My older granddaughter has made my day twice this week. Once when my son texted to say he had just overheard her singing a song I made up for the new story I video recorded for her and put up on YouTube a few days ago. It was catchy enough for her to recall and sing, out of context! He told me she hadn’t made it all the way through the story yet, but she did remember the song. I couldn’t have been more delighted.
The story I recorded is one her dad used to love — The Old Woman and the Red Pumpkin, by Betsy Bang and Molly Garrett Bang. It was one of his favorites from toddler-hood †o grade-school. I gave Teagan a copy of the book for Christmas, and it cycles in and out of her bedtime story rotation. So I thought it would be a natural for The Teagan Show, which is what I’m calling the little story videos I send her. For telling instead of reading, I have done a mashup of my favorite bits of all the different versions of the story I could find and added a few condiments of my own.
So this morning my son texts to tell me she’s finally settled down to watch the whole story in one sitting, and that when they’re done, he’d like to debrief me on how it went.
Ten minutes later he called. Here’s the gist of my granddaughter’s review: She liked it okay. And the song is fun. But what she really likes, is real stories. (?) Like the first one I recorded for her. That was a story she had never heard before, The Little Rooster and the Diamond Button — Margaret Read MacDonald’s version from 20 Tellable Tales, complete with crowing and flapping and fist-pounding. My recent story, which I have titled The Singing Pumpkin, was all right, but it wasn’t real because she already knew it.
Why was I so inordinately delighted by my granddaughter’s tepid response to my latest effort to share stories with her? Well… She had an opinion, and it was a reasoned one. Also, she was paying attention. I think I might have been a sophomore in high school before I had to “compare and contrast” two stories or concepts or ideas; it wasn’t until I was a senior that I actually understood what “compare and contrast” meant, and even then I had a hard time doing it. Most important: She is giving me direction. I have a better handle on what kind of story telling, as opposed to story reading, engages her imagination.
Next up on The Teagan Show: The Shoemaker and the Elves. It’s about 4 minutes long. She doesn’t own it in book form. I remember that from the time I was four and my mom read the Little Golden Book version of this story to me until right this minute, it’s been magic. Maybe Teagan will think so, too. Maybe not, but that’s not the point.
I feel a deep dive coming on … nursery tales.
