Free to find rest for a moment, emotionally and mentally liberated, each child may discover many things when stories are shared:

Happiness: to release uninhibited laughter and rhythmic response of small bodies.
Wonder: to foster fresh, childlike speculations as the stories unfold.
Self-discovery: to permit visual and mental explorations, sometimes far removed from reality.
Quiet Solitude: to offer a retreat from the frenetic pace of seemingly endless activities.
Companionship: to be a part of a shared experience within the family; to identify with a fictional counterpart; or to identify with a storyteller who does not acknowledge any disparity between ages.
Budding understanding: to excite young minds to stretch into the unknown and the new.
Creativity: to encourage little tounges to try our unfamiliar words, and little hands to mold symbolic images into objective realities.