House of Tales & Music

House of Tales and Music (HOTM) is a Jordanian initiative established and developed by Mrs. Rabeea Alnasser, who has been working for the past forty years on topics related to libraries, storytelling, and arts for children in general, and underprivileged children in specific, contributing in providing spaces for children to be free and express themselves in better and new ways. Since the beginning of her career in education among children and adolescents, Rabeea Al Nasser had a dream of establishing a house to tell and read stories, and her home was as such; it was filled with children books that she had bought for her children, and that she occasionally liked to share amongst other children. Books it seemed were her talent in bringing children of all ages together despite their many differences that may cause disputes. Her journey to the world of stories started with the very first profound questions the children would ask in an effort to understand her stories. Her interests with time grew to new dimensions of art that included drawing and creating novel vocabulary. She believed that through storytelling children’s circle of interests would widen to include all types of performing arts.She varied her story telling techniques, and she thought that perhaps variation of the voice’s tonality during the story telling and changing facial features raised interest amongst the children to participate in musical and theatrical activities that were provided to them by the youth centers later on.Despite facing many challenges because of the traditional thinking methods professional educators used at that time, she adopted the concept of socialization and learning, and she did not cease during the period of her 40 years in the field of education, to believe that education of young people is a necessary art to make learning desirable. Rabeea Al Nasser believes that the most important decision in her life is the one she took when she turned 60 years old when she decided to take her special place and devote it to readings of short stories and art. The house of tales and music was the place for this; here children listen to stories from the East and West, tell their stories in the theater room to encourage them to acquire the ability to express themselves, then move on to the Studio, where they express their dreams and their ideas freely and without restrictions. The music room is more what attracts the attention of children, where they learn about sound, of natural sounds and machines, performing songs and chants to help them identify the rhythm of life, The crafts room, is space for a fun dialogue and the acquisition of hand skills for the manufacture of artifacts. Children can also eat certain foods that they can prepare in the kitchen of the house, in the house we didn’t overlooked the children’s need to play freely, so we have allocated a space for the child to exercise special sports and games.The activities of the house of tales and music aim to encourage children to discover themselves and to identify their attitudes and acquire new skills other than to enhance their skills in reading, writing and expression. As Rabeea Al Nasser see, the house of tales and music is a place to build a personal passion of life. The house receives children from age 3 years and up to 14 years, and orphan children visits the house periodically from various orphanages in Jordan.)