She's got an incredible imagination already and an awe inspiring ability to make connections and apply "facts" to new situations just for the sake of checking out how they may apply. With regard to fairy tales, that has the potential to get messy.
Of course, Dr. LJ has previously discussed the Things I Was Afraid Of As A Child That Left Lasting Repercussions. There will be something that will freak her out entirely that she will forever wig out about. You may or may not know about it at the time ... or ever. You never know what will be the trigger. (eg ... the rearrange your face machine with the red button)
I say that it's important to introduce the classic fairy tales at some point because they are cultural references (see Disney Princess Dress up for christmas among many others). I also strongly urge the use of the actual tales as opposed to the cleaned up and disney-fied versions in which bad things don't really happen and the moral of the story is utterly lost.
As I write I'm also pondering the notion of focussing on classics that haven't gotten on the bandwagon of Sanitization as much as others. For example, dad was theoretically in charge of our intro to Kipling. (and therefore I know next to nothing about the real Jungle book ... ) We've got her started on the B. Potter series. There's also Real, Classic Pooh. and so forth.
I think she's also up to some actual discussion about the stories. If y'all read something a little touchy, it could be done in the middle of the day (as opposed to bedtime) and have a chat about what she thought about it, was there anything scary or sad about it, were there happy things, what did she/you like, what didn't she/you like, did it tell a good story, was there a lesson, if she/you were writing this story would you change something...? Not that I want to really pursue literary criticism with a 3 year old, but I think that talking it through (at least the first time) might have the effect of divorcing the story from reality. It might make it easier to say that It Is Just A Story instead of we need a mongoose because there might be a cobra in the closet.
It's also interesting that you ask this now. Over the weekend we were playing a game in which i had to give clues to get my team to say Rumplestiltskin. I screwed it up and got them to say Rapunzel instead. My excuse: Pirate's only three, we haven't gotten there yet.
I think one cue will be if her peers start referring to a bunch of stories or characters and/or if such things start showing up in her non-home environment.
She's got an incredible imagination already and an awe inspiring ability to make connections and apply "facts" to new situations just for the sake of checking out how they may apply.
With regard to fairy tales, that has the potential to get messy.
Of course, Dr. LJ has previously discussed the Things I Was Afraid Of As A Child That Left Lasting Repercussions. There will be something that will freak her out entirely that she will forever wig out about. You may or may not know about it at the time ... or ever. You never know what will be the trigger. (eg ... the rearrange your face machine with the red button)
I say that it's important to introduce the classic fairy tales at some point because they are cultural references (see Disney Princess Dress up for christmas among many others). I also strongly urge the use of the actual tales as opposed to the cleaned up and disney-fied versions in which bad things don't really happen and the moral of the story is utterly lost.
As I write I'm also pondering the notion of focussing on classics that haven't gotten on the bandwagon of Sanitization as much as others. For example, dad was theoretically in charge of our intro to Kipling. (and therefore I know next to nothing about the real Jungle book ... ) We've got her started on the B. Potter series. There's also Real, Classic Pooh. and so forth.
I think she's also up to some actual discussion about the stories. If y'all read something a little touchy, it could be done in the middle of the day (as opposed to bedtime) and have a chat about what she thought about it, was there anything scary or sad about it, were there happy things, what did she/you like, what didn't she/you like, did it tell a good story, was there a lesson, if she/you were writing this story would you change something...? Not that I want to really pursue literary criticism with a 3 year old, but I think that talking it through (at least the first time) might have the effect of divorcing the story from reality. It might make it easier to say that It Is Just A Story instead of we need a mongoose because there might be a cobra in the closet.
It's also interesting that you ask this now. Over the weekend we were playing a game in which i had to give clues to get my team to say Rumplestiltskin. I screwed it up and got them to say Rapunzel instead. My excuse: Pirate's only three, we haven't gotten there yet.
I think one cue will be if her peers start referring to a bunch of stories or characters and/or if such things start showing up in her non-home environment.
don' know. good luck.
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