Sparkle Schoolhouse

How to “Use” our Stories: An Introduction to our Mission

The Story is Only the Beginning.

That is the tagline of Sparkle Stories and now the new podcast “SparkleCast” that launches in a couple weeks.

It is central to our mission.

Let me unpack it a bit.

Most children’s entertainment serves as a destination. It is the place children and their families want to GO. They look to the entertainment to entertain them - and then it is over. Maybe they will talk about their favorite characters or scenes - but then they move on and search out the next bit of entertainment.

There is nothing wrong with this - it is an experience. It is an invitation to feel something, be surprised by something, or visit a place that you’ve never been. And it is a destination. It is the place you land until you go somewhere else.

With Sparkle Stories, we want you to START with the story and let it inspire you to feel, think and do something MORE.

We want it to be the beginning, not the destination. We want you to enjoy, be entertained and to immerse yourself in the story - but when it is over - we want you to consider it - to be inspired by it - to be curious by it - and then to DO SOMETHING.

This is key.

We want the story to help you discover something, try something, change something or to let something go.

How?

With three little buttons.

- This rolling pin means there is a recipe

• This pair of scissors means there is a craft or activity

• And this schoolhouse means there is a tutorial for the grown ups.

When you see any of these three buttons on the player page of our stories, you know there is something BUILT INTO the story that will launch you and your child into some kind of activity.

Our goal is to have one of these buttons on EVERY SINGLE STORY - so that no matter what your family listens to - there will be an invitation to let the story inspire something new in your life.

Something to cook, something to make and a way for the adults in your household to learn about their children, their environment, and even about themselves.

Want to give it a try?

We recommend you start with the Dry Gables series - where every single story is built to give a window into your child’s personality, their motivation, their unique fears and their way of making sense of the world.

https://youtu.be/iHFxX8eJ9-0

• You can start with the introduction stories

• Or you can jump right into the nine stories of Season One.

Either way, listen to the story, have your child listen to the story - and then check out the tutorial when you press the little schoolhouse button.

There you will find a video tutorial from our Child Development Specialist and “Head of School” Meredith Markow who will guide you on how you can ‘use’ this story to better understand your child.

Below the video are ideas and some very practical ways you can ‘use’ the story and the tutorial in your parenting, educating and being with the children in your life.

Over the next year, we will continue to add more and more of these tutorials, lessons, recipes and instructions to every one of our stories. And then “The Story is Only the Beginning” will make sense in both a narrative - and deeply practical way.