Let me tell you a story.
Once upon a time, there was a little girl as selfish as could be. Her mother tried every solution under the world, but nothing seemed to work. One day, after another argument over toys, Mum instead of yelling sat down and told her daughter a story. A tale of a selfish princess. Because the princess’s selfishness brought many tears and suffering to people around her, the fairy cast a spell on her, and she lost everything she possessed and was sent to the world as a beggar. Only through kindness and service to others was she able to break the spell and become the kindest princess in the land. The story was short and rather clumsy. You would not call it a piece of literature. However… the little girl sat there quietly for a moment then hugged Mum and said: I don’t want to be that Princess.
Now, of course, I don’t want to teach you about kindness and putting the needs of others first. I just want you to think how much a simple story can affect a listener. Stories captivate children’s imaginations and are probably the best tool to pass down wisdom, culture, and of course, life lessons. Storytelling is one of the oldest and most powerful ways to share knowledge, it was in the center of communities long before textbooks and formal education.
So, if storytelling is so powerful, why not use it as a tool in home education?
For homeschooling parents, storytelling can turn even the most challenging subjects into exciting adventures. Whether you’re teaching math, science, history, or character-building, a well-crafted story can make all the difference.
Does it sound too much like a fairy tale? If so, let’s look into all the proven benefits of storytelling.
Why Storytelling Works in Home Education
As a matter of fact, they work in all kinds of educational setups! They could be your best go-to resources even when your children are past the traditional age of a fairy tale audience.
1. Stories Make Learning Stick
Studies show that people remember information better when it’s told in a story. A dry history lesson about ancient Rome might be forgotten quickly, but a tale about a young Roman child navigating daily life in the empire? That sticks. My oldest daughter knew a great deal about ancient Rome because she had read the “Roman Mysteries” series by Caroline Lawrence.
2. Encourages Independent Thinking
Through storytelling, children develop problem-solving skills by predicting outcomes, analyzing characters’ choices, and considering alternative endings. This fosters independent learning and critical thinking.
3. Brings Subjects to Life
Instead of just memorizing facts, children step into the shoes of historical figures, explore scientific concepts through imaginative narratives, or learn about cultures by experiencing them through the eyes of a character. This is the entire idea behind Charlotte Mason’s concept of living books.
4. Personalized Learning
As a homeschooling parent, you can tailor stories to your child’s interests, but you can also make them relevant to the child’s environment. Do you have a child who loves birds or dinosaurs? You can easily incorporate talking birds into your science adventures or send a child on a quest to unlock the treasure guarded by dinosaurs. Often, you will find that your child would like to add their own details to the story: an older brother who coincidentally bears the name of your oldest son, a cat that wants to walk with you everywhere, and so on…
Some years ago, my husband wanted to spend extra meaningful time with our children and every evening he settled them for story time. He let them choose characters, names, and settings (which changed every evening). And then weave a story that was meaningful for them based on our daily experiences. How sweet a time that was, our oldest children still remember these times fondly.
Practical Ways to Use Storytelling in Your Home Education
Now, that we know the benefits of storytelling, I will try to show you how we use it in our home education, through snippets of our last term work.
1. We use “Living Books”
Charlotte Mason’s homeschooling philosophy emphasizes the use of “living books”—engaging, story-driven books that bring subjects to life. Instead of dry textbooks, you try to find biographies, historical fiction, or adventure stories that naturally teach your child. Although I’m not a pure Charlotte Mason follower I love this part of her legacy, and we look for living books on every subject:
English and Geography
The Good and Beautiful curriculum that we are using is embedded into this philosophy. Every unit corresponds to a living book exploring the topic through the character’s eyes. This term, the unit focused on Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxemburg and the book that we read was The Belgian Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins, the story that details the experiences of young Belgian children during the I World War. The book can be accessed for free here:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3642
This, together with extra art, gave us a beautiful picture of the region. Plus, of course, an extra history lesson.
