The Story Jar offers inspiration for stories you can tell your kids.

Short Prompts and Ideas for Bedtime Stories

The Story Jar was created by developer and designer Stef Lewandowski. He explains that the idea was conceived based on his own life as a parent, making up stories for his children before bedtime after plucking ideas from a “story jar” in his home. Lewandowski eventually began recording those nightly stories, sharing them on SoundCloud for other parents to listen and find inspiration. The Story Jar is a collaborative community that’s centered around this concept of storytelling, recording and sharing. The site offers short bits of inspiration — phrases like “The fox and the bull” or “Wallace the whacky Wizard”— to create and record an improvised story.

Share Your Stories with the Larger Community

The Story Jar also has a political element to it, as Lewandowski seeks to honor the 5,335 students that died in China’s 2008 Sichuan earthquake. That earthquake became infamous after Chinese artist Ai Weiwei protested the substandard quality of government buildings that collapsed during the natural disaster by posting the names of each student that died during the incident. Ai Weiwei was punished by the Chinese government for his act of protest. The Story Jar stands in solidarity with Ai Weiwei, asking users to include a character named after one of the Chinese students that died during the earthquake in each story. There aren’t really any rules as to how the names should be used, but it’s a cool idea and parents around the world should participate to contribute to the storytelling community.