{"id":2424,"date":"2025-04-04T11:04:38","date_gmt":"2025-04-04T15:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amblesideschools.org\/?p=2424"},"modified":"2025-04-09T15:25:17","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T19:25:17","slug":"its-always-storytime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amblesideschools.org\/its-always-storytime\/","title":{"rendered":"It&#8217;s Always Storytime"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\"><p>[vc_row full_width=&#8221;stretch_row_content&#8221; custom_padding=&#8221;true&#8221; custom_padding_t=&#8221;30&#8243; custom_padding_b=&#8221;30&#8243; row_hide_sm=&#8221;yes&#8221; row_hide_md=&#8221;yes&#8221; row_hide_xs=&#8221;yes&#8221; css_zindex=&#8221;999&#8243; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1706567709549{background-color: #faf5eb !important;}&#8221;][vc_column]<div class=\"templatera_shortcode\"><div class=\"container-fluid row_section vc_row_cp_lr_15 vc_row_cp_t_0 vc_row_cp_b_0\"><div  class=\"vc_row wpb_row vc_row-fluid vc_column-gap-15 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Mason<\/a>\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/amblesideschools.org\/blog\/\">Articles & Magazine<\/a>\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/amblesideschools.org\/the-ambleside-difference\/\">Video Series<\/a>\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/amblesideschools.sharepoint.com\/sites\/ASIAllMember\">Member Resources<\/a>\n  <\/div>\n<\/div> \n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_width=&#8221;stretch_row_content&#8221; custom_padding=&#8221;true&#8221; custom_padding_t=&#8221;45&#8243; custom_padding_b=&#8221;45&#8243;][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/4&#8243;][vc_single_image source=&#8221;featured_image&#8221; alignment=&#8221;center&#8221; img_size=&#8221;stretch&#8221;][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;30&#8243;][vc_column_text]Image courtesy of RiverTree School.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;30&#8243;][vc_separator width_in_percentages=&#8221;yes&#8221;][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;30&#8243;][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]Browse more Ambleside Schools International <strong>Resources<\/strong>.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;30&#8243;][vc_separator width_in_percentages=&#8221;yes&#8221;][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;30&#8243;]<div class=\"templatera_shortcode\"><div class=\"container row_section vc_row_cp_lr_15 vc_row_cp_t_0\"><div  class=\"vc_row wpb_row vc_row-fluid vc_column-gap-30 vc_row-6953ab0cd9235690708975\"   style=' text-align:left; z-index:0;'><div class=\"row-container container-fluid\"><div class=\"row-inner\"><div class=\"wpb_column vc_column_container vc_col-sm-12 vc_column_container_6953ab0cd92f3086758827\" style=\"z-index:0\"><div class=\"vc_column-inner \"><div class=\"wpb_wrapper\"><div class=\"vc_custom_heading vc_custom_heading_6953ab0cd9416004725009\" ><h5 style=\"font-size: 17px;color: #000000;text-align: left\"><span class=\"hilight\"  ><a href=\"https:\/\/amblesideschools.org\/resources\/\">Resource Library<\/a><\/span><\/h5><\/div><div class=\"vc_empty_space  vc_empty_space_2\"   style=\"height: 10px\" ><span class=\"vc_empty_space_inner\"><\/span><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"vc_custom_heading vc_custom_heading_6953ab0cd95a7084936244\" ><h5 style=\"font-size: 17px;color: #000000;text-align: left\"><span class=\"hilight\"  ><a href=\"https:\/\/amblesideschools.org\/charlotte-mason\/\">Charlotte M. Mason<\/a><\/span><\/h5><\/div><div class=\"vc_empty_space  vc_empty_space_3\"   style=\"height: 10px\" ><span class=\"vc_empty_space_inner\"><\/span><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"vc_custom_heading vc_custom_heading_6953ab0cd96c5057088974\" ><h5 style=\"font-size: 17px;color: #000000;text-align: left\"><span class=\"hilight\"  ><a href=\"https:\/\/amblesideschools.org\/blog\/\">Articles<\/a><\/span><\/h5><\/div><div class=\"vc_empty_space  vc_empty_space_4\"   style=\"height: 10px\" ><span class=\"vc_empty_space_inner\"><\/span><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"vc_custom_heading vc_custom_heading_6953ab0cd977c651366543\" ><h5 style=\"font-size: 17px;color: #000000;text-align: left\"><span class=\"hilight\"  ><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amblesideschools.com\/main\/educator-support\" target=\"_blank\">Members<\/a><\/span><\/h5><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>[\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;3\/4&#8243;][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h4><a href=\"https:\/\/amblesideschools.org\/blog\/\"><span style=\"color: #003865;\">&gt; Return to Articles<\/span><\/a><\/h4>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;30&#8243;][vc_custom_heading text=&#8221;It&#8217;s Always Storytime<br \/>\nThe Secret Garden of Education&#8221; use_theme_fonts=&#8221;yes&#8221; font_container=&#8221;tag:h1|font_size:30|text_align:left|color:%23020202&#8243;][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;30&#8243;][vc_separator width_in_percentages=&#8221;yes&#8221;][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;30&#8243;][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]It\u2019s afternoon recess, and a game of tag is underway at RiverTree School in a northwest suburb of Minneapolis. As two students race across the playground, the chased yells a command over his shoulder to his pursuer, \u201cI love thee not, therefore pursue me not!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In a separate corner of the yard on another day, Robin Hood\u2019s merry men are engaged in a heated stick-sword fight with an enemy just outside Sherwood Forest, which is cleverly disguised as a regular old stand of oak trees on this day.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>By a generous act of diplomacy, the merry men spare his life and issue an invitation to join their band, which he readily accepts.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>After reading a chapter in <em>Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin<\/em> during read-aloud time, one student goes home determined to find out if cat\u2019s hair really does make a good paintbrush. The school\u2019s co-founder Marybeth Nelson confirms that it does, according to her own children\u2019s similar experiment and her dear cat\u2019s unwavering conviction to never let it happen again.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s a sign of a good book if the children go outside and start acting it out in play,\u201d Marybeth says. \u201cWe just give them instruction on how to play with sticks without hurting each other.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Spending time in great stories creates appreciation and hunger for things outside our world, expanding it. Stories make our world bigger.