Before I retired as a teacher, I loved giving my kids gifts: pencils, erasers, stickers, cookies. But my favorite gift to give kids? Yep the gift of a story. My kids loved when I would tell them a story. They listened. They participated. They clapped. They told the stories to their families. Last spring I had the opportunity to go back to my elementary school to help teach a second-grade program. The year before I had visited the same children to tell stories. As soon as they saw me they told me that I was the lady who told them stories and happily told me the titles of the stories I had told them. They made some arm gestures and danced the little jig we had danced during one of the stories. They remembered. Pencil points break, erasers wear out, cookies are gobbled down, but a story lasts forever. So, next time you tell a story, whether it be a personal story or a folk tale or a scary story for Halloween; whether you tell the story to kids or adults, think of it as giving a gift.
