
Children love fairy tales
Fairy tales offer children orientation in the Life. They give clear differentiators for "good" and "bad". So there are always evil characters like witches, wolves, giants or dwarfs in fairy tales. But also good figures like fairies, hunters or princes. These stories encourage children. Because the good always win in the fairy tale and the bad are defeated all around. Therefore, pictures like a burning witch or a drowned wolf are not terrifying pictures for children. For them, this only means that evil is completely defeated.
This experience calms children. Because many perceive the bad in the world. You just can’t put it into words yet. But fairy tales are so clearly constructed that even small children find themselves in them. They can project their undetermined fears onto a tangible being. When this being is defeated, the children are less afraid.
At the same time, fairy tales strengthen confidence in your own strength. Hansel and Gretel defeat the witch. The brave little tailor wins over giants and wild animals. The prince can overcome all obstacles to come to Sleeping Beauty. So a child realizes that evil can be fought and beaten. It trusts that it can overcome its fears itself. Of course, completely subconsciously, but very clearly. The child also learns to trust good powers. For example to friends or parents. Because not infrequently, the heroes in the fairy tale have friends who support them in their fight.
Children and fairy tales – learning to abstract
Furthermore, children who know fairy tales show a clear capacity for abstraction. So say for example: "The witch is not real at all." So you can deduce real life from the story. In reality there are no witches. Nevertheless, you stand for evil and must be defeated. The other way round, everything is possible in fairy tales. In this way, children can transfer their own dreams into the fairy tale. The atrocities of the fairytale world are not a real threat. But the magic of your own dreams in the fairy tales is tangible reality.
Not least because of this, children can easily imagine themselves in fairy tales. Magic and miracles are part of a child’s world of experience. His own thinking and feeling is shaped by magic. It cannot yet grasp and explain many things with its mind. Nevertheless, his feelings speak a clear language. Fairy tales thus offer a platform for the unspoken, childhood Emotions. Here children find space to let their thoughts and feelings take shape. This helps them to become aware of these thoughts and feelings and to deal with them.
Fairy tales lead to literature
Children are only partially interested in the content of a fairy tale. Not least because of this, they like it when fairy tales are told and not read aloud. So the story always changes a bit. The storytelling process is more important than the story itself. Cuddling with mom, dad or grandparents while reading is part of the reading experience. The child feels that reading is something pleasant and beautiful. Thus, the reading experience shapes a positive feeling about literature.
In addition, the fairy tales for children become a normal part of life. After all, the fairy tales have always been told. Children from an early age are therefore interested in literature. As a rule, children who used to have many stories read to them later like to read themselves.
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