Patti & Kids

Last month I got to spend a week in Minnesota and Wisconsin being Aunt Patti, the storytelling aunt. I brought with me my new toy: a small digital recorder where you can record and then upload to your computer and burn a cd from that. I thought it might be fun to try recording some stories with my nieces and nephews (6 of them ages 1 year to 8 years old.) I was confident that the school-agers would like this: especially my sister's kids get to tell and read ad LOT of books and stories. What I was surprised was that the 3 year old (and a half!) boy was among the best storytellers there. He loved helping me tell the Gingerbread Man ("first you take a knife and you cut it, then you put on sprinkles for the cheeks. Then red sprinkles for the hat. No, green sprinkles!" ) On story after familiar story, we was so happy to say his parts "And I'll huff and I'll Puff" Somebody's been eating my porridge" "Run, run as fast and you can, you can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man".) He has been read to and told these stories, mostly by his grandpa, since he was a baby. He was very happy to "correct" if I said it wrong. "No not the little old woman and the little old man. The BIG woman and the BIG man." At the end of each story he delighted in saying "Now play it" and we listened back to the story to his (as well as all the kid's delight.)


The other amazing recording experience I had was when the 7 year old suggested we should make up a story about a Elephant with the hiccoughs, I started in and then made a loud hiccough sounds. My 13 month old niece immediately copied the sound. I thought oh that was just a coincidence, so I said it again with the same results. We told this story 3 times. It finally occurred to me I should try to record her doing it and she did it on cue for the recorder. This little tike was sooooo there for the telling of this story and doing her part. After every one had a chance to record over several days (classic stories, literary tales, and a bunch we made up ourselves) I told them that I would go home and burn a cd with these stories on them. The 6 year old asked "Then will you sell us a copy, Aunt Patti?" Yes, I think I will. I would sooooo recommend this process. It was gold, and will make such a great keepsake for them all to have of their sweet little voices telling stories.