Our Top 8 Story Ideas

Everyone needs a little inspiration sometimes. Below are our top 8 “Quick Story Ideas” to help you find your creative voice.

Tips for Storytelling

Focus on the kernel or essence of the story. Allow it to draw you into your own imagination, and let go of any ideas about memorizing or doing it right. Once you sink into this creative mood, stories almost tell themselves. There are no mistakes to be made, and sometimes the goofs are the best (and funniest) part.
Give your attention to the relationship between you and your listeners. Often, when we first think of storytelling, we think of the story. We invite you to focus instead on the relationship that exists between you and your children as you tell it. This is the sweet spot, not the narrative. There is a lot of research demonstrating that storytelling evolved as a social skill to help humans build intimacy, trust, and attachment.

The story ideas below are designed to be quick and speak for themselves. If you’re new to storytelling, you can find some background and inspiration here:

Blog Article - The Storytelling Loop
Blog Article - How Storytelling Builds Attachment & the Science Behind It
Podcast 1.2 - Awakening to the Storyteller Within
Podcast 1.19 - Nurturing Your Imagination and Creativity

*Photo by Michael Schwarzenberger on Pixabay*

The Ant Airport

Have you ever been to the ant airport?

You might not realize it if you had. But if you've ever seen a yellow flower with jagged leaves, that's one of 'em. You'll find 'em all over people's lawns. Even in cracks in the sidewalk.

Dandelions people call 'em, but ants call it the airport. I didn't believe it at first either, but if you look real close you'll see the ticketing station under the leaves.

But they're not like ours, where planes come in and out all the time. Flights only take off once, and you better be ready.

The ants know how to do it. They tickle the little yellow flowers till they close up. That's the sign that take-off is in a few days. You can get about 175 ants on each flight, though they don't all sit together. It's a one-seater.

It's not even a seat, really, but when the flower opens back up and you get all those little fuzzy seeds - that's boarding time. The ants climb up, grab hold of one of the seeds, and with the next gust of wind - whoosh! - they're off.

One little ant flew all the way to Madagascar on a direct flight. A couple made it to Hawaii. But usually you have to have a layover, sometimes two, along the way.

Well there was one little ant who was just about as old as you are - in ant years, of course - and he wanted to go to Pittsburgh. Now really, of all places... But there he was and there wasn't any stopping him.

Christopher, for that was his name, got his ticket early. He bought a bottle of juice and a sandwich for the flight with the money he had leftover, and a book of crossword puzzles.

He waited patiently as the ticklers did their work, and a few more days as the dandelion prepared the seeds. Finally, it was boarding time and a long line of ants started to form.
Christopher got to the top, grabbed hold of one of the seeds, and with the next gush of wind - whoosh! - he was in the air.

Looking out over the neighborhood, he could make out the houses and trees. Funny, everyone looked like ants from up here. Well he kept climbing and climbing, and...

Finish the Story with Your Children

**Tips for this story. The animal world is a great place to ignite your creativity. Can you use this story to help yourself find more stories in the natural world? Maybe the ants can visit the playground, the school, the pool? What would happen if they did?

The Princess Sleeps

A Story for Bedtime

Once there was a little princess who lived in a big castle. The king and queen had been called to a distant land to help care for the people.

When they left they told the little princess to look up at the stars at night and remember that she was not alone. They would be looking at the same stars in the distant land. But saying goodbye to her mother and father, the queen and the king, was hard.

The princess had no siblings and no pets, only servants that would bring her whatever she needed. But what she really needed was her mom and dad, and no one could bring them to her.

On the first night the princess began to get sad. But as she looked out her window, a shooting star passed by and it made her smile. "Did you see that?" said her mother, miles away, to her father. But the princess didn't know it.

The princess began to wonder if a shooting star came from one of the same ones she now saw sitting still. She decided to stay awake and count them. This way, she would know how many there were, and if any went shooting off somewhere.

As she counted, she pretended that each one was one of her playmates. 1,2,3,.....(keep counting). 46 playmates. Wow, that was a lot.

