Play Project: waking up my mind.

It started with a simple question 'What story would you like?'. One answer came back 'A factual book on minerals, particularly felspars.' The other ' A story about a monster. A bady monster.'

I knew nothing of minerals to create a book and entertain a 6 & 8 year old, so I went for the monster idea. For the next hour I asked lots of questions of the 6 year old. Classic open ended questions so I could find out when, where, what and how. The 8 year old sat quietly and drew as a story  emerged.

I read back the key points of the story as the youngest child would most like. She was pleased with it. Later I put it into a storyboard. Played with the sequencing so it had some flow. Then looked up on the internet children's story telling. One website explained there are two types: 'the quest' & 'the bady comes to town'. Sure enough, the 6 year old had brought both these elements into their story.