Fairy Tales Are More Than Entertainment


April 01, 2017


Quote of the Week

"Life itself is the most wonderful fairytale of all." - Hans Christian Anderson

Fairy Tales Are More Than Entertainment

"Hearing fairy tales from an early age can be very constructive. Hardly does one begin the narration with ‘Once upon a time…’ that children calm down and are carried away into the world of their fantasies. Fairy tales support the development of imagination and creative thinking…. No child likes to be instructed directly, and fairy tales never teach children in this way. At most, fairy tales hint at what would be the best thing to do in this or that situation.

Therefore, fairy tales are more than entertainment. As brain researchers have been able to show in recent years with the aid of new imaging procedures, the connectivity between the nerve cells in the brain as representing patterns of thinking, feeling and activity are formed to a much greater extent through own experiences than hitherto assumed. The experiences which are crucial for our own and the collective management of life are passed on from one generation to the next. Fairy tales are an instrument for passing down important messages about our own management of life and the development of relationships.” [read more]

Reading Corner

Title: How to Tell a Story
By: Daniel Nayeri
Ages: 8-12 years

Why? "This is much more involved than I first thought! My eight year old and I are enjoying reading through the book together, rolling the dice and creating the story. That is the extent of what I thought I was buying. But this creative little game is also a mini course on Creative Writing. While you are rolling dice to see where the mermaid wants to go,you're also exploring the values,backstory and motivation of your antagonist. You're dissecting conflict, where to place it in the story and how each character will resolve it based in the rest of the information. And that's literally just the Beginning of the story. This is a fantastic find for me, a homeschooling mom with a kid who loves telling stories and is prone to be more visual and kinesthetic then strictly language-driven. Even a young teen would learn new ideas from this book/blocks set." - Amazon Reviewer
 

Be the Change

This week, based on the article and the book recommendation, try to rewrite an old fairy tale with your child through the view point of where we are in the world today. What are those stories that shape the way a child thinks today? How can they change the narrative around them to reflect values of generosity, kindness and compassion? Thinking through the lens of old fairytales could just be the start of a new-old fairy tale!