An Interview with Nancy Morgan: Stories About Values

4.15.10 - Michael F. Shaughnessy - We tried to make the stories reflect issues that children and parents deal with everyday: simple themes like being a good friend, telling the truth, being patient, respecting others, forgiving others, bullying, manners, praying, respecting nature.

An Interview with Nancy Morgan: Stories About Values

Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University

Portales, New Mexico

1)      Nancy, I understand you are writing and reading some stories on line. How did this come about?

Myyoungchild.org originated from a conversation between Bill Edwards and myself. I am an educational consultant specializing in early childhood education and professional development for teachers, and had worked with Bill on a few projects before his retirement from being at the head of numerous educational companies.  Bill expressed a concern about values in our society, and wanted to do something about it--he was interested in the online area, with an appeal to parents. I love writing, and have dabbled in writing children's stories in the past. I also have a good friend, Holly Bell, who is an illustrator and had written a few stories also. So, we came up with the idea of writing online stories which would appeal to children and parents  concerning values. I've been writing the stories after discussions with Bill and Holly, and Holly illustrates them. We all have input into their content and themes-it's been a great collaborative effort.

2)      What are some of the values that are incorporated into these stories?

We tried to make the stories reflect issues that children and parents deal with everyday: simple themes like being a good friend, telling the truth, being patient, respecting others, forgiving others, bullying, manners, praying, respecting nature.

3)      How do these stories help kids learn to read?

Some of the stories have repetitive text, and children love repetitive stories! Through reading these stories over and over, they slowly begin to pick out and recognize words--which is a good first step in reading. Our repetitive and rhyming stories also encourage oral language development. We've just added a listen-along component to the stories. So even though we encourage parents to sit with their children and read the stories, children have the option of listening to a narrator read the stories as well. This adds to oral language development, another fundamental aspect to reading.

4)      How did you get involved with the Early Parenting Foundation?

Bill Edwards began the Early Parenting Foundation after our conversation about creating these stories to address the lack of values instruction for children. It is a non-profit organization. I have known Bill for many years, and am always delighted to work with him.

5)      Tell us about one of your favorite stories.

I think the Gilbert stories are my favorites. Gilbert is a goat, who has little regard for others. His disrespect isn't intentional--he's just full of life and full of himself. He's also very funny--he eats napkins and does other goat-like things. But in both of the Gilbert stories, he learns that there's a consequence to being so blithely disrespectful: you hurt your friends' and family's  feelings. So Gilbert learns to be respectful. The Gilbert stories are wonderfully illustrated, they are funny, and definitely hit the sweet spot with kids.

6)      I believe it was John Glover, the famous educational psychologist who encouraged parents to read to their kids. Why do you think it important?

It's crucial for parent to read with their children. For one, there's a bond that builds when you sit next to each other and share an enjoyable moment. As a parent, that's probably the best thing about reading with your kids. It's not the same as watching a TV show--when you read together, you're interacting, you're asking questions, you have an opportunity to share some of your beliefs and values with your children. You also foster the love of reading--that imaginary world that opens so many doors for children. And reading with your children teaches reading skills-- that print comes from words, that illustrations support the story, that words have meaning, etc.

7)      What kinds of things would we find on the web site?

You'll find 16 stories, and each of them include discussion questions and activities as a follow-up.  Then there's an inspirational video on parenting that's been very popular. There's also a section on tips on good parenting, as well as how to use the stories to teach your children about values and how to use the stories to help kids read. We've added a component for teachers as well, because we've found that teachers are linking this site to their classroom websites as a reference for parents. 

I think one of the most useful components of the site are the tips on how to teach values to children. For instance, a two year old has no concept of what a lie is--but you can teach them some basics and begin to expect certain behaviors within the child's developmental capabilities. So for each story or concept we present, we give specific tips on how to teach these concepts appropriately at different ages--in plain English.

8)      Have you thought about putting the books in regular book form? Or perhaps with cassettes?

We're working on that right now. We should have some of the books available on Amazon soon.

9)      What have I neglected to ask? 

We take suggestions for stories and would one day like to include a blog.

10)   What is the exact name of the web site? And what would parents find there?

Myyoungchild.org. You'll find the stories, discussion and activities for each, tips on being a good parent, a video on the joys of parenting, how to use the stories to teach values to your children, how to use the stories to teach reading, and developmentally appropriate suggestions for teaching values.  Lots of fun for kids and parents!