She started to yawn, and while she yawned she got a splendid idea. "What if I find a little sheep for each of my playmates?" she thought, "Won't that be fun?" So the princess went to the shepherd and woke him up.

"Yawn!," said the shepherd, "What are you doing up at this hour?" But the princess just handed him a gold coin and asked if she could buy 46 sheep for her playmates.

"That's a lot of playmates," he said, but he told her to pick the ones she wanted. So, she started counting 1,2,3 ,...(keep counting). By the time she counted all the sheep she was so tired that she fell asleep right on the grass.

And what do you think the sheep did? They laid down next to her, one at a time 1,2,3...

And what did the sheep dream of? Well, there were 46 dreams, and that's a lot of dreams to tell. One was about eating grass, another was about getting his fur coat trimmed, another was about jumping in the field...

Finish the Story with Your Children

**Tips for this story. The Little Princess can also be a Little Prince. When telling a bedtime story, slow down your voice and stay soft. The counting can be long and rhythmical. A child will begin to lose the words and drift off, comforted by the sound of your voice.

Tea Time

A Story to Explore Personification

You were sipping tea one morning when the teabags started climbing out of the box.

"It's too stuffy in here," said Peppermint, "I'm going down to the river."

"Me too, I'm ready to get moving," said English Breakfast.

"Yeah, the river. That'll spice things up!" said Chai.

"I mean, come on, it's boiling in here!" said Ginger, wiping a bead of sweat off her brow as she climbed out of your cup.

Sog, sog, sog. Tish, tish, tish. All the teabags started making their way for the door.

"Alright everybody, just calm down," said Chamomile, but it was too late. Half the cupboard was out the door.

As you sip cautiously, you hear a familiar sound padding its way down the hall. "Honey," you say, as your child works his way into your lap, "you'll never believe what I saw this morning. The teabags are going swimming."

Finish the Story with Your Children

**Tips for this story. Try to picture each type of tea as a different character. What personality do they have? Personification is one of the richest ways to develop stories from everyday objects. Are there other objects that might come alive in your stories - the toy chest, the pantry, the garden?

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The Music Tree

A Story About Sounds

In the garden of old Mr. Maple lived a very wide and full sycamore tree. Near the bottom of that tree lived a chipmunk, and his name was Martin.

Martin loved that tree very much, and for a very particular reason. He loved to look at it, sure, especially in the fall when it turned bright red - but that wasn't why Martin loved that tree so much. He loved the smell of it too, a gentle yet spicy aroma that surrounded him everyday. But no, that wasn't it either.

No, Martin loved that tree because of the way it sounded. You see, Martin had very careful ears. He was always alert, and what he loved to hear most of all was the gentle click-clacking whoosh of the leaves.

Most people would just pass that tree by and think nothing of it, but Martin - and really, the same must be said of old Mr. Maple - he loved to sit under that tree and listen to the music in the leaves.

You had to listen very closely, and most people were too busy. Besides, listening to a tree sounded like nonsense. They just heard the swishing and swaying like it was one big scuffling sound - a broom across the floor.

But to Martin and old Mr. Maple, each leaf had a distinctive note. They could hear it. They could feel it. And when the leaves knocked together, each note rang out with its particular hue.

One day in Autumn, those leaves began to drop one by one and settle onto the grass below. And this is what Martin and old Mr. Maple waited for all year. By then the tree had grown red as a cherry, and each leaf was crisp and dry.

Down came one leaf - plunk! - and you could hear it. B-flat thought Martin. "A-sharp," said Mr. Maple. Then another leaf - ting! - and another - bup!

Down came a spinning leaf, whirling in the air, and as it did it whistled like this (make a whistling sound).

Then came three leaves altogether, and they landed: Boom..bip...bop.

Tlang! came another, then gang...wrong.

Every leaf had its unique shape, you see, so every leaf had its unique sound. And when the wind blew, it sounded like this:

Sing Your Favorite Children's Song

**Tips for this story. Tell it slowly. Draw the description out like you're Old Man Maple. Treat your voice like an instrument. For each leaf, make a different sound with your voice - click your tongue, pop your lips, whistle like you mean it. Make all the silly sounds you can, the beautiful ones too. Use your tongue, your lips, whatever fun noises that come to mind. You may find your children repeating them.

