Once Upon a Story

There are many books and games that are available to our children for their entertainment, but rarely does a game come along that has a truly unique way to teach children a skill that is in dire need of being taught, and especially one done so well for such a young age.

Storytelling is one of the most useful skills we can have. Our every interaction and relationship with other humans contains an element of storytelling. People relate to each other and empathise with each other , trade and bargain, and grow their professional careers on the ability to tell stories.

However it is very rare to see storytelling taught to children. They are told stories, but they are rarely given the tools to build their own stories.

The storytelling flash card games “Once Upon a Story” by Liana Benezaki and Manos Krokos is a unique story building game that excites and inspires children, giving them a structured way to discover the joy of inventing their own stories.

Designed on the basis of story analysis by the Russian researcher Vladimir Propp, it allows children to “invent” their heroes’ actions and functions, by choosing the pictures provided to enable them to tell their own unique tale. Sequencing the cards provides not only the correct chronological order of the plot but provides guided narration, thus boosting children’s self-confidence during narration. At the same time, their imagination and creative thinking skills are exercised.

The game is incredibly simple. The players spread the cards and choose a card that is colour coded to pick their hero, the location, the goal, the obstacles, the hero’s helper, their magic tools and the happy ending. They can work with the cards with their teachers, their parents, their care takers, their friends as well as “play” on their own.

All of the characters objects and locations are taken from Greek Mythology and brings its characters, locations and objects to life . So as well as being a fun way to create their own stories, children can serendipitously learn the characters of Greek mythology.

If you want your children to engage, not only in the world of Greek mythological archetypes, but also in the creative act of story telling, then this game is a perfect combination of the two.
Giving children the power to tell their own stories, gives them the confidence they need to grow into adults that can change the world with the power of the stories they tell.

Once Upon a Story

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