Why I Read Grimms Fairy Tales

Hello,

I have watched Bonnie, for a long time, trying to teach her 5 year old, David, how to deal with fear. Emotions like fear and shame are hard ones for children to deal with. Concerning fear, for example, in the scary part of movies, David has to run into the other room or runs over and turns the TV off. Even cartoons can be scary. The sound of rising action of the music is enough to scare him. I have watched her teach him coping strategies when fear presents itself: how to close his eyes, how to put his hands over his ears, how to have an adult sit by him, how to fast forward, etc.

So when I picked up the Brothers Grimms, here in Quebec, I was thinking about fear again, because of the shape of the stories. For example, girls are always princesses, waiting for a hero to marry them. They will bring with them a large dowry. Often there is a class distinction, as the hero is either a wastrel lazy peasant boy who has been kicked out of his house, or he is sent forth to make his way because the family can no longer feed him, etc. So, the male protagonist has the hero’s journey to perform. Along the way our hero meets impossible tasks, which he performs because he is thoughtful or helps someone else, in one case, because he just doesn’t understand what is going on socially around him, etc.

Anyway, I have been watching and reading to Mary’s kids and especially asking the kids how scary these moments are when our hero might fail because a giant is in the way of his success.

Is this suitable for a 5 year old?

Naomi seems to love it. Mary pointed out to me that her emotions are not contained in her body but are visible on her face. So I have been watching her, especially when I read, because yes, her eyes get big with surprise, her brows knit ... from sentence to sentence her face could be photographed with a different set of emotions crossing it.

I am up early. I can hardly wait until someone else gets up and I can read stories to them.