Is it worth it? A visit to Kathalaya - Part 2

Kathalaya's intensive course is like a healing session. A chance to find the stories within you. And it turns out that even Aesop created his stories by this current situation. Aesop's fables according to me are the best way to teach a child 'character'.

Kathalaya was interesting because the lesson or teaching was not rigid. Given a group of 11 adults, the conversation was diverse and the path it followed was unique. The teacher, Ms. Geeta Ramanujam, ... followed our trail ... introducing concepts, telling us tricks, bringing out examples as we went to to deep conversations about everything in the world. Quite an entertainer, she told us so many stories that I could barely wait to get home to share them with Isaac and Ziva.

On the first day during a tea break, she shared with us this story of two fish. I am not sure what we were talking about, but she picked her hands making fish movements, moving back and forth and got all 11 of our attentions to a story suited for a 6 year old. I could not wait to tell Isaac this story. I went home and started narrrating story after story that I had heard and all three (Suresh, Isaac and Ziva) listened with rapt attention so much so that Suresh missed a work call!!!

Day two at Kathalaya passed so quickly with fun vocal activities, more stories from Ms. Geeta and a realization on how she used stories to reach to the deepest villages of India, breaking myths, bypassing superstitions, adding value to their life but most importantly, as she put it, learning so much from them. I also realized if I told a story (not read it), the language of the story did not matter. Everyone could understand a good storyteller. This was very important to me since I have been known to be a fast and unclear speaker from childhood. My words run quicker from my mouth than water from a tap!

Day three drew in a practical session. We were each asked to create our own story and showcase it for the others. I was a little whiny about it since I had reached home the previous evening past 7:30 pm and had to wake up early the next morning to prepare the story, props and my dialogues! But I guess the first two days of Kathalaya were so inspiring that I had lost all inhibition and the storyteller in me finally came out. 

The theme of my story was 'Why the lollipop is round?'. I had the easiest prop - lollipops. And I had so much fun telling the story. (Will put a blog up on the story soon). I came out feeling elated at the success of learning the art of 'storytelling'. But it was the very same evening that the question 'Was it worth it came up?' and I found myself wondering too. I had my question answered in two days

Isaac and I are struggling with reading and phonics.  I decided on Monday morning (Kathalaya finished on Saturday) to look up on the internet 'Story telling and reading' . The world just opened up for me! I found a website that shared how I could use story telling to teach words and reading and make it interactive and fun. That afternoon I tried it on Isaac. I can't say it worked like the click of a button because reading is a long process ... but half way through my story telling bonanza to Isaac, he started sharing his imagination and putting in his twist and turns to my story. He started adding characters and building up stories around them. 

That Monday afternoon I realised ... anything you put your passion to is completely 'Worth it!'

They say don't judge the book by the cover... Go read it... similarly ... got to experience Kathalaya to see why I am harping so much about it!