Stories for toddlers (oral storytelling)?

[atpeace]

Does anyone know of any good websites that list various stories you can memorize and tell toddlers?

DD has been getting really interested in story-telling (as opposed to reading stories in books, or watching short clips on youtube). I tell her a story while we lie in the dark bedroom and she slowly falls asleep. But the "Three Little Pigs" is getting too repetitive, and I need new material!

I'd like some that are good for the 2-4 year age range. She likes the "Three Pigs" because there's repetition (the huffing and puffing), so something with repetition would be good.

[TheBluebird]

I don't know, but I just wanted to say that I think that's a great idea! I should do that, too.

[meemee]

i grew up with a wonderful story telling. so even now at 6 1/2 its still a v. strong tradition in our house. in fact now that my dd has to do a lot of reading for school we mostly do story telling at bedtime.

the thing is at that age - esp. at around 2 ANYTHING is great. you dont need a website to memorise from.

the key things you need are stories that interest you. the key with story telling is not the content. but how you say it. the whole facial expression, tonal quality of voice. vocal punctuations. like silence. plays huge role.

with story telling if you dont 'feel' the story - if it doesnt fascinate you then forget it. it just wont be worth saying to your kids.

i made up stories. our of history. of my dd when she was a baby. about her daddy and about me when we were her age or babies. i talked about the life my gpa and gma lived and how things were different then. the younger they were the simpler the stories were. the older they got i put in more details.

at 2 my dd enjoyed mysteries so i would create mystery stories.

we did stories together. where i would take a cue from her questions.

i recalled my favs from my childhood. my mom made up this car she had that had all miniscule things in there including a fridge. she started telling us the stories when we were really, really young but as we grew older it wasnt so much that she was telling us the story but that we were asking her questions which provided the meat for the stories. we were sooooo fascinated so entranced that she could get us to do anything, even eat our hated food.

one of my favourite inspirations has been 'and once i saw it on mulberry street' by dr seuss.

the most wonderful thing with story telling - magic. you can create your child's own brand of magic.

i tell stories about my time as a parent. how she freaked me out with something. oh she loved that and had me repeat that a million times in one night. i tell her about the magic of holding her. as a two year old she was fascinated about what it was about being a baby. she was fascinated by what babies cant do. i tell her about her worst diaper and turn the cleanup afterwards into a comedy.

the key is finding words that come naturally to you that are comfortable to you rather than some script you memorised. recall any speech you heard on tv. compare the one you saw someone read from a notes and without the script.

keep yourself open for the unexpected. when i start i have no idea where the story is going to go.

apart from singing we do a lot of storytelling in the car too. of course nowadays its more about comedy than anything else.

[atpeace]

These are great ideas and suggestions meemee, thank you so much! :

[DaughterOfKali]

I make up my own stories to tell ds. He loves it. Of course, he loves to hear regular books, too, but I like to mix it up.