We brought the APG girls to IKEA on Monday. It was PK's first time being left at the IKEA play area to play with her friends. There was a little hiccup at the beginning. PK was upset that I wasn't there and the new environment made her cautious and shy. But we talked about it calmly (yes, thank goodness, I was in a good mood that day) and she ended up playing happily with her friends without mom for an hour. And she had so much to talk about the experience at the end of the play time.
While we were shopping without the three girls, I found these KVACK memory game cards. There are 17 pairs of cards in each box and from the packaging, you can only see 7 of the designs. But the illustrations look very lovely and it has detailed drawings unlike the usual memory game cards you would find in other stores. So I thought I would give it a try and bought both the red box and green box. It's $4.99 per box (or $3.99 with IKEA family card), so it's not too pricey.
When we opened it yesterday, I was surprised to see that the cards are made of thick card board, like board book thickness. Awesome, this makes it possible to last a few years!
My initial intention was not to play memory game with the cards since PK already had a few sets of memory game cards and was able to play them easily since she was two (she played the memory game on iPad too). I wanted to use these for storytelling. There are a few sites (I will share them in a bit) that use picture stones and other tools for storytelling but I haven't had the time to collect rocks or paint for that matter. So, these cards from IKEA were a good substitute.
See, aren't the pictures lovely? So this is how we play with these storytelling cards, as I call it.
First, I separated all the pairs in each box and put 34 unique cards in each box. So now, the red box and green box each has the same 34 cards. PK says the red box is hers and green one is BB. Yes, of course he wants to play too while PK and I are storytelling.
Then, PK and I take turns to draw a card from the stack and tell a short story about the picture. This is the fun bit to inspire creativity and imagination. I must say, PK's stories are more elaborated than mine. See the wolf card above? This is roughly what she said yesterday: "Once there was a wolf who found a rose that belong to a Princess. The wolf wants to bring the rose home but the Princess says no and so he returns the rose to the princess and they are both happy."
There are obvious grammatical errors in her stories (and in mine too!), but it's the imagination that sparks off from each picture that makes this game so so fun and constructive. We played 17 red cards in the afternoon and mix in the green cards when we played with Daddy in the evening.
You would think that PK would say the same story when she picks the same card again in the evening or she might copy my story if she got a card that I already talked about in the afternoon. But, no, she added her own ideas and details to her stories and each story is different and unique. Some cards are not as appealing or easy to her, so I let her pick a different card if she wants to. And if she asks me what is on the card, I usually prompt her to tell me what she thinks it is then agree with her (if it's kind if right) or suggest something else. But most often, she is kind if right. There is no right or wrong in storytelling anyway.
If you the chance to drop by IKEA, pick up one or both of these boxes. To be able to play both memory game AND storytelling with the same cards is a lot of fun!
Here's are some storytelling ideas using other types of storytelling prompts:
- Story Stones ideas by The Artful Parent
- Storytelling Basket by The Imagination Tree