Every night, I tell made-up stories for my two boys. There are three main types and they start like this:
"Once upon a time, there were two ninjas...now, these were black ninjas...they wore black from head to toe. Every morning, they strolled through the village and there they saw the school children, lined up, ready to go to school...and the children were so excited to see the ninjas...they said,'konichiwa ninjas!' and the ninjas said, 'ah...konichiwa, children!' On this day, the ninjas decided to....
--OR--
Once upon a time, there was a tribe of Indians who lived on the plains of Oklahoma. They lived in red-dirt country, and their tee-pees were set up on a plateau next to a river...
--OR--
Once upon a time, there was an Evil Robot. Evil Robot loved to trick people...and every time he tricked someone he laughed his evil laugh: he-he, he-he, he-he.
It was past nine o'clock by the time we went to bed, so no made-up stories tonight.
I find it helpful to start the stories in precisely the same way every time so that it gives my brain a minute or two to search for story material as I'm reciting the words. Parallel processing at it's finest! ha.
Goodnight, world!
Gentlepup
