Throughout human history, we have used oral storytelling to pass down our ideas, stories, and values to the next generation. Many scholars say that the ability to tell stories is one of the things that makes us uniquely human (1).

However, the practice of home-based storytelling is increasingly becoming a lost artform among families. Today’s parents and grandparents grew up being consumers of mass media. Television, movies, and radio fed us the stories that enchanted us. Few of us learned from our elders how to tell homespun or handed-down stories. And now that we are the adults raising children, we don’t necessarily know how to practice inter-generational storytelling with the kids we love. So, in turn, they turn to the channels that we were fed on, plus the internet, social media, and video games to be entertained.

Breaking this loss of creative storytelling traditions, and regaining the benefits that they can provide to families, is why The Legendary Connection was created.

We are two moms who have actively incorporated family-based storytelling into our combined 20+ years of parenting and have seen incredible results because of it. For Jen, a working mom, making up stories at bedtime became one of the most treasured times of day for her and her sons. She realized that it was an efficient and effective way to connect with her kids, even if they weren’t together all day. For Erin, a stay-at-home mom, telling stories was a way to create a calming space in the middle of a hectic day. It was also a way for her to teach skills and values that you won’t necessarily find in workbooks or learning apps.

We had been friends for about 10 years before we realized home-grown storytelling was something that we both practiced, both loved, and both realized incredible benefits from in our own families. One day over tea we found this commonality and started asking … why is this so powerful? So we researched.

After reading many books, listening to podcasts, and diving into the immense body of scientific literature, it comes down to a single fact:

Telling stories builds connection.

And when done in the context of family time, it is also becomes a form of play, called narrative play.

• The hearts and minds of the teller and listener are synched in a way that creates bonds that just can’t be formed through any other means (2).

• The flexibility of storytelling, when compared to reading from a book, allows for collaborative creativity and imaginative play (3).

• The time invested in sharing narratives leaves lasting impressions, since information that is shared in the form of a story is 20x more memorable than just facts (4).

• Using story allows you to pull from, combine, and customize insights from the whole of human history that you as the teller have ever been exposed to.

Considered together, these factors reveal:

Storytelling and narrative play are amazing tools for building Legendary Connection.

References:

1. Gottschall, J. (2013). The storytelling animal: how stories make us human. Mariner Books.

2. Margaret Read Macdonald. (1993). The storyteller’s start-up book : finding, learning, performing, and using folktales including twelve tellable tales. August House.

3. Moore, Robin. Lost in the Woods. Groundhog Press, 30 Oct. 2018.

4. Boris, V. (2017, December 20). What Makes Storytelling So Effective For Learning? Harvard Business Publishing. https://www.harvardbusiness.org/what-makes-storytelling-so-effective-for-learning/