Elevator in the Sky

A Story About Science

There was once a drop of water. It wasn't even a drop of water, really, just some mist in the air. Floating. Bobbing along. It was just water mixed into the air like smoke.

Well, the smoke was helpful actually. A tiny piece of smoke, not much larger than an ant's toothbrush, came hovering in the air too, and when it did the water started to stick to it. "Let's hang out!" said the water, and as soon as it did lots of tiny friends joined too.

At first it was like a wet toothbrush, then it was like a soaking wet toothbrush, then it was like a jar of water with a bunch of toothbrushes in it. Soon the water droplet was big and round, pendulous, like a mama 'bout to have a baby. Round and beautiful.

Well, just like the mama, that tiny drop of water had some work to do. It looked left. It looked right. Then it pulled the cord on its parachute and jumped. Out of the sky it flew, and as it did it saw hundreds of other little drops of water doing the same thing. They were all jumping down out of the sky, out of the clouds.

"How'd they get so many ant toothbrushes?" the little drop of water thought. But there wasn't much time to think about it. There was so much to look at! The houses and trees, the rivers and birds. A family of ducks waddling through the grass. "Whoa!" said the little drop of rain, "let's try to hit that dog." It steered its little butt toward the dog, and when it landed, "ploosh!", the dog just wiggled its ear. It was a friendly drop.

Well, the water just kind of squooshed out in that dog's fur. All belly and not much else. But eventually it made its way down the dog's head and onto the ground. It was just a big ol' puddle now.

But here's the thing. Water always travels in circles. It's like a cycle, a bicycle even. It falls down, but sooner or later it has to go back up to become more rain. Scientists call it the water cycle, but what they don't know is that the rain drops have an elevator. You find 'em in streams and ponds, even the little puddles on your sidewalk. They're not obvious at first, but once you know how to recognize 'em you see 'em everywhere.

Now this little raindrop, his name was Billy, oozed his way down the dog's ear and toward the nearest elevator. When he got there...

Finish the Story with Your Children

**Tips for this story. Try to see how stories and personification can engage a young person's curiosity and lay the foundation for all sorts of science topics. It's not about being 100% correct. It's about opening the door to curiosity and giving language to subjects we want to explore later in life.

Clarissa the Bee

A Story About Colors

Close your eyes and I'll tell you a story. I'll tell you the story of Clarissa the Bee.

Clarissa loved flowers. She loved every flower, but she especially loved tulips. And do you know why? It wasn't for their fragrance, which was thin and elegant. It wasn't even for the pollen she found on their stamens.

No, Clarissa loved color. And not just color, but the kind of color that filled you and surrounded you. It was a bowl of color, that's how Clarissa felt about tulips. Or a pool.

Every time she plunged into a tulip, it was as if the entire earth became that one true color. You can just imagine what it was like to be so small.

Well, one day Clarissa happened to fly into Albert's garden. Albert loved tulips too, you see. He loved red ones and pink ones, yellow, and purple, and pink. He even had some that were almost blue, like the color of the sky, and some that were the color of rain. He had chocolate tulips, not to be eaten of course, but with a rich creamy brown that was oddly satisfying.

And the funny thing about Clarissa is that she would fall asleep inside each tulip. She would nestle down and just drift off. And her dreams! Oh, each was unique to the color of the tulip. Once, she had a dream in a red tulip about growing strawberries on the East coast of Africa. In a purple tulip, she came awake - or, I suppose it's asleep - to a splendid dream about mixing black cherries into sorbet.

Well, this particular time in Albert's garden she landed in a bright pink tulip, with just a hint of white at the bottom. The sun shone through the petals, filling everything with color. It was as if she became color, and only a little cap of sky blue at the top.

Slowly, her little bee eyes drooped. As she drifted off, her little bee head knocked gently against the stamen and a little shower of pollen shook down magically upon her head.

