I'm not with children at this particular moment and it is hard and I love them, their medicine to me, their joy. They're like this instant. Refresher. And so I have to remind myself, even still, because I have that need for control.
I want to control the environment. I want to have everything just so, , I have to remind myself that it's not about me, , that I am capable of doing things imperfectly, and they can be successful, , and that, you know, the, this space that you mentioned it earlier, this space that we share with children is a stage for their learning.
It is not an opportunity for me to project. My, , into the situation and that's, that's a hard one, , to kind of unpack just generally, and I think that that particular play barrier can be connected to so many different elements of teaching, , and being with children. , But you know, there's that old assumption that like a teacher's role is to inform and
to directly teach.
And that is like,
yeah, maybe that's the way it was when we were young, but Not really working. So, , we are all just starved for connection. And, you know, being a great observer and just, Zipping it and just literally biting my lip sometimes, um, has provided me with some of the greatest memories and some of the biggest insights into children's lives and minds and hearts,, that I never, ever, ever would have gotten if I just continued to check in and
see how they were doing and
like, Oh, it's so interesting that you decided to use that spoon, like, and your children will look at you and they're like, really, like, really?
Please leave me alone. I'm playing. Um, so yeah, I think listening really, it hits on a lot of different barriers. I think the need for control, perfectionism, um, are a couple of them.
[00:18:19] Laura: Yeah. I mean, of course it makes sense to me. I'm right there with you. I think it was around this time like a year ago. , , what epiphany did you have that we were like, Oh, oh, we were, we were just like, you know, work shopping. , How do we get others on board with play based learning? Like, how do we get buy in from our colleague or from the parents or from, , the person next door or TA or whatever, and we were just kind of thinking about how so often when we interact with other play based educators or learners, , besides, , further understanding and developing their skill in just learning how to let go of control and say yes, and, and.
Those types of things the other question that they always have is , but how do I get so and so to believe it or how do I get so and so to do it, and then I think you had this moment of you're like, it's just our control manifesting in one other way like we want to. Yes.
[00:19:20] Ade: Remember that. Yes.
[00:19:22] Laura: And it was this like moment we were like, Oh, yeah, we're just taking that like desire to control in our classroom or our learning space and control our children in our environment, or our curriculum or whatever.
And now we're just projecting it on the person next door. That's not doing things the way that we think they should be doing it. And now we want to
control what they're doing. Right, right. How amazing like, Talk about control, like, working on that. Absolutely. Yeah, for sure, that it was like a very mind blowing moment.
I'm like, wow, like I really, I've got it bad. Like, I'm trying to convince everybody else. And this is something that I learned when We opened our homeschool support program and I had to handle one of our first families who wanted to unenroll from the program. I had to remind myself that I don't need to convince you to stay, um, not from like this righteous point of view, but like, hey, you're going to make your decision.
This is the decision that we're, I'm making. This is what we're doing. If it doesn't fit for you, that's okay. Right? The world needs different people. It would be very boring if we're all exactly the same. But, you know, I had to learn that like, it's okay. It's okay if you don't get it. Um, maybe it's not the right time.
Maybe something else is going to click for you. Maybe it won't ever click for you. And like, I was listening to a podcast the other day and somebody was like, not everybody is an outside person. And I was like, yet, not everybody is an outside person yet. And that, you know, that just, that's a whole nother podcast.
But. You know, that need for control definitely seeps into unexpected areas.
Yeah, and the, and the other thing that you mentioned that, , stood out to me and I actually, , just interviewed, , Stacey Binge that wrote the whole child alphabet, and she was sharing about how, what we need to start doing is shifting our thinking from that we are not teaching, we're developing.
Right. And to be really looking at our work as developmentalists, rather than as teachers, because so many of us will say . We don't teach the baby to roll over, nor do we try to prepare the baby for sitting up, we don't teach the baby to roll over. We don't teach the baby to walk. We create the environment. We put the toy out of reach. We call to them, we encourage it, we celebrate it. And that's what we need to be doing at. All stages along the way, letting the child and their development lead and one baby is going to roll over at four months and that family is going to be super proud and another baby is going to roll over at nine months and that family is going to be super proud, but both families are going to worry and worry about something else or worry about that and want to control it.