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This is readily seen in the play of young children, but the same progression is happening in older students as well. They\u2019re inspired toward the care of women and children when reading about passenger rescue attempts during the sinking of the Titanic. The dystopian societies presented in Huxley\u2019s <em>Brave New World<\/em> and Rand\u2019s <em>Anthem<\/em> help students appreciate independence and free thought in a new way altogether.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Throughout their Ambleside education, students encounter ideas presented through story in each living book. As they put themselves into the stories, they\u2019re engaging with the ideas held within \u2014 and those ideas stay with them.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe all think in stories. It&#8217;s how we interact with each other,\u201d Nelson explains. \u201cStories are how we connect with people, and so I think that stories are also how we connect with ideas. They are the backbone of what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4>Stories Shape Ideas.<\/h4>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Of all the memorable characters in <em>Pride and Prejudice<\/em>, Mr. Collins is one of the most distinct because of the extremity of his social awkwardness.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>At her school one afternoon, Nelson overheard a classroom discussing this clergyman\u2019s clumsy compliment of the boiled potatoes at the Bennet dinner table. Eventually, the teacher called on a student whom she had noticed being very quiet throughout.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This student shared, in an unexpected moment of vulnerability, that she had never thought of Mr. Collins as being awkward because she could relate to him. \u201cI don&#8217;t know what to talk about when I&#8217;m at a dinner party or when I&#8217;m with new people,\u201d she confessed. \u201cI know I often say the wrong thing or maybe I just make a little comment about the food because I know it&#8217;s something safe to talk about. And so he didn&#8217;t strike me as so awkward. I could understand where he was coming from.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Nelson said you could tell from her voice that there was a larger question being presented: &#8220;Am I also awkward, then?&#8221; In the tension of the moment, she waited to see how the other students would respond.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But that student\u2019s vulnerability made everybody else enter into the same kind of honesty, admitting they hadn\u2019t considered that they often do the same. The teacher was able to lead the discussion into how they could respond in a similar situation, and how they could show graciousness to a friend who maybe doesn&#8217;t know the right thing to do in that kind of setting.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf I made a lesson plan about how to be a good dinner guest and how to make good conversation, that would be really flat,\u201d says Marybeth. \u201cBut that story provides the scaffolding to have these interactions that end up being much more powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4>Stories Shape Relationships.<\/h4>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Nelson recalls a particular fifth-grade student who was a very determined individual. When this student landed in Nelson\u2019s office after being escorted off the playground by her teacher, Nelson asked the girl what had happened, and the girl shared her experience.<\/p>\n<p>Knowing the girl needed to calm down in order to be able to think about things in a new way, Nelson turned the conversation to story, asking questions about the book she knew the student was reading in her fifth-grade classroom.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho is your favorite sister in <em>Little Women<\/em>?\u201d Marybeth asked the fifth grader.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Mrs. Nelson,\u201d the student answered immediately, \u201cI identify with Jo so much.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>After talking further, Nelson asked, \u201cSo that&#8217;s interesting because Jo also struggled with her temper. Did she ever regret it?\u201d And they talked about when Amy burned Jo\u2019s novel and how angry Jo was. Then after Jo went through the process of almost losing Amy, the two girls reconciled.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The student confessed, &#8220;Some days I think that everybody just wants me to be like Beth, but I&#8217;m not like Beth.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t need to be like Beth,\u201d Marybeth replied. \u201cWouldn&#8217;t our world be kind of dull if everyone was Beth?&#8221; They talked about the other characters in the book, concluding that there&#8217;s a reason why there are so many different personalities in the fifth-grade class.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4>Stories Shape Character.<\/h4>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>We probably read Shakespeare in the first place for his stories, afterward for his characters. . . \u00a0To become intimate with Shakespeare in this way is a great enrichment of mind and instruction of conscience. Then, by degrees, as we go on reading this world-teacher, lines of insight and beauty take possession of us, and unconsciously mold our judgments of men and things and of the great issues of life.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">\u2015 Charlotte M. Mason<\/p>\n<p>Marybeth Nelson<\/p>\n<p>Co-Founder and Director of Curriculum<\/p>\n<p><em>RiverTree School<\/em>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;30&#8243;][vc_separator width_in_percentages=&#8221;yes&#8221;][vc_raw_html]JTVCeWFycHAlNUQ=[\/vc_raw_html][\/vc_column][vc_column][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spending time in great stories creates appreciation and hunger for things outside our world, expanding it. Stories make our world bigger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2050,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,157,12,5],"tags":[88,142,97,167,166],"class_list":["post-2424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ambleside-magazine","category-inspiration","category-philosophy","category-the-ambleside-classroom","tag-charlotte-mason","tag-education","tag-ideas","tag-relationships","tag-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>It&#039;s Always Storytime - Ambleside International<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Spending time in great stories creates appreciation and hunger for things outside our world, expanding it. 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