DIY Story Stones

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Why hello!  It has been quite awhile since I last wrote a blog post.  We spent 6 very long weeks without childcare, which was incredibly challenging with two full-time working parents, to say the least.  Thankfully, my husband’s family generously offered to help however they could, so between their help, my work being flexible and my husband coincidentally having a bit of vacation time during that period, we made it work.  Now that things are getting back to normal around here (we have full time childcare again – whoo hoo!), I am going to try to add some posts about all of the fun things the littles and I got up to over the past couple months.  So stay tuned for more on that front!

In the meantime, I wanted to add this post about story stones.  I actually heard about story stones for the first time a couple months back from a coworker and instantly knew I wanted to make them.  I absolutely love how something so simple – rocks – can be made into something so beautiful.  Plus, I love using things from nature to foster creativity, and story stones do just that!  If you aren’t familiar with story stones, the easiest way to describe them is definitely with a picture.  So, here is the set I made for my son:

Story stones are typically used for storytelling (ex: a child picks a few of the stones and then either you or the child make up a story based on the pictures on the stones), but can also be used to foster creative Montessori-style play and learning (ex: stones painted with food, people, vehicles, etc. can all be used in place of plastic toys)!  The stones can be themed or they can just be a mixture of various things you know your child is interested in (such as the set I made, pictured above).  Making story stones is incredibly easy; all you need is some rocks, paint, a paint brush and your imagination!  Here are the supplies I gathered to make my story stones:

I am incredibly excited to give my son his set of story stones.  We have a nightly story telling tradition which typically includes him picking a theme and me making up a story about the chosen theme.  As he is only 3 1/2 right now, and his abstract thinking is still developing, his chosen themes tend to be a bit difficult to work with (ex: “Mum, tonight I want my story to be about Aiden, the extraordinary curtain maker”).  So, not only do I think that he is going to love the story stones because they are incredibly neat, but I anticipate he is going to enjoy the stories that come out of them very much as well!

If you decide to make your own story stones, please feel free to share a picture below!  I would love to see how they turn out!  Happy Storytelling!