Indonesia
Launching of Story Telling Application “Bella and the Five Baloons”
Last Saturday April 12th 2014, Superkids Indonesia was very excited. There was an invitation for story reading at Rimba Baca Library, Cilandak, Jakarta Selatan, sponsored by Rabbit Hole, a customized publisher founded by Indonesian young psychologists who care for the world of stories, book and Indonesian kids. Of course, just like Superkids, kids who attended the show were on their high spirit. Came with Mom and Dad, they could barely wait for the story.
The story was read by Mochammad Ariyo Farid Zidni, or known better as Kak Ariyo. Before opening the story, Kak Ariyo turned on his ipad, and opened a story-telling application “Bella and the Five Balloons”. Yup, the Saturday event was the launch of story-telling application “Bella and the Five Balloons”.
Wow, kids around Kak Ariyo were getting anxious seeing the images of story illustration. Kak Ariyo then started to tell a story about a little girl’s adventure who was searching for her balloons that flew away. “What color are we going to look first?” Kak Ariyo threw a question. “The orange one,” kids replied. It turned out, there’s different story for each balloon and different experience in every story.
Yes, that’s what made “Bella and the Five Balloons” unique. “Kids get to decide the course of the story. In fact, readers can change Bella’s name with their own. So kids are able to be the director and the leading character,” said Devi Raissa, a physiologist who was the co-initiator of the application.
Also present at site was Physiologist Dra. Mayke Tedjasaputra, Msi. She confirmed that story-telling is a very positive activity for both parents and kids. So, no matter how busy parents are, they should make time for a story-telling session with their kids. And what good would that be? Story telling is an effort to establish communication, interaction and share experience of kids with parents with values and moral within.
There are two ways of story-telling, with and without book. Both have their edge. Telling story with book or story reading known as read aloud can stimulate the desire to read and scripting, while story with no book can stimulate focus and sharpen kids listening perception. However, both ways are expected to help enhancing kids’ emotional side, recognizing expression and sequence of story. Therefore, storytelling takes intonation, rhythm, stressing and visual aids.
“A good storytelling is like when we share our heart with other. If necessary we can apply “teeny” style. “Kids love that,” Kak Ariyo convinced.
Ah, what a push, isn’t it? Let’s just download the application “Bella and the Five Balloons” on iPod, iPad and iPhone. The storytelling app is available in two languages, in Bahasa Indonesia and in English.
MAHARANI INDRI
