What was your favourite fairy tale as a child?
The fairy tale genre is is credited as being started by Charles Perrault who published the first collection of fairy tales in 1695.
Many of the first fairy tales (like those produced by the Brothers Grimm) are pretty gruesome and have been lightened for today's young audiences. Most of the tales were written as warnings of dangers (like wild animals) or consequences of bad behaviour.
In my research of old, familiar tales I found that the moral of the story was always a harsh look at life and the ending of the story rested on the negative consequences. Although I believe in adding a lesson to the stories, I would prefer to focus on the positive outcomes.
For example in the classic tale The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs the story focuses on greed and the negative aspects of it -ending with the death of the goose due to the farmer's greed.
I prefer a more enlightened approach that shows that greed is not good but here is how it can be changed. That is why I wrote my own version of the story, The Golden Eggs.
Book recommendation: The Golden Eggs
Author Sandra Wilson has re-imagined the classic story of The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs in a rhyming tale to inspire appreciating what we have.
The Benefits of Fairy Tales
Fairy Tales, as all stories we read to children, are important to the early literacy of a child, they are inspired to read and they are building their vocabulary. Stories can enhance creativity and reasoning skills as well as spark their imagination.
Children can connect to the characters in the story which will also allow them to understand real-life a little better. Fairy Tales create fantasy characters, but they still have feelings, deal with situations and problem solve, something children can relate to for real.
Fairy Tales are those well loved stories we heard as a child and that our parents heard as children. This gives them an added endearing quality that we can share with our children and grandchildren.
“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” ― Albert Einstein
Hearing stories can inspire us to tell stories of our own. Check out my Inspire a Story blog for other ways to help children build their storytelling skills.
That great Sandra! Mine were anything by Hans Christian Anderson!