It's just the same as us, right? Like in our learning space, a child is going to, , , learn to regulate their emotion and take a deep breath before throwing, , the rock at, a child, uh, you know, when they're four and the other may not learn it until they're seven, but we are, having to look at it instead that they're just developing and they're developing their skills at different rates because they're different children with different life experiences.
And. That really, we are not teaching them to develop. And I was like, yeah, that's so beautiful, right? And that, that little shift to think of trusting the children that they will develop, you know, of course not, you know, there's, you know, places that it shows up in other ways, but many of the children, you know, we know are developing and, and when, you know, there are signs of other things, but for the most part, given the space and the freedom and the ability to play, they are going to grow and flourish.
And I think that, often when I think about this idea of , also being a recovering perfectionist , , When I was a child, like, I don't know, does this all come from us having done worksheets that had only one way to do it, right? We didn't get a blank piece of paper, let's say.
We did get the worksheets, right? So we were told like, this is what you do. This is what work is at whatever age, right? Or this is a book report. And we were graded on it. I mean, we've been our whole lives. And some of us innately are people pleasers, or are Quote unquote, I don't know what the more politically correct term is for overachievers that are like, I'm going to constantly try to do better or make this person happy.
And so it's like been perpetuated through the school system because we're constantly being graded. We're constantly being compared to others. We're constantly being grouped and categorized based on our accomplishment of. One dimensional tasks. And so it's not surprising that all of us are here now as teachers wanting to, do very scripted and rote things where we can see the immediate outcome.
Like how many letters do you know? And I can just see that on a piece of paper rather like, really, really seeing the child for who they are and their development. And I think it's a lot, a lot, a lot of unlearning for us. And. , why many of us also freeze in front of a blank slate, right? The blank slate of a piece of paper and, hey, come paint.
The blank slate of a piece of paper of a page and, hey, write a story. Or orally tell a story. Or sing a made up song. , we freeze because what if it's not good enough? Or what are the
[00:25:03] Ade: rules? Right. Yeah. I mean, luckily, with children, especially young children, right, two to seven, I mean, seven is even questionable for me.
Um, they love the way you sound when you sing. It doesn't matter what you're singing. I, I had, uh, spent the day with a former student of mine a few weeks ago. I had her for the day and she said to me, I yawned and she said, Adrian, do you remember when you would yawn and like sing
at the same time?
And that is how I yawn with children in the woods.
And she like, remember that we've been apart from each other in the classroom for over a year. , But she remembered that she loved it. Okay. And it brought like joy to like a hard moment, right? Usually if you're yawning, you're tired and you're reaching your point, right? Of the day where you're like, man, this is dragging, this is hard.
Um, the. Being with children is just like a constant opportunity to like celebrate everything because everything is so exciting to them, even you making a mistake. Um, another example of this, I mean, this particular child is exceptional. She is like an old, old soul. I was trying to put her seat in the back of my car, and I couldn't figure it out.
Uh, and she's standing in the backseat of my car parked in the driveway. And she said, Edren, what's happening? Why can't you get into, you know, get it in? I said, I'm just really struggling. Like I can't find the button. I just, I don't know. I've never done this before with your car seat. It just feels hard.
And she looked at me, Laura, like, and this is not like a full circle moment. She looked at me and she said, but you can do hard things. You tell me that all the time. And I was like, true, very true. I said, you know, what's harder than figuring this out myself, I'm like, it's harder for me to ask for help. So I'm going to go get your mom and ask her to help me.
And so I went and I asked her to help me, but I thought to myself like, Oh my goodness, like, this is everything. I'm afraid. Did not put this in the right way. I'm afraid to ask for help to figure out how to put it in the right way because I'm afraid someone's going to think that I'm not capable of doing it.
