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What was your favorite fairy story or children's story as a child and how can you relate it to your life today.
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What was your favorite fairy story or children's story as a child and how can you relate it to your life today.
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What was your favorite fairy story or children's story as a child and how can you relate it to your life today.
As a child I liked the story "The Ugly Duckling". This was a story about a swan egg t
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Forums » Entertainment » Books » What was your favorite fairy story or children's story as a child and how can you relate it to your life today.
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What was your favorite fairy story or children's story as a child and how can you relate it to your life today.
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What was your favorite fairy story or children's story as a child and how can you relate it to your life today.
posted at March 17, 2012 9:34 PM EDT
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Posts: 602
First: December 16, 2009 Last: May 23, 2013 |
What was your favorite fairy story or children's story as a child and how can you relate it to your life today. As a child I liked the story "The Ugly Duckling". This was a story about a swan egg that was hatched in a nest with ducklings. The little interloper looked different from his brothers and sisters and always felt he didn't belong. He was teased and kidded and felt out of place. Eventually his adult feathers appeared and he was a beautiful swam, not a duck at all. The Child Behind the Bushes I remember standing on the steps of our elementary school and feeling alone and uneasy. It was the first day of school and a new experience for me to be away from home and my mother. This was a small country school that was probably built in the 1920?s. A one-story red brick building with wide concrete steps that lead out from four entrances. Surrounding the building were flower beds that contained roses, hydrangeas and boxwood shrubs. The ground under the plants was hard packed by the feet of many children who for decades had played beneath them. The smell of chalk dust and pencil shavings was in the air. The teachers would send a student to clean the erasers by hitting them against the sides of the building. The pencil sharpeners were emptied into the flower beds. Perhaps this was why few of the roses ever bloomed. Being a shy child I was anxious about starting school. Anything new always filled me with dread. So on this first day I stood on the steps during the first recess of the day. All the little girls (there were 12 in my first grade class) wore pastel dresses with a sash that tied in a bow at the back. My dress did not have a sash and I felt out of place because of this. Its odd how early we begin feeling our differences and experiencing them as personal failure. One of these little girls, Gloria Joan, came up to me and asked ?Do you want to play?? I really wanted to say ?yes?, but found myself saying ?no? in a soft voice. She turned away and began playing with the other girls and I was left alone on the steps. This, I believe, was a crucial point in my early school socialization. I set myself off from my classmates and never really became accepted. Dreading recess I would try to be invisible, hiding behind the boxwood shrubs and pretending I was not there. I became a watcher not a participant. Strangely I was happy as long as no one saw me and tried to draw me into a group. I began inventing stories in my head; creating fantasies; playing my own mental games. Basically I was with the same students until I graduated from High School. It seems to me that set ways of viewing others is a hard mold to break. In some respects our view of themselves is based on the feedback from the people in our environment. Its easier to be a different person when you are with strangers. People are like mirrors?they reflect back to us what we want to see and project onto us their own personal views. It is rare to be able to get past the reflection of ourselves and see inside to the true person. College to me was an awakening. As I was an art major I mainly associated with other art majors and discovered that it was considered a good thing to be different. The professors encouraged individual expression and creating your own path. ?Think outside the box? was an expression they would have used had it existed at that time in the 60?s. My ability to delve into my unconscious and depict this on canvas or paper was an asset. My ability to focus and ignore my surrounding, a huge advantage. The thick skin, that I had developed in elementary school to avoid being hurt, stood with me when the professor criticized my art assignments during weekly ?Critique?. I was the ?ugly duckling? the shy child who did not fit in. I have never overcome this shyness but now realized that I am ?introverted? and introversion is not something that needs to be overcome? only understood. Learning to value my individuality and accepting myself came easy for me once I reached adulthood. All those years of being alone as a child; of hiding behind the bushes and withdrawing into my head made me a creative person who has a strong sense of myself. When my adult ?feathers? emerged I found I was a swan. |
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Re: What was your favorite fairy story or children's story as a child and how can you relate it to your life today.
posted at March 20, 2012 12:25 AM EDT
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Posts: 70
First: February 6, 2012 Last: March 29, 2012 |
I had a reading appetite was ravenous as a child, and I consumed every bit of children's lit I got my hands on. That said, my favorite stories were ancient history mythologies (Greek, Roman and Norse), and Aesop's Fables. Today, I my love of mythology has grown into a love of the rise and fall of powerful ancient civilizations, I can honestly say there's much to be learned from the past; and, the value of morals and human nature gleaned from Aesop's fables are so timeless, I continue to teach, share and learn life lessons to this day! Denise
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Re: What was your favorite fairy story or children's story as a child and how can you relate it to your life today.
posted at March 22, 2012 8:06 AM EDT
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Posts: 602
First: December 16, 2009 Last: May 23, 2013 |
I also read nonstop as a child, starting with the typical children's books and Grim's Fairy Tales. My mother would read a chapter a night to her 3 daughters from a book she selected. I remember begging her to just read another chapter, pleeeese! Finally I picked up the book and began reading and never looked back. Have you read Ursula Le Guin's Lavinia? It is a fictional retelling of Virgil's Aeneid. I found it to be a wonderful book, very easy to read and hard to put down. |
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Re: What was your favorite fairy story or children's story as a child and how can you relate it to your life today.
posted at March 23, 2012 7:31 PM EDT
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Posts: 68
First: December 14, 2010 Last: November 16, 2012 |
I remember realy enjoying "The Borrowers" by Mary Norton and also "The Hardy Boys" mysteries! |
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Re: What was your favorite fairy story or children's story as a child and how can you relate it to your life today.
