Child stories are an excellent way to promote child development. You can use teaching material along with children's stories to teach moral lessons, factual knowledge or emotional intelligence.

The beauty of using child stories in this way is that children learn without feeling like they're "learning"; they learn by osmosis.

Using stories to teach also gets children to really think about things. They can actively get involved in the story rather than just passively listening to it or reading it.

So, how can YOU use stories in this way? When you follow these 7 simple steps, you'll find that using stories to teach is incredibly easy, and fun, too!

#1 Decide what you want to teach

What do you want your child or students to learn? How do you want them to feel at the end of the "lesson"?

#2 Ask specific questions about events or characters from the story

Questions such as "why did this happen?", "why did Santa do that?" or "how do think Billy felt?" are good examples. Try to get children to "analyze" the story - to think about why something happened and its consequences, the motivations and feelings of characters, etc.

#3 Relate the story to the child's own life/experiences

This is KEY - by doing so the child will assimilate the lesson(s) of the story. It becomes more real and personal for the child. Ask questions like "how would you feel if