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A Series of Benefits of Storytelling for Children

Malang, (malangkota.go.id) – March 20th is celebrated as World Storytelling Day. This world storytelling day originated from the national storytelling day in Sweden known as “Alla Berattares Dag” or All storytellers day which means storyteller day.

Siti Handayani or Bunda Moza, a storyteller from Malang, telling stories to children

In 1997, storytellers in Perth, Western Australia also held a Celebration of Story commemorating March 20 as the International Day of Oral Narrators. At the same time, in Mexico and other countries in South America, March 20 has been celebrated as the National Day of Storytellers. Since then, March 20 has been designated as the world story day.

Fairy tales can be one of the means or media for children's learning. Through fairy tales, children can learn about tolerance and other moral values. Fairy tales can also be a means to insert knowledge transfer to children such as messages or anything.

According to Siti Handayani or familiarly called Bunda Moza, a storyteller from Malang, the changes in education patterns, new habits and ways of communicating, one of which is through gadgets during the pandemic, such as now, make storytelling a fun way to learn at home. Because fairy tales are identical to imagination that children like, besides that storytelling activities are also identical to sharing good and happy stories that make the heart happy.

Before the pandemic, parents had been more likely to divert or entertain their children through gadgets. Gadgets have become an important part of daily activities, children are now increasingly familiar with screen time which reduces communication and bonding between parents and children. Well, fairy tales have many benefits and are very important, especially in increasing bonding between parents and children in this digital era.

To tell stories and tell good things to children, you don't need to wait to become a storyteller, because everyone is a storyteller, there is no one who can't tell stories. Storytelling can also be done anywhere and anytime.

"Since in the womb, children can be told stories. We invite them to talk and tell stories. Then when the child is 1-2 years old, stories can develop the child's imagination, enrich vocabulary, and improve language skills, listening skills, and stimulate creativity. There will be a lot of new vocabulary absorbed so that it is imitated," said Bunda Moza.

Mother Moza also said that children are like blank paper. Parents, teachers, parents around children also become painters of the future for them. So it is also very important to choose words and diction when conveying messages of goodness in fairy tales to children.

"For example, if we want to convey that children like reading books, we can modify a famous fairy tale. The mouse deer is a good boy, likes reading books. Let's support it quickly. Although it does not mean that the mouse deer likes to steal cucumbers has no positive value, our job is to provide fairy tales that provide positive values," said Bunda Moza when giving an example of a simple fairy tale.

Fairy tales themselves consist of several categories, the first is a fantasy or imaginary fairy tale such as carrots or cabbage that can talk when telling stories about healthy food. The second is a story, in this story the characters are real but there is still a special message to be conveyed. The third is a story, this tells about the example of a figure such as the story of the prophet.

"Then there are those that are heroic or heroic, if children are more familiar with Superman and Spiderman, but there are heroic stories such as Cut Nyak Dien, RA Kartini, and others," explained Bunda Moza who is also active in shrimp as a storyteller in various institutions such as BUMN, Kemendikbud, Menko PMK and KPK.

There are so many benefits that can be obtained from fairy tales. Storytelling activities such as closeness between parents and children are increasingly well established, can help instill moral values, such as honesty, wisdom, courage from an early age in children and so on. Tips for storytelling are quite simple, namely increasing literacy reading, seeing and recognizing children's characteristics such as age and things they like, using fun methods such as inserting songs or using simple stories that have good messages.
"So what are you waiting for? Let's revive the culture of storytelling," he concluded. (eka/ram)

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