SouleMama Sponsor ~ SPARKLE STORIES ~

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Today, I bring you a giveaway from SouleMama Sponsor Sparkle Stories. In David and Lisabeth's words: 

"Sparkle Stories is an audio story treasure chest designed to entertain and inspire the whole family.  It's by monthly subscription:  you can choose the best storyline for your family, and get a new download each week.  Or subscribe to all three, and get three stories each week, plus 40 extra minutes of seasonal songs, games, verses and more stories (roughly 6 hours of audio!)."

You can hear sample audio stories and full story descriptions on our website.

SouleMama: What inspired you to start your business?

Lisabeth:  Last winter I was reading your blog.  You had asked for suggestions on audio for your kids -- this was during the time when SoulePapa was down with an illness.  In the comments that people made I saw the challenge of finding really high-quality audio for kids that meets the needs of a media-cautious family.   We're a Waldorf inspired family; and we don't have TV, and we're ultra-thoughtful about what media we share with our kids.  AND we have times when we're in dire need of something to share with our boys that will entertain and inspire them and give us some SPACE.  (I know those moments when I think, "if I had a TV it would be ON right now.")
 
And I looked at David -- he's a Waldorf grade-school teacher with an amazing ability to spin stories from the air.  It's his favorite thing to do.  It's like he has a direct line to the muse.   And I thought -- if I could tap that, and offer it to others -- what an amazing business that would be!  Almost one year later Sparkle Stories was launched.

SouleMama: How do you come up with story after story each week?

David: I'm inspired by things that come up in our own life, for example: one of our boys doesn't want to go to school, or there's teasing in their classroom, or, recently, we lost our dog of 14 years.   I tell a story about it -- either to the boys, or to a local class. 

 And then sometimes I ask the boys to give me two story elements.  "Name 2 things."  And they'll say "a lost ring" and "a monkey in the circus".  And I'll start from there.  Junkyard Tales and Martin & Sylvia are based on stories that I've been telling at bedtime for years.  The characters are loved in our house, and the kids ask for more stories.
 
When I go to tell a story, I'm intuitive about it.  I have a challenge or a lesson in mind but am not sure of how to bring it.  I close my eyes and wait for an image.  The image comes and I start talking.  As I talk, other images come.  I internally decide which image to follow, which character to question, which dynamic to introduce and I follow.  It may seem like it is going astray but it always doubles back and becomes exactly the right choice.  It follows the affection I have for the characters.

 

And then I write it down the next day, as best I can. I hand it to Lisabeth, and she gives it a fresh look.  She's a playwright and so is trained to see it for its pure narrative structure.  She asks questions, makes suggestions, edits and rewrites if needed.

And then we take it to our home-based recording studio and get into into a digital format for our subscribers!

SouleMama: Tell us what you envision and dream for the future of your business.

Lisabeth: Our vision is to host a huge library of stories for parents to access and share  -- stories that they can trust are age-appropriate and even inspire creative play, stories through subscription and stories that can be bought individually or bundles.  In that library there will also be stories that "help and heal"--  supporting kids and families through challenging times, like a move, or the death of a pet, or through conflicts with peers.   Stories can be incredibly powerful healing tools -- we've seen it over and over in our own family, and in the Waldorf communities that we've been a part of.
 
And we want to offer guidance and inspiration in helping parents tell their own stories.   David has a gift -- his ease with accessing and telling stories -- but he's also able to guide people in cultivating and growing their own storytelling abilities.

 

For today's giveaway, Sparkle Stories is generously offering the following to ONE winner:

~ one full year of the Sparkle Stories TRIO package!

(which includes Junkyard Tales, Martin & Sylvia, So Many Fairies and Saturday Sparkle -- 6+ hours of delightful audio for your family each month!)

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Thank you to Sparkle Stories!

To enter, please leave a comment in today's post (one entry per person, please). Comments will close on Sunday by 8:00am EST. Winners will be chosen by Random Number Generator and announced here in this post by Monday evening.

Comments closed! The winner is...

What a fantastic giveaway! We love to listen to stories together. And knowing that we don't need to worry about the themes/language being too adult makes it even cooler! Thanks for the opportunity, Amanda :)
Posted by: Amy W.

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