Your child is curious to know about you and experiences you had when growing up. Once you start telling your child about the stories of your own life, she/he will be interested to know more. You can support your child’s curiosity by telling stories about yourself, your family or your childhood. Below you can find two examples that show how personal stories can be built together.

Mum: So tonight I will tell you the story of how I came to England from Turkey.

Child: When did you come?

Mum: When I was 20 years old

Child: Where was I?

Mum: You didn’t exist back then. I recently finished school in Adana and I flied to London to find a job

Child: Why did you need a job?

Mum: Because I was young and I needed money to live

Child: Like to buy tomatoes and bread

Mum: Yes exactly

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In multi-lingual families parents and children might switch between languages when telling stories together.

Father: Ben kucukken cok haraketliydim ve bir gun agaca timranmaya karar verdim. Bizim koyde koca bir elma agaci vardi. O agaca abimle cikmaya karar verdik (I was very energetic when I was a child and me and my brother, we decided to climb up on a tree. A tree back in our village in Turkey, an enourmous apple tree)

Child: How did you do it?

Father: Once abim cikti, o benden bes yas daha buyuk oldugu icin cok gucluydu. Sonra bana yardim etmeye calisti cikmam icin ( First my brother climbed, he was much stronger as he was older. Then he tried to help me to climb?)

Child: Ne oldu sonra? (What happened then?)

Father: Ikimiz de dustuk, sonra annem bize cok kizdi iki gun evden cikmama cezasi aldik (We both fell over, my mum got very angry at both of us and she didn’t let us to leave home for two days).