After three years of focused work on How to Tell Stories to Children, Joseph Sarosy is moving on. Silke and Joe tell a shared story to commemorate this shift, followed by some of the directions they'll both be taking in the next few weeks and months. Rest assured, their common interests are growing closer, not apart.

In part, Joe is stepping away to make more room for Silke to take center stage. Look for more Randolph Roots stories in the near future and some refreshed energy and direction from her. However, Silke is right now in Germany with her mother and her dying father. It is a little uncertain when she will return to this podcast, but return she shall.

Joe is shifting his focus back to writing about education, children, and wilderness. His blog Off Grid Kids led to the creation of How to Tell Stories to Children over three years ago, and he's returning to that subject matter with a new blog titled Rare Earth. He is also working on a second book - about trees, neural development, and education. You can find his work at www.josephsarosy.com.

Thanks for all your support!

Willie Wichtel, the Christmas gnome, is tired and ill. He worries that no one will be able to make all the Christmas magic happen.

When Randolph Roots shows up to give Willie some rest and attention, Eddie Elf takes charge. He helps all the helpful little wichtels get organized, for they have much work to do.

Wichtels are helpful little creatures that arrive at our hearths each year to help parents and grandparents with the extra tasks of the holiday season. Chopping kindling, washing dishes, sweeping floors - they do it all silently while the people rest.

You can be a wichtel too! But shh...every kind deed they do is a well kept secret.

This is Season 2 - After the story, Silke & Joe discuss the story's context and meaning. The story comes first, so that listeners with little children can access them easily.

Our goal is to inspire you. We love telling stories, but we love it even more when you feel empowered to tell your own. Whether you find inspiration in the stories, or something of value in the discussion - let that be your guide to opening your own voice.

The Storytelling Tree has a special talent: when a story is told underneath its branches, characters and images from the tale appear in the shapes and twists of its canopy. Summer brings fantastical stories, and in fall the mosaic of colorful leaves paint scenes of incredible richness, surpassed perhaps only by the sparkling frost and prismatic colors of winter's sunlight.

World class storytellers visit the tree in dazzling seasonal festivals - till one day little Annabel Rattigan reminds everyone that sharing stories is not merely about spinning wild and elegant yarns, but sharing the sweet, intimate, and sometimes small connections between mother and child.

Today, some say the tree never existed. But we know that’s not true for one simple reason - children still find them. Chances are there is a storytelling tree in your backyard this very moment. It may even be peaking in your window, waiting for just the right child to sit underneath its branches.