Like it's all, it's all play barriers. It's all stuff that keeps us from doing things that are amazing. Um, and you know, it's, it's hard work like play barrier stuff, um, because it makes you feel uncomfortable and incredibly vulnerable. But, um, What's really beautiful about working on play barriers when it comes to storytelling or getting outside or who knows what is that the more you frequently you start to recognize them, the faster you can be like, Oh, hey, what's up?
Not today. You're not driving my ship. And then you move on, like your turnaround time is so much quicker because you can recognize them so fast. And when that starts happening. There's a direct correlation, I think, with the amount of joy that you're facilitating and experiencing in your setting with children, whether it's a classroom or your family or whatever.
So really just letting go and being okay with just being or not doing. Um, I think, is another one of those things that can be, you know, tied to so many, so many of the things that keep us from doing stuff like storytelling and putting in a puppet show or
[00:28:37] Laura: whatever. Yeah, right. Absolutely. And, I, I constantly say the connection and the like presence that you have and being there with the children in your lives are way more than the actual content of the story, right?
Like, I can't tell, I know my dad told me stories every Wednesday because when my parents divorced, we went and slept at his house every Wednesday and every other, weekend. And so those were cherished times. I only remember one storyline because of the unique bizarreness of it. But otherwise I don't remember any of the stories.
What I do remember is my dad was a really great storyteller. And he would sit there and just be super present with my sister and I on those, you know, once a week that I got to see him for a couple hours that wasn't a meal and wasn't sleeping or driving in the car, and he chose to show up in that way, not always turning on the TV, not always, finding bowling or something for us to do, but to just be the three of us sitting on the bed with some stuffed animals and telling stories.
And I was like, Nine. we weren't babies, like we weren't young kids. We were older. Mm-Hmm. and I don't remember the stories, right? It's not always about the story. , because when, when we're there and we're present with the child, they know the difference between when we're there and with them and when.
Our mind is somewhere else, which it can so easily do and be, doing other types of things. But like you said, when we're challenging ourselves, when we're in nature, when we're in the elements, when we're out of our comfort zone, we are much more present because we're like, okay, can I do this hard thing?
What am I going to do next? How is it going? Right. We're like analyzing, we're thinking about it. Um, and that's how we grow.
[00:30:29] Ade: True. Yeah. And I don't, this is a little. Off topic, but kind of connects. Um, when we first moved to me and I started teaching outdoors, it was like very euphoric at first. And then our life got very crazy.
And so life at home was hard and stressful. And I was doing all the adult thing, but I trained myself that as soon as I parked my vehicle. In the parking lot of school. And as soon as I opened that door, my feet hit the ground. I was in a safe place. I was in a sacred place that couldn't get me like all the stuff that's at home can't get me.
In the woods that it like it is not a space is not welcome there. I don't think about it. And I literally trained myself to say that to myself and take a big breath in at the top of the hill because I walked on a long hill to get down to the schoolhouse, whatever is the long thing. And the whole way I would just tell myself, this is my space.
This is my space. You know, and it worked for me. And that is how I approach every space I'm in with children. Now, it is not just when I'm in the confines of the school or a classroom. I could see a child at the grocery store. And if we make an eye contact or we connect in some way, like. A whole world disappears because it's about the connection.
Um, every, like, everything is superfluous. Like, it's not needed. Um, and just like you were saying with the stories with your dad, like, it's about the connection. It's about the time. It's about the acknowledgement and like, you know, the willingness to take that time to just be together and let everything else fall away.
Um, I think we can all benefit from that. Um, but that has been a practice that I started years ago. That has really helped me be confident in my classroom space. Like I can try. Weird stuff. I can tell stories in a funny accent or I can replace every word in a song with the letter R at the beginning and see what happens.
Sometimes I'm going to say weird words like fart and everybody's going to erupt in laughter. Um, but I could do things like that because this is a space where we can try things and it's a great model for children to see. Um, and it's been also really impactful for co teachers. That's
So, yeah, I mean, I feel like we could talk about this for, like, a million years, but, um, doing something that you're not quite sure of and doing it with the kids is going to help you. You're not going to feel alone. It takes the pressure off the more you do it, the easier it gets.
[00:33:08] Laura: Absolutely. Always right.
