Fairytales

Also, some CM curriculums out there, including AO, have fairy tales in the early years. 

Here is an article on them… http://www.amblesideonline.org/FairyTales.shtml

Me too! Wonderful imagination!

Noemi, I am guessing that English is not your first language since you said you are Swiss. I would never have known if you hadn’t mentioned it. You use English beautifully. I have learned French but feel like a kid when I speak it. Where do you live now? Are you still in Switzerland?

Blessings to you and your precious daughter!

Dana

We did alot of fairy tales up until my son was six years old! He had and still has a very active imagination. I have no issues or worries with fairy tales. I think the kids can learn alot of life skills, character from such stories as long as they know that they are fairy tales and they are being taught the word of God and being taught to love there creator!

Noemi…in regards to your original post, I think fairy tales (the real, original ones) are a fantastic education both to the imagination and to the whole self! The archetypes and universal narratives they contain are invaluable.  And since children live so much in their imagination anyway, I wouldn’t push too much the “knowing the difference.”  I think you will find that young children DO know the difference, naturally…and are able to sort out the “real” elements of the tales from the make-believe.  I also would caution against diminishing their value by pushing the “only make-believe” aspect.  Imagination and make-believe are among the child’s most important tasks at this age.

But…in reference to your Montessori/religious education comment, I just had to tell you that I am finishing up my first year training in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd right now!  We have received a LOT of pure Montessori training, and Sofia Cavalletti, who founded the program, was a student of Montessori’s.  It is indeed a beautiful, gentle system, and I am priviliged to be part of it and ecstatic that we are incorporating it into our church. 

I homeschool with a combination of CM/Waldorf/Montessori, so….good luck to you!

Amanda

A bit of a different perspective – I think imaginative play and fairies and pretend are fine and healthy, but having four daughters, I really “WISH” we had protected them more from “magic” and “evil” and “spells” and such as are often in the Disney type movies.  Perhaps if we had just stuck to stories the impact would have been less, but in the movies it’s caused fear and nightmares that really aren’t fun or enjoyable and add nothing to the play of princesses and fairies.  It doesn’t sound as if these are things that your daughter is exposed to, so it’s probably not a problem, but there is a lot of peer pressure here in the US to do the Disney Princess thing and other than Cinderella – I wish we would have avoided it all together.

I have to second Rebekah on the movies, and clarify that in my post I was referring to READING the classic tales, preferably in the original (or in a tasteful modernization.) The visual aspect of the Disney films is damaging in many respects, IMHO, including sexualization, scariness, etc.