Story Teller 4 Yr Old

I'll join the 'me too' club here. My 4yo makes up the strangest things. Im actually glad you posted this question because I know Im not alone, now!

I love his stories it just shows me that his imagination is working overtime!

~L.

This is very normal! We have a 4 year old with a nac of telling off the wall stories. We have embraced it and encouraged him to write his stories down. We all joke that he will be te next Dean Koontz or Stephn King. If things start to get out of hand remind him the difference between lying and using your imagination to create stories. I also found that it's a great for warning to let their teachers know about the story telling so that your ot constantly getting phone calls. I think some people are just blessed with a great imagination.

I have a 4-year-old story teller too. Most of the time it's clear it's her imagination, like "I saw a bird land on a cat's back and the cat ate it. It happened 21 years ago" but I know what you mean that sometimes what they say can be taken for something real that happened. I try to reinforce that it's a story when she tells one and will say something like "that is a great/scary/exciting/whatever story." Maybe we can encourage them to say "once upon a time" and "the end" too so, if we're not around, others will know it's their imagination.

I don't think it's quite the problem at this point at it seems. For one it shows he has an active imagination that could be ultimately directed and channeled to writing, or being able to spontaneously tell a group of kids a story, like at the library. Y'know? you just don't want to totally squelch the ability to use the imagination.

At some later point, just privately monitor him and when you feel he's able to sit down and understand, explain his virtues in spinning such vivid and fantastic fiction, but that there has to be some boundaries, so that people won't think something happened that really didn't.

LOL, I'll never forget the time that I sat in circle time with my son at preschool and listened to him weave a wild story about his Grandpa and a semi truck that they rode in. The teacher was buying it hook-line and sinker. Then she looked at me and when I shook my head no, she was shocked!

He doesn't make up stuff like that any more, so there is hope! Just help him to understand that it's not ok to make up stories unless he let's people know it's not real. :)

S.

I'm surprised a teacher wouldn't take a wild tale from a 4 year old with a grain of salt. It's normal! I have a tale teller too and what I do is let the little ones slide and when he tells a whopper I praise him for his creativity and nicely remind him of the difference between a fib and the truth. Also when we read a story that is crazy (example...Curious George "would a monkey really work in a candy factory or is that silly" it helps reinforce fact from fiction.

Hi J.,
You have alot of responses so I don't know if this was said or not but sometimes my kids will tell me a story that starts with "remember when". Then they'll tell me and they are very mad when I tell them that didn't really happen. I think they dream alot and can't tell the differance between dreams and awake time. I don't think that's always the case but once my son came up to me and said remember when we drove to Florida and went to the beach? My kids have never been to Florida and when I told him that he wouldn't believe me that he hadn't been there. I told him we have been to the beach here in the summer but never in Florida. He still will tell people that Florida is fun. I don't know maybe I'm wrong but I chalk it up to dreaming sometimes.
Chris

Totally normal. My boys were both imaginative that way. I was told to acknowledge that its a story, but don't shame them. My middle son was full of whoppers. I started to say "you mean, that would be neat if..." When he was older, they turned into exaggerations and I'd say you could turn that into a story. He's a great writer now that he's 12!

If you hear him, then just ask him are you using your imagination again?
Ask anyone that knows you/him/ your family and knows what really happens in your daily lifes to keep their ears open also. They can use the same tactic.
Draw attention to the fact that its imagination stories... Not real stories. Fantasy, not reality.

Yes, around 4 kids start "dreaming" up these stories. Some of it is picked up from catching glimpses of news, tv, and radio. But is also picked up from listening to US adults talk... Then their minds weave a story of intermixed tales.

Our daughter had a case that during school (they have prayer request time)she would make up these stories... Like she has a 12 year old step brother that lives in canada and we have to go get him on the weekends. .... NOT TRUE. (plus other little tidbits) We didn't find out about it till the parent teacher meeting and were BLOWN away! (she is 7 by the way)Her teacher thought they were a bit fishy and brought them up... Part of it was attention. Everyone else had these what she thought of as exciting prayer requests... Our life is pretty calm...

We handled it in a way that SHE understood... Early bed times, talks about honesty and truth, she had to write sentances and was "grounded" for a couple weeks. (all these things happened daily for several weeks)

But she was older...

You could draw attention to the fact that when he tells people these stories like they really happened its called lying... And that is not good... But just stress the difference between real and make believe.

My daughter did some of that as well. I like to think of it as exploring reality. I realize of of the book we read are very silly. Maybe you could make a book of his stories and he could illustrate them. And then if needed have a talk about life and stories. You could let the people close in his life know that he's going through a creative spurt. They'll know to be supportive in letting him explore, and will know to follow up with you if need be.
I had a family member come ask for help when playing w/ my 21/2 yo daughter. She wanted to pretend they didn't have food and had to eat the baby doll.
:) A. H

My four year old son will be five next month. He also tells many believable stories that are just not true. He is however growing out of that. I just try to down play them and correct him if he is telling someone else these stories. He has a great imagination, which can be great! Good luck!

I was watching a PBS special one time about storytelling and children. Apparently it is perfectly normal for little boys to have extremely detailed and violent stories. I have to admit it came as a relief to me, because my son has some very interesting tales to tell. As with any story I would look for the things he's concerned about though. If my son were telling a story about our house burning down then I would talk to him about our plan for a fire, and probably even have a fire drill. Remember, he is hearing that at school and is probably taking it to the next step of "what would happen if we had a fire at home?"

Good luck!
Melissa

Smart, imaginative preschoolers do this sometimes. My grandson told me a crazy story the other day. When I said "Oh, really?!", he just grinned and added tot he story even more.

when my son was 3 he would tell me about his older brothers Alex and James, and how they'd take him for rides in their pickup truck, and how one day I was holding him and someone came in the house and shot his brothers....
(my son was an only child at the time)
it freaked me out a little...but it was harmless, and after a while, whatever he was talking about he no longer remembered. My 4 year old neice was just at my house this past weekend with a similar story about a tragedy and death of a sibling...that she also doesn't have.
so....from my experience, it seems harmless...

He is showing you and others that he has a vivid imagination. My four year old does the same thing. I get concerned when he tells total strangers these wild tales that are somewhat plausible, but I wonder why an adult would believe them.

His little world is opening up, and it sounds like it scares him. Let him know that he is safe, go over a fire plan, mommy & daddy will protect you, we won't let you ride on a motorcycle,e tc. It is totally normal for children to process information in a way that they can handle it, and his way of expressing himself is verbally. Hve some discussion to him about truth-vs fantasy, and how others might not understand that what he is talking about is fantasy.