posted at March 24, 2012 5:44 PM EDT
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Posts: 1
First: March 24, 2012 Last: March 24, 2012 |
Books were all around me growing up...my mother, grandmother, grandfather, uncle, Sunday School teacher and other church friends all read. I learned to love reading when my mother read to me often; she was and is a reader even today at 96 going on 97 in two weeks. She read with great expression even before she went back to teaching. I received books on every possible occasion. Sometimes they were things like Aesops Fables; Bible stories and the Bible ; just for fun books, such as L'l Brown Koko, the Uncle Remus stories, A Child's Garden of Verses; reference books, like encyclopedias and dictioneries; Little Women, Little Women Grown Up, and Little Men, as well as many that I can remember things about them, but the Titles escape me now; and gradually started reading adult books on the bookshelves at home. There were poetry, mythology, biography, mystery/detective, fiction and non-fiction available. My Grandmother subscribed to Ladies Home Journal.McCall's and some other magazines which I don't think are still in print (Farm Journal?). I Of course, my grandmother thought she cut out all the articles on sex and reproduction so I wouldn't read them, but, I beat her to it. I have always been a curious person. I did not practice this removing of this type of article for my own four children. My children still read, although they don't have the time/opportunity that I had. I still prefer reading to looking at TV; if want to watch something in particluar on television, I now use my DVR and watch it when my reading eyesight and other activities allow it. I have read some science-fiction, but it doesn't really hold my interest. I don't shy away from books because of an author's race or use of profanity or sexual content. Yes, some author's may overdo profanity or sexual content, but, unfortunately in reality, so do many people. That is life. I took early retirement from one job and finished my studies with a BA in English and Literary Studies away from my home state and participated in college life and church there also. I started working again upon graduation and coming back to my home state...sometimes as a temp, substitute teaching or at a full-time job. Even though I am theoretically retired, I still work everyday, at least part-time, sometimes for full days, and also, I have many responsibilities in my church (which I enjoy). I read at lunch-time when I work a full day. Part of my current work, as well as for over 11 years with the same employer, it is necessary for me to read online news media about public education and funding; therefore, I frequently see other items of interest which connects with my learning experiences. As part of my job description, I do major proof reading for our association's published magazines, newsletters, news releases, policy manuals and program books. Not only am I very proficient in grammar, but, I learn at the same time. I buy books frequently for myself and a child who is not even related to me, but, money is shorter now and I frequent my local branch of the county library. I often must take my mother also because she no longer drives. |
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Re: What was your favorite fairy story or children's story as a child and how can you relate it to your life today.
posted at March 24, 2012 6:43 PM EDT
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Posts: 602
First: December 16, 2009 Last: May 23, 2013 |
Irob61936 thanks for your interesting post. We have many things in common concerning our love of books and reading. I attribute my love of reading to my mother having read to me every night until I finally picked up a book and began reading on my own. The book was Swiss Family Robinson. I loved that book. I would imagine myself on an island doing the things that the family in this book would do. Ladies Home Journal, McCall's, and Progressive Farmer were the magazines I remember from my childhood. Do you recall that there were Paper Dolls in McCall's? I was talking with someone today about paper dolls and how much fun we had punching and cutting them out and dressing them with the tabbed clothing. I believe McCalls had a page of paper dolls called Betsy McCall or something like that. I know we also cut out the models from the Sears Robuck Catalog to use as paper dolls and that we had huge families that we played with (I had two sisters).There were all books of paper dolls that we bought at the local 5 & Dime store. Remember those? My Mother worked part time when I was an older child. She worked for the Parish Library (we have Parishes and not counties in Louisiana) and would select and bring home books for me to read. I devoured them, perhaps reading too much. She never really censored them as to sexual or violent content so I read all kinds of books. At some point she began working on a Bookmobile that went to various schools and people still remember her to me by saying "Your Mother, she was the Bookmobile Lady." Many children recall to me that she knew their reading tastes and would select and bring them books every week. She was a great believer in books and learning. Not having gone to college herself (she should have as she was very intelligent) she was determined that her three daughters would go and we did. There is no way that I would ever not have a book to read whether it be on a Kindle, Ipad or paper. I love them all. |
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Re: What was your favorite fairy story or children's story as a child and how can you relate it to your life today.
posted at March 24, 2012 9:49 PM EDT
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Posts: 1
First: March 24, 2012 Last: March 24, 2012 |
I read fairy tales from various countries, as well as greek mythology as a child. Later I read science fiction and general fiction. I think the lessons I learned from fantasy as well as my religious faith, has helped me persevere through many personal struggles, some quite overwhelming. I guess we all glean what we need from life in some way at some time. |
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Re: What was your favorite fairy story or children's story as a child and how can you relate it to your life today.
posted at March 25, 2012 9:41 AM EDT
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Posts: 602
First: December 16, 2009 Last: May 23, 2013 |
"I guess we all glean what we need from life in some way at some time" I absolutely agree. Everything we have experienced is part of what we are. Some experiences are positive and some negative and lessons can be learned from both. As a child I was very shy and stayed inside my head...in fantasies most of the time. I loved to read as this allowed me to experience the fantasies of others. I used to love reading the Sunday comics (We called them the "Funny Papers"). One of my favorite comic strips was Fearless Fosdick. My favorite comic book hero was Wonderwoman. In my fantasies I invented a little girl with red hair that I named Sparkel. Sparkle Plenty was a character in the Fearless Fosdick comic strip. The little red haired girl that I invented and named Sparkel was my own personal superhero. She could do anything. My way of coping with the world as a child. I had almost forgotten about Sparkel until I put her name in by mistake when establishing a user name for this site. I had thought I was establishing a password. This one "mistake" has caused me to think a lot about this superhero of my childhood and to begin writing a book about her. So mistakes are often beneficial. |
Forums » Entertainment » Books » What was your favorite fairy story or children's story as a child and how can you relate it to your life today.