We have also started to read Shakespeare’s Stories from the beautiful and very detailed Usborne edition. It includes all Shakespeare’s plays written as narrations and became Domi’s favorite reading aloud. We use it to learn a lot of new vocabulary.
Science
With Domi, we focus on botany and recently, we have added a study of birds. To aid us with learning, we have found a lovely old book: THE BURGESS BIRD BOOK FOR CHILDREN By Thornton W. Burgess. This is an American book and some birds are not to be found in our garden but the book is nevertheless interesting and funny in the way how the author presents the animals and their habits. This book also could be found for free on the Gutenberg project website.
As a result of Burgess’s book Domi picked a few bird-watching books from the library and tried to identify birds in our garden, as well as draw them in his nature journal.
History
This is a subject where storytelling is just natural. After all, history is nothing less than a big story full of people, emotions and events. We have just started a new topic on the Ancient world and picked a few books to go with the topic:
Egyptian, Greek and Roman Mythology
Story of Gilgamesh
Children’s Homer by Padraic Colum
Famous Men of Greece and Rome by J. H. Haaren
Archimedes and the Door of Science by J. Bendick
On top of this, our history book, Story of the World, is written in a very engaging way and includes short stories illustrating the topic. Like the story of the little girl from the hunter-gatherers tribe trying to find food and catching some lizards. I know… not what I have in mind for a dinner, but Domi seemed to like the idea of a lizard stew very much.
Music and Art
This is the area where the living books also work beautifully. Pick a composer, find an interesting book about him and read while listening to some of his famous pieces. Our latest composer was Vivaldi and the book we picked for reading was a beautifully illustrated story: I, Vivaldi by Janice Shefelman. A similar approach could be adopted for famous painters if you wish.
2. We Try to Turn any Subject into a Story
Every subject can be taught through storytelling! Of course, not all the time, but you can certainly use a simple story to change things a little, to bust the boredom of some subjects.
This approach works well with French and Polish. We listen to fairy tales in French, and I read a lot of my childhood stories and favourite books to children. Even older ones are still happy to listen to them.
Another surprising subject where I personally try to use stories is… Maths. Yes, Maths. When explaining a concept that is not that easy to understand, I use a lot of simple stories. Like going for a pizza and dividing it between your friends for fractions. The most used prop in our Maths lessons on fractions is… CHOCOLATE… It could be taken on a picnic to share with friends, a greedy brother could steal it, it could be a product to sell at the market etc.
We have discovered funny Maths stories to add to our Maths lessons. Funny is not strong enough – these are hilarious stories that bring Maths to life. Domi loved to show off a few Maths tricks from the books.
3. Incorporate Story-Based Learning into Writing Lessons
Encourage your child to write their own stories based on what they’ve learned. After studying Ancient Egypt, ask them to write a journal entry as a young scribe learning hieroglyphics. For children with artistic flair, comics are great tools to turn boring textbooks into funny adventures.
4. Act Out Stories
Make storytelling interactive! Use props, puppets, or simple role-play activities to let children immerse themselves in the story. My boys especially loved to act out the battle scenes in History. I wonder why….
5. Use Audiobooks and Podcasts
If you don’t always have time to create your own stories, use audiobooks or educational podcasts. Many history and science podcasts use storytelling to explain concepts engagingly. We are currently listening to all The BURGESS’s Animal Stories and Saints Alive Podcast (all are easy to find on Spotify and other listening platforms) during our driving times.
Final Thoughts: Bringing Storytelling into Your Home Education
Storytelling transforms home education from a routine of lessons into a world of adventure. But the truth is it’s not just homeschooling that can benefit from the use of stories. Why not use it with your children around the table as a family tradition? This way, you are building their tank of wonderful memories to turn to in challenging times.
Bonus: Do you know what the best advice for developing children’s imagination is?
Yes, you guessed it: storytelling is!
