Storytelling during our global pandemic

​Hello Storytellers!
​This is the strangest time most of us have ever experienced - and definitely the strangest collective experience any one of us has had together with the entire world.
I hope you are all healthy and well and finding rhythm and balance in this new way of life. I know that everyone is having a different experience right now depending on where we live, if we know people who are ill or are compromised in a way that creates more fear. But any one who is here in the land of Twelve Little Tales has a child in their life to protect and offer magic to and that is why we are here today.

Many of the subscribers to Twelve Little Tales are already homeschool families and now here we all are at home with our kids. I send my nine year old to a wonderful Charter school inspired by Waldorf education. I worked there as a handwork and then Kindergarten teacher for several years and love our school for my son, our family and our community. Our teachers are doing an amazing job with online learning. The funniest moment yet was how our music teacher was out in her yard teaching us Waltzing Matilda and her goats came up and snatched her music right off her stand! We laughed and laughed.
I feel, as many of you do as well I'm sure, that the most important thing as we learn how to do things in new ways is to give our children the safest - emotional and physically - space to be children. Online learning is not easy for everyone - my child has very little attention span for this so we are taking lots of breaks and I'm trying to do my work when he is occupied with something or at nighttime. It can be pretty chaotic to have everyone at home when some people are used to leaving the house every day - but coming back to storytelling, even a little two minute tale - even with a nine year old who sometimes thinks these things are for littler kids - can bring us back to peace and calm. 

This April story is about the magic of spring. Spring is a time when there is magic everywhere we look, listen and smell. There is so much to be grateful for and so many stories to tell. One of the most wonderful things we can do for our kids right now is to focus on the beautiful, seasonal experiences that are happening right outside our door. Even opening the window in the morning brings the new sounds of many birds to our ears. Tiny buds are appearing on trees and little shoots reach up toward the sun from beneath the ground. 

As we know storytelling is a perfect way to process difficult times in ways that make big things a little easier to digest. I didn't write a story having to do with a global pandemic. My son does not have a lot of anxiety (the nine year old at least - I also have a 24 year old daughter who is experiencing a lot of anxiety, as we all are, about the current state of affairs), but I do know that some of our younger children are having a lot of anxiety at this time. The best conversations that I'm having with my son regarding what is happening right now are about how so many people are working to help others - even more so than usual. There are a lot of stories that can and will come from this aspect of what we are seeing all over the world. 

Please let me know if you need help with how we might tell stories during this time or if you have some great ideas that you'd like to share. We can all add thoughts in the comments below and help each other with our ideas and inspiration. 
​Even if you are not a subscriber you can find an April story right here. Feel free to share as storytelling is like a healing salve we can all use right now. 
Sending love to all of you. 
Warmly, 
Marna