Shake-N-Tell

Do you know what makes me feel confident before I give a storytelling performance? Preparation. So, improvisational storytelling is something I don't usually do, even as a parent.

I read Virginia books (I am also a librarian!) and I've started telling her some of the kids stories in my repertoire: Mr. Wiggle and Mr. Waggle, Rattlesnake Soup, The Foolish Frog, etc. But I hadn't really tried making up a story for her on the fly.

Then I downloaded the Shake-N-Tell app and decided to give it a try as we were getting ready for bed last night. The app gives you the start of a story and every time you shake it you get a little bit more, giving you lots of room to add in your own material. I wanted to try to just take the start and go from there.

The story started out with a boy and his father living in a rickety shack. They found out from a prospector about gold in the desert. The boy went out and thought he saw a mountain lion.

I asked Virginia what should happen next and she said the mountain lion should chase the boy and eat him.

That was the end of our first attempt.

But I went back and started over.

The boy and his father heard about gold in the desert. The father was old and sick after years of hunting gold and the boy wanted to take care of him. So, he snuck away in the night.
The boy ran into a mountain lion, which chased him. He ran and ran and just as he thought he was going to get caught, he fell through a mine shaft. BOOM.
He landed in a mine car and started rolling through the dark tunnel very fast. Then, BOOM, the car ran into a wall and the boy fell out.
He was in a cavern filled with gold. He started filling his pockets, when a leprechaun jumped out. The leprechaun said, "No one leaves this cave!"

I got a little stuck here, so John chimed in,

"No one leaves this cave...unless they answer three riddles!"

Then I shamelessly stole three riddles from various literary sources:

"What walks on four legs, then two legs, then three legs?"
A person - crawls as a baby, walks upright as an adult, and walks with a cane in old age.
"What is a little red house with a star inside?"
An apple.
"What have I got in my pocket?"
The leprechaun had gold in his pocket because he was a leprechaun. He let the boy leave with the gold in his pockets.
The boy went home to take care of his father and they lived happily ever after. 

After the story I left John and Virginia to finish bedtime so I could put Horatio to bed. The only hiccup was that Virginia wanted to keep my phone. This, though, is not the fault of the app, but my fault for occasionally letting her play with my phone.

The Shake-N-Tell app was designed to help parents tell original bedtime stories to their children. I would say, it works! The basic app is free (and this is what I used to test it out) but you can pay to get more stories. It is pretty neat, and I hope Virginia and I will be coming up with more stories together.