When her dream eyes opened....

Finish the Story with Your Children

**Tips for this story. Use this story to practice your descriptive language. How many names and colors can you come up with? Is there a tulip the color of the night sky? What is its name? Synesthesia is the word for mixing senses - hearing sounds as colors, feeling textures as words. Can you use this mixed sense to dream a pink dream?

*Photos by Shagal Sajid and Ricky Kharawala on UnSplash*

Computer Mouse & House Mouse

A Story About Technology

Computer Mouse was tired. He had been working all day while his friend House Mouse slept in the warm space between the walls.

Not for Computer Mouse. Move left, move right. Up, then down. Right click, left click, double-click. Ugh! It was exhausting.

Only when the people went to bed could he get some rest. And just as he was closing his eyes, House Mouse came from behind the wall.

"Come play with me!" he said, "I'm going to eat some chocolate, then slide down the stairs!"

It did sound like fun, but Computer Mouse could never stay awake. As soon as the people put the computer to sleep, he would always start to drift away.

But where, you would never guess! Computer Mouse had a very active imagination, and after a long day of work he would sometimes have the wildest dreams. Icon, his buddy, always came with him, and the two of them traveled the digital universe.

Dreams were a lot like virtual reality. In fact, in his dreams Computer Mouse had a real tail and four legs just like everybody else. Icon had a flashy symbol, with little arms and legs.

"Where do you want to go today?" asked Icon, just as Computer Mouse logged into the virtual chat room.

"I want to slide down the stairs," said Computer Mouse.

"Stairs?" said Icon with a funny smile. "How many stairs do you want?"

"Lots of 'em," said Computer Mouse.

"Let's see," said Icon, tapping his belly once, then twice. "Says here the longest staircase is on Mount Niesen in Switzerland. Over 11,670 stairs, more than The Empire State Building and the Eiffel Tower combined."

"Let's go!" shouted Computer Mouse, and he tapped Icon two times on the belly.

"Hey, that tickles!" said Icon, but already they were standing before a huge mountain with snow at the top.

"Wait," said Computer Mouse, "I thought we were going to slide down the stairs."

"We are," said Icon, "But first we have to climb to the top."

Finish the Story with Your Children

**Tips for this story. We often use natural themes in our stories, but stories live everywhere - including in our technology. Use this story, or others, to find ways to connect to what’s real in your life. There are few things more damaging to the craft of storytelling than pitting it against screen time and modernity. It’s all beautiful. It’s simply a matter of what we wish to draw attention to.

Goldy & the Bird Bath

A Story About Seasonal Events

A goldfinch stops in your backyard. In his wing, a tiny suitcase.

"What's that?" you ask.

"Oh, this? I need a nice change of clothes if I have any chance of attracting a mate. Migrating all this way gets my feathers a little dusty."

"You have a change of clothes?"

"I do. By the way, do you know any place I can get a bath?"

"A bird bath?"

"Precisely."

A couple hours later, Goldy the Goldfinch was relaxing in a Cool Whip tub full of water outside your backyard. His bright yellow feathers were freshly pressed and hanging on the branch beside him, billowing gently in the breeze, when suddenly he spots Tom, the neighbor's cat.

Pew! Goldy is gone lickety split, and you didn't even have a chance to say goodbye. You eyeball Tom, who rolls his eyes and shrugs. He never takes responsibility. But then you notice the bright yellow jacket hanging on the tree. Goldy! He'll never find a mate without it!

Can you find a way to get the jacket back to Goldy? Right now, you've got a naked bird on the loose. Maybe Tom can help you find him? Where does the journey lead?

Finish the Story with Your Children

**Tips for this story. Telling a story that relates to seasonal or timely subjects - like the spring bird migration - can help draw in a child’s interest. The story can be as zany as you like, or quite plain - either way, your children will often demonstrate a newfound curiosity in the subject. What kind of subjects are you interested in? Is there a way to tell a story about it that might attract your child’s interest?

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Our goal is to inspire parents, grandparents, and educators to awaken to the storyteller within.