It is not a hidden fact that children learn things quickly. Have you noticed how kids start imitating our actions and try to utter the words that we speak? We often admire the rate at which children start learning different things. Initially, they mimic sounds and gestures and when they start speaking, they follow our suit to utter words and sentences. Since their learning happens so fast, we must aid in their language development from their early years.
Are you wondering how to introduce them to the world of the English language? There is nothing new to do as you are already familiar with the act of telling them stories and making them practise essay writing in English. More than being a leisure activity, storytelling and essay writing are considered to be the most effective tools to build the vocabulary and language of children. Let us understand this with the help of the monkey and crocodile story and see how essay writing can be useful for them.
Monkey and Crocodile Story
When the story is engaging, you will find your children keenly interested and attentive and they will pick on words easily. While it is best to tell them Panchatantra stories as they contain wit and morals, they also teach our children valuable lessons. The monkey and crocodile story would be a simple story to narrate and children will grasp unique words and they will be able to understand new meanings through it.
The story talks about two friends – a monkey and a crocodile and how the crocodile takes advantage of their friendship. The monkey, who lived on a mango tree near the banks of a river, became friends with the crocodile when he offered a mango to the tired crocodile one day. The crocodile liked the ripe mangoes and they soon became friends.
Then, the crocodile took some mangoes to his wife and the wife liked them. She thought that the heart of the monkey would be more tastier since he had eaten so many delicious mangoes. So, she wished to taste the monkey’s heart and tricked the crocodile into agreeing to bring the monkey’s heart to her.
By telling the monkey that his wife has invited him to their house, the crocodile carried him across the river. On the way, the crocodile admitted the truth to his friend and the monkey was furious to hear it. But he was smart and told the crocodile that he forgot to take his heart from the tree. The crocodile took him back to the tree to take the heart and the monkey jumped up saying that nobody keeps their heart on the tree. The crocodile understood his foolishness and went back to his house.
The monkey and crocodile story introduces kids to many words and we can teach them their meaning in a fun and engaging way. Even though they will be able to master reading and listening skills through storytelling, the actual language development happens through essay writing in English.
English Essays for Kids
It is ideal to make kids write short essays on simple topics so that their basics of the language remain firm and they can further improve their writing skills as they reach higher classes. We cannot force our children to be proficient in the language in a day. But we can nurture their habit of writing essays by asking them to write on topics of their interest. As children are excited to write about their family, best friend, favourite hobby, school etc, we can give them such topics for essay writing in English. This will help them to develop their language skills.