Learning about storytelling for children with the amazing Danyah Miller at the School of Storytelling, we learned songs and rhymes and simple games. When I returned home I coaxed my daughter and husband to play.
Andy, spandy, sugardy-candy,
Where’s my little stone gone?
Pooh!
(A stone is concealed in cupped hands and moved in time to the rhyme, the others copying the actions and singing the rhyme with you. Then the clenched fists are held out to the person next to you who must guess which hand the stone is in. When they guess correctly the stone passes to them and the game continues.)
I was surprised by my daughter’s instant delight in this little game. It was immediate, there was a sudden quickening of interest, a smile, an eagerness to join in. So satisfying!
Sometimes it’s hard to trust that something so simple, so easy to do can make someone happy; to know to pick up your stone and start to sing!