Fairy Tales: Counting on the Magic.

The Three Sillies

I'm finding LCC not only restructuring the pattern of our day, but revitalising my plans for our studies. Free from the shackles of chronology, I can now embrace literature. Yes! Real literature.

I've been flirting with the idea of studying Fairy Tales. I want them to be a gentle way to talk about all those horrid things that with too much consideration can suck the joy right out of reading.

And yet, becoming aware, having one's eyes opened, as it were, can lead to better appreciation and more joy. I must believe that--else why am I teaching the kids anything at all? We're not unschoolers. (Though I confess the desire to become LCCers as it were is to free up time to do as we want!)
Literature is close to my heart and to turn it into something my kids hate would just about finish me. So, I've avoided it. Oh--I give the kids books to read, but off handedly--with the caveat they only have to try the first chapter. If they aren't interested by then, back to the shelf it may go.

But I'm going to risk it all with Fairy Tales, I think. There's an incredible site of the web devoted to them. It is most amazing. It's called Surlalune. It led me to read a fellow named Jack Zipes. If you are at all interested in Children's Literature, he is a must-read.

A google search led me to is Vladimir Propp. I'm not sure I can explain what he did very well, but it turns out that Fairy Tales always have the same consistent elements in it which go beyond the mere Rule of three.

So, with the help of many teachers' sites, SurLaLune and Jack Zipes, I have pulled together a list of grouped fairy tales to study. There are many ways and many tales, of course. I am doing mine this way based on the books on the shelves at my library!

Here they are:

The "Threes:"
Introduce this tale with a short blurb on the Fates from D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myth, p. 70. The Three Spinning Women*
The Three Men of Power (Russian) (This is quite long and I may just read it without a heavy duty analysis. There's lots one could do with this one, though!)
The Three Billy Goats Gruff
The Three Wishes (Perrault) or The Fisherman and his Wife* (Grimm)
The Three Sillies** also known as Clever Elsie*

The First Spin-off:
Traditional Tale: Rapunzel,
Melisandeor, Long and Short Division by E. Nesbit

The Second Spin-off:
Traditional Tale: The Frog King or Iron Henry* The Frog Prince Continued by Jon Scieszka

The Third Spin-off:
Traditional Tale: The Three Little Pigs**
The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig by Eugene Trivizas
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka


Other Possibilities (they truly are endless!)

Traditionl Tale: King Thrushbeard*
Princess Smarty-Pants by Babette Cole
The Taming of the Shrew (as told by Jim Weiss on Shakespeare for Children. You can also use Nesbit or the Lambs', of course.)

The Magic Cooking Pot or Sweet Porridge*)
Strega Nona by Tomie de Paola.
Stone Soup by Marcia Brown

I'd love to do
Snow White and Rose Red and
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves*.

I wonder if we should compare Jack and the Giant Killer** with Jack and the Beanstalk**?

Perhaps we ought to finish up with Wise Women Tales?
Baba Yaga
Grandmothers' Stories: Wise Woman Tales from Many Cultures by Burleigh Mutén.

Ever the over-achiever, I've made up a very detailed questionaire (four pages) for them to use when we're discussing the fairy tales. So, I probably will still kill their love for it. Oh well. Wish me luck (or send me a magic potion).


* from Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. Household Tales. Margaret Hunt, translator. London: George Bell, 1884, 1892. 2 volumes. Transcribed to the web at SurLaLune and at The Baldwin Project

**from Jacobs, Joseph. English Fairy Tales. London: David Nutt, 1890. at SurLaLune and at The Baldwin Project