princess-869721_640

Science as a Solution to Problems in Folk Tales

In most folktales, science never plays a role. The characters’ problems take place because they don’t understand the world around them. Understanding the world means thinking like a scientist. Scientists analyze events; they  look for cause and effect. And they make changes to prevent repeating mistakes. A scientific attitude can make the
difference between being frightened and feeling confident. A scientific approach to life enables people to learn and adapt, rather than live in fear. Perhaps, science could be used as a solution to some folktale problems.

In the original folktales, Chicken Little felt something land on her head and became frightened that the sky was falling. Goldilocks became frightened when the Three Bears found her sleeping in their house, after she had eaten their porridge and broken their furniture. The Three Little Pigs were afraid that the Big Bad Wolf planned to eat them.

What if Chicken Little did an experiment to find out if the sky was falling? What if Goldilocks knew how to repair the things she broke? What if the Three Little Pigs knew how to build wolf-proof houses? And better yet, what if they knew how to make good use of all that huffing and puffing?

Do you ever wonder how folktales would come out differently if the protagonists knew some scientific principles?

Let’s Think about Science in Folk Tales

Chicken Little thought the sky was falling because an acorn fell on her head. Her friends all went to tell the king this scary story. But on the way to the King’s palace, Foxy Woxy caught them and tricked them – because they didn’t know about foxes or how to avoid their foxy tricks. But what if Chicken Little was a scientist? What if her friend Henny Penny liked to do experiments? What if their other friends, Goosey Loosey and Turkey Lurkey did experiments, too? And what if they discovered how gravity works? Could they use their new knowledge to defeat Foxy Woxy? Would Chicken Little become the next Sir Isaac Newton?

Goldilocks walked into the Three Bears’  home while they were out for a walk. She ate their porridge. She broke their furniture, and then she slept in one of their beds. She’s just a child. Maybe she didn’t know better. But what if she knew how to cool the hot porridge? What if she knew how to use a screwdriver to repair the chair she broke? What if she left the Three Bears’  home better than she found it? And best-of-all, what if she could help Baby Bear with a problem, when the bears came back from their walk?
Knowing how to use the six simple machines can make a real difference in the quality of life.
Goldilocks could
become a welcome guest in the Three Bears’ home.

In the original version of The Three Little Pigs, only one pig knows how to build a wolf-proof house. Suppose all three of the little pigs had been to architecture school and all three built safe sturdy wolf-proof homes? Then, when the wolf came by and did his huffing and puffing, he couldn’t blow any of their houses down. Still, none of the three pigs could go out of their houses, because without walls and a roof to protect them, the wolf could eat them. In this situation, safe houses aren’t enough. The pigs still need more science. Now we have three
hungry pigs and one hungry wolf. And none of them are going anywhere to solve their mutual problem. But there’s still all that huffing and puffing to deal with. That huffing and puffing has to be good for something. Can our story characters use the huffing and puffing to make food for them all to eat? Can it enable them
all to become friends?

Folktales present characters with problems they need to solve…

Often the solutions in the original stories are violent. Violence is not something we want to teach our children. Violence is not a good solution to life’s problems. Wolves shouldn’t get to trap foolish animals, just because they made a mistake and thought the sky was falling. Goldilocks shouldn’t be chased away from the Three Bears’  home as if she was a criminal. And that hungry wolf shouldn’t become stew for the three little pigs to eat. Peaceful solutions for these problems do exist. Science can provide us with answers.
Chicken Little and her friends can discover how gravity works.
Goldilocks can learn to use the six simple machines to fix what she breaks.

The Three Little Pigs can figure out that what seems to be a problem is often just a resource out of place. That huffing and puffing can be used to grind wheat and feed them all. I’ve created a series of Science Folktales. All of them have peaceful, productive solutions. And readers can learn some scientific principles as they watch the
characters solve their problems in ways that benefit everybody. A scientific attitude prevents the need for violence, and opens up new peaceful solutions to once scary problems. You can probably think of folktales that you would like to see have happy endings, solutions that are mutually beneficial for all the characters.

Lois Wickstrom earned her BA in biology with Chemistry and English minors. She is the creator of the Imagenie videos on YouTube and the Science Folktales series, which includes Chicken Little Investigates, and Huff…Puff…Grind! The 3 Little Pigs Get Smart. She is also co-author of Xenia Navarro and the Magic Ants, the Nessie’s Grotto series. Her forthcoming book from Dreaming Big is Mr. Barsin’s Toy Emporium. She has been married for 54 years, has two children and four grandchildren.

Lois’s Books are:

Chicken Little Investigates
Huff…Puff…Grind! The 3 Little Pigs Get Smart
Fee, Fi, Fo, Grow! The Real Magic of the Beans (a retelling of Jack and the
Beanstalk)
Goldilocks and the Six Simple Machines
Little Red, The Detective (a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood)
And soon to be published:
The Fairest of the All (a retelling of Snow White)
Saving the Gingerbread House (A retelling of Hansel and Gretel)
Is That the Wrong Egg? (A retelling of The Ugly Duckling)

science folktales

Lois’s website is HTTP://www.LookUnderRocks.com

Lois’s Books Are Here on Amazon


7 Storytelling Hacks - Introducing Kids To Cultural Stories

7 Storytelling Hacks – Introducing Kids To Cultural Stories

 

Indian culture is rich with stories sharing life lessons, morals, traditions and values. From the