Fairytales in psychological order...

 There are whole theories on the psychology of fairytales; it is all extraordinarily interesting...  honestly.

Lately  J seems to be reading fairytales in psychological order!

I saw this quote on a leaflet from the library this week:

“If you want your children to be intelligent read them fairytales, if you want your children to be more intelligent read them more fairytales” (Albert Einstein)

If this is true then it’s possibly because life itself is a story.  Your story, their story. It’s all been said before but, children learn how to live life  by playing, play acting, role playing, imagining themselves to be someone or something else, reading about someone  else and having empathy with that character.  This is why books, (and therefore fairytales) are the most important thing  in a child’s life.  Well I think so anyway.  Me and Einstein; great minds think alike. Ha.

J’s first fairytale fascination was Goldilocks and the 3 bears.  This makes sense; young girl’s first venture out alone, her curiosity gets the better of her, then its ‘best run home it’s safer there’.  It’s a tale with no real resolution, things are tried out, and things get broken, nothing else is said.  For a toddler this tale is just like dipping your toe in the water of the world but nothing else. 

There are a few family stories about J. applying the Goldilocks story to life...  the best one was when we took J. to choose her first potty.  It was in Mothercare.  I lifted down a selection of 3 potties and asked her to choose one.  With a grin on her face she sat on the first potty and said no, sat on the second potty and said no, then sat on the third (at this point I realised what she was doing) and said ‘just right’.  Hilarious .

She is currently moving cautiously towards  Little Red Riding Hood.  Little Red is similar to Goldilocks, but she has a bit more of an adventure doesn’t she?  We love these versions:  

"One day you will be old enough to read fairytales again" (C S Lewis)