Cloud Tales

 If you are looking for a way to entertain your grandchildren and you've read all the picture books and played all of the board games you can abide, go outside with them and on a nice day, find a grassy place where you can lie on your backs and look up at the clouds. On a sunny day when the clouds are white and puffy and sailing along, they make for perfect story telling.  You can take turns telling their tales. Ah, see that castle. Who do you think lives there?  Hurry because that castle is about to fly apart and then perhaps, oh just perhaps, we shall see who is inside. Yes, there she is, the princess and over there you can see a dragon. But it's a friendly one, and there is someone riding on its back. Oh, it's not a person, it's a very odd animal. What kind of animal is that? True. It's a little cat but it has too many legs. And such a huge tail. And what is it looking at? Do you see what I do, the big bird far above. Over there, and behind it, a whole string of bounding bunnies. Look at them all. That's an example of how clouds tell stories. They are endless ones.  Mountain sides can do the same. The patches of logged off areas, of steep valleys  and falling waters make for stories. One of the mountains, my grandies and I found every time we took them to and from their home in the valley, were of the mountains and we always found the prince and his private dragon. Or was it a princess and her dragon? We made up stories about what the characters had conquered on their travels and sometimes if we blurred our eyes we could make out some of the weird animals they rescued. Looking with children at natural things leads to story telling, and along with that you could mention that all early civilizations worldwide, made stories and legends and folk tales about what they saw in the real and natural world. If you take the time to find out what some of the global legends and tales of different countries are, you will find the same story lines in every culture. They are basically the same as ours. There are princes and princesses, magical folk that do good and bad things, creatures that threaten and heroes that save people and romantic rescues, on and on. In your own family, especially with grandparents who have lots of time to play with their grandchildren, what you see, can make up wonderful tales just by looking around and finding something inspiring. The shapes and colours take you away from the gizmo games that kids sit doing for hours at a time. These objects kill imagination. They rob children of getting outside and breathing air and looking around them. True creativity is not on their menus. When you make up your own stories, you are nurturing the imagination and encouraging confidence in making up stories that you alone create, not ones that come from books or little gizmos in a hand or that you find on a screen. Clouds are the perfect places to let the imagination soar. The shapes change and no one can possibly stick to one solid plot. The tales are  fluid and fun and fanciful. Try it with you grandchildren when they feel cranky or tired or sad or angry. They will calm down looking at the sky. The sky is patient and beautiful and it has no rules or guidelines. The sky is free. It waits.