On Fairy Stories by Iona Scott

In English Lit. I have been looking at fairy tales. We started with "The Selfish Giant" by Oscar Wilde, which is a lovely story among many other wonderful things by Oscar Wilde. But as far as fairy tales are concerned I have always loved the Brothers Grimm. This is because there are so many 'secrets' behind their stories. Ever since I was hearing fairy tales out of books and watching Disney animations, 'Snow White' has been my favourite. Over the years I have discovered little variations or additions to the story that I had not known before.
For example, I have learned that the wicked stepmother tried to kill Snow White with a poisoned apple, but she also tried to kill her with a corset to crush her ribs and a poisoned comb for her hair. There is also an extension to the story on how the seven dwarfs died.

Here then is a short essay that mum has been badgering me for all week.

Fairy stories are not completely made up. They have some truth in them and this truth is used to teach history and morals. The brother's Grimm retold stories in order for them to be passed on for many more years to come or hopefully forever.

These stories have been passed on and have seen much popularity because of their amazing use of characters and great plots. The characters are very simple and the story line is also, but that is what children like.
The wicked stepmother did not tell her hunts man to kill Snow White because she was feeling a little upset at the time; and the wicked witch in Hansel and Gretel is not a misunderstood poor old lady. The bad are bad and the good are good-and that is one of the reasons children love fairly stories.

However, today when people write or re-write stories they like to tone them down. So today's children do not hear that the wicked stepmother was punished by being made to dance in red hot slippers, nor that she accused Snow White of being a slut.

I think this (well not the slut bit) takes all the heart out of the stories. If the bad are not really bad, but just a bit naughty, then the hero is less of a hero and there is no 'happily ever after' but more of a 'we were happy to begin with, but now we're happier.'

as countries invaded others they took their stories with them, thus creating the mix we have today in our treasuries of fairy tales.
This mix, especially the stories rewritten by the brothers Grimm have provided bedtime stories for children around the worked for a very long time and should not, I believe, be messed with too much.

Iona

October Meeting

Meeting at Ruth's- present, Ruth, Karen, Michelle.

Looked at what we had used from last meeting. Michelle is looking into a Charlotte Mason approach using resources from AMBULSIDE ONLINE.

She has bought the origanal series written by Charolotte Mason as well as "For The Children's Sake" by Susan S Macaulay.

We discussed measures we have tried to take to maximise time management.

Karen has had to plan a lot of work for the children ahead of time so she can ensure they continued their education while she has been receivin chemo. She has also noted that the children have responded to her changed health by using their time to read with her and to her and that she has seen a marked improvement in her son's reading as a result.



She told a lovely story of how she had taken the children to the library and bought a bag load of sencond hand books including an old Dorling Kindersley one that looked at human life on earth. She had sat with them the next day looking at this book-not as any formal lesson, and they had read about the Leakey discovery of 'Lucy'.

Then when taking her son and his friend out one night she heard him in the back of the car explaining all about what he had learned from this book; about Lucy and what she was like and later to his dad about hunting harpoons and so on.

This helped us all realise that 'formal' may be a good way to learn, but our children also learn in the relaxed family time setting just as well-if not better.



Michelle explained that she has a 'Brain Book' in which she records what she has done and needs to do in order to keep on top of tasks and fit them around her daughter's timetable.



Talked more about what Charlotte Mason's gentle art of learning might offer all of us including in areas of habit forming and discipline-routine and as the three of us are Christian- a Christ centred approach to our children's development as persons.



Ruth has recently had someone come to help her with the children and is adjusting to having another person join in with her in this process.

Ruth and Michelle had discussed research that shows that children do not respond well to formal education before the ages of 6-8. Ruth had been using a classical curriculum, but is now looking to relax things a little while she considers Mason's views and thinks about possibly taking a new approach.



The next meeting is set for Sat Nov 10th 8pm

Resource: English garden and walks

The website THE ENGLISH COUNTRY GARDEN has plenty of info on birds, animals, trees, seasons etc.
I'm printing up templates from HERE when we go to the park this afternoon.