Tales

Parents: Please note that this fairy tale includes violence (murder) and can be scary for some children.  Since all children are different, and only you know your child(ren), please pre-listen so that you may decide whether this fairy tale is right for your family. 

We include this fairy tale because it explains a modern-day phrase and gives the origin of "open sesame" and because it is one of few Grimm's fairy tales that is from the Middle East; we love to hear oral traditions from around the world which teach us about different cultures and their values! This story gives many opportunities for deep discussion!

Discussion questions:

1.  What kind of relationship did these brothers have? Would you describe them as a good example of "brotherly love"?

2.  How does the pursuit of wealth motivate characters in this story?

3. What clues of danger did characters use to protect themselves during the story?

4.  How did characters use wisdom and wit to help them in this story?

5.  Did the slave in this story find true freedom?

6.  Would you have acted differently or in the same manner as the main character? How?

How do you remember the words for "rat"; "pig"; and "cat" in Mandarin?  Here are some helpful hints and a song to help you understand "The Little Red Hen" in Mandarin!

Special guest: Hsuehwen Chou

Explore the folk tale of Hercules and the Wagoner and discuss: does God help those who help themselves?  What do you think of this concept? Is it in the Bible?  

We also hear about how people lived in Greece when kingdoms were small, over a thousand years B.C.  Discuss: how was slavery viewed? How was slavery different in the United States? 

From Germany comes a delightfully humorous fairy tale of four animals seeking to form a band, who instead discover a band of robbers.  Will they oust the robbers from their den? Find out on today's Fairy Tale Friday! 

You get to hear my lovely lesson with Mrs. Hsuehwen as we learn the phrase "Hen picked up a seed" in Mandarin.  Remember, we are aiming to understand the basic vocabulary in the folk tale "The Little Red Hen" which you can hear on last Wednesday's episode.  We tackle this one sentence in the tale today.  You can repeat this as many times as you need to so that you begin to feel comfortable with these new words!  (Spoiler: children will most likely pick this up faster than non-Mandarin-speaking adults, like me!)

Today we practice a Charlotte Mason activity on keen listening, and hear "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" by Eric M.;  Luca M. reads our poetry by Christina Rossetti! Thank you to these two incredible readers!!

Enjoy the second half of Beauty and the Beast from The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang!

Read by Heidi Illian

It's WONDER-FILLED Wednesday! Today we begin the amazing journey of learning the folk tale "The Little Red Hen" in MANDARIN!  Even if you're second language is not Mandarin, this is an amazing opportunity to expand your language learning and expose yourself to a language spoken in China and Taiwan! The brain LOVES, also NEEDS to learn new languages! 

This lesson is a bit longer than most because we read the whole story in English with the Mandarin translation. 

Today we jump into a new week with a new Aesop's Fable, "The Monkey and the Dolphin", followed by "The Parents and Boyhood of Ulysses" from Tales of Troy and Greece by Andrew Lang.  Enjoy these awesome tales! 

It's Fairy Tale Friday! Today we hear part one of Beauty and the Beast, as told in The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang.