When it comes to story time with a toddler, the more you put into it, the more they'll get out of it in terms of learning.
We challenged a group of families to make up stories together - watch below to see how they got on.
Once upon a time, there was a littleboy called Neymar.
Whats this one?
There was a camel, looks exactly like me.
Bye bye.
Bye bye.
I think Billy needs to blow out his candles, a huff and a puff.
Can we play dinosaur?
You want to play dinosaur, what games would you play with a dinosaur? Getting on a dinosaur. You want to sit on a dinosaur. Wheres the dinosaur?
Look, look. Run, run, run, hide quick.
Come on, come and look at all of the unicorns, yeah.
Splash, splash. Splash, splash, splash, splash.
She loves getting her wellies dirty.
So the camel is not going to hear us, okay, so walk and go shh鈥
Walk really, really quickly ,over there and go, shh鈥
And the dinosaur said, 'Yay, I made a new friend.'
That' s the first time we've done it, so it was a bit tricky trying to think on the spot of something to say just to make a story up. But as I got into it, it started to come more naturally.
She's going up, three, two, one.
At first I didn't think we'd be able to get it going but yeah, it was fun once it got going. She was more interactive without her book, she was more engaged as well.
Ready?
For me, I'm more, like, reserved so I did really struggle with it, but Ally had just had so much fun.
Where's he gone, is he hiding?
For anyone who's nervous doing it, I would just say just try and have fun.
Saying the dinosaurs were going to sleep with Neymar they wanted to go to sleep together, kind of led into his nap time. Made it a bit more easier to put him down for sleep.
Why make up stories with kids?
- Making up stories helps your child to build their imagination.
- When making up stories you can use words for everyday things as well as less familiar words - whatever you and your child can come up with!
- It allows you and your child to get creative with actions, noises and voices.
How to make up stories with kids
- Let your child lead - what do they want the story to be about?
- Use props like toys and teddies - try letting your child choose which to use.
- Make noises, use silly voices and add in actions and sounds - these will all help your child to engage in the story and listen to you as you talk.
- If it's a bedtime story, gradually try and lower your tone to help calm them to sleep.
Image caption, Get the whole family involved and toys too.
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