The more we do it, the easier it gets and. Same with storytelling, right? Telling a story, even if you do it once, um, and you don't really remember what it is, and the next day the kids say like, hey, can you tell me that story again about the fairy? And you're like, okay. And then you tell it. Like, either they're gonna love whatever version you tell again, or they're gonna be like, no.
That's not the way it went. Like, this is what happened, right? They're going to let you know, depending on the age, depending on your relationship with them or whatever. Um, you know, my children are more than happy to let me know if I've told them, you know, the wrong story or it's not long enough or, you know, they want a different character or whatever, but that's because I tell them stories all the time.
They like hold me to a high standard now, but it doesn't, you know, it doesn't, it doesn't have to be that way. And so I think that just, just letting go, just being there with it and, you know, just taken. Just. Building that muscle. I call it the storytelling muscle. You just build that muscle. Just like getting outside, right?
You build a routine once you have the gear. That's what's holding you back really from being in it. Just the more you do it, make it non negotiable, right? Telling stories to young children, make it non negotiable. Don't bring any books outside. Don't bring any books to your circle time. Force yourself to have to tell a story, like find a way.
Um,
[00:34:22] Ade: and there's, there's never a bad time, like, to tell a story. I, When you were saying, um, how children will correct you, I told stories about. Um, my dog, Hank, he's very golden and he has a curly C shaped tail and I would tell if he was always getting into trouble, always getting into trouble, he would escape and I would tell stories all the time and I had this one child and tell me the story about when Hank did this or Hank did that, like, what are you talking about?
Like, I don't even, I don't even know what that story is, but I'd try to tell it and he would correct me. Like, no, this is what happened next. So like just that alone, like that's huge, right? What an amazing literacy skill. Like. This individual is remembering what came before, after, next, you know, time sequencing, and so there's never a bad time for a story.
I'll tell stories when they're trying to fall asleep, if they're having a hard time, um, and so there's a lot of comfort in stories, too, um, that I think, We all begin to have when we create familiar ones like you were sharing with your dad or if we have just a repeated character like Hank or whatever it is, um, there's never a bad time for a story, I don't think.
[00:35:37] Laura: I agree. I agree. Oh, it was so nice chatting with you. Um, is there anything that you want to leave us with, um, tell everyone where they can find you, what's coming up for you, what do you want to tell us?
[00:35:54] Ade: Oh, you can find me on Instagram. I am on Facebook, but I promise you it will be a massive delay if you try to reach out to me there, your platform.
, so nature play all day is me, , on Instagram. That's also my email at Gmail. , I have a freebie, , it's called Y play matters more than kindergarten readiness, and it gives you all these different vignettes, , different types of play, why that is teaching you all the things that you would need to know for kindergarten.
, so that's available. I've got a podcast now where I talk about all the things, and I share all my feelings, and lately they've been a little bit spicy, so that's fun. , it's called the outside the box podcast. It's streaming on Spotify. I don't think it's on apple podcast I don't even know how to do that.
But here I am doing things I don't know how to do so , that's how you can find me. That's what i'm up to
[00:36:46] Laura: And like awesome. I will link all that for sure , I'll put your podcast in there and Definitely if you're not checking out Ade you should and her podcast is like I keep it in my back pocket I love listening to it and she just It's like my little cheerleader motivator reminding me to do the thing, just do the thing and keep pushing the needle.
, so appreciate having you here and chatting with you, officially, uh, two of us little, you know, just little entrepreneurs, like a year ago, just dreaming about the lives we're now living. And we both have podcasts and working on our businesses and making our,, dreams come reality so we can better the lives of the children, that are around us. So thanks
[00:37:28] Ade: so much for coming. Thank you .
The end. But really, that's it for today's episode of Stories That Stick. Inspiring and captivating minds, young and old. Remember, stories have the incredible ability to spark conversations, ignite imagination, and create lasting connections. If you loved what you heard, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a five star review.
It really does make a difference. And, if you have a story to share or a topic you want me to explore, reach out to me on Instagram at LittleStoriesThatStick. Until next time, keep working that storytelling muscle and tell stories every day.
