אלקהירה עבד-אל-חי

My name is Alkahera Abed Alhai. I was born in Jaffa- Tel-aviv To a Palestinian family. My mother educated me, my sisters and brothers and all the young family members through spoken folktales. She used to make her own changes and adaptations of the stories, modifying the plot according to the audience she had in a given evening. Sometimes she used to define us as the characters of the story. Through her stories we received her message and morals and we were laughing and learning a lot.
The time has passed and I became myself a mother. Looking back, I understand that me too, just like my mom, have educated my children through stories and spoken tales. Out of my love for stories, I use them also in my professional life as a tool in every meeting and treatment.
I´m giving workshops and lectures for teachers, kinder garden teachers and parents about how to read a story to children and how to develop conversations with the children through stories. I am also a playwright and director, and also in that field I´m giving lectures for kinder garden teachers and parents about how to turn a story or a tale into a play with the children as actors.
I have a professional training in examination and treatment of children with learning difficulties. I have also an MA from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in working with early childhood.
I believe that through the beauty of stories we can communicate with the childrens`minds and hearts, sensitively influencing their stands and believes and teach them to take responsibility for their behavior.