by ThinkingWest
For the past year, I’ve been reading stories from classic children’s anthologies (many printed in the 1940s – 1960s era) to my kids before bed. One such collection of stories is from a series called Childcraft, which I find so aptly named since reading good stories is so critical in “crafting” children to be virtuous, imaginative, and courageous. Such stories include those iconic tales of Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm to early 20th century folk legends.
Good stories develop important mechanical aspects of language, memory, and comprehension skills, but this is only one small part of the impact reading a story has on the malleable minds of children. The reading of fairy tales is an underrated force in the development of children and accomplishes so much more than the mere mechanical aspects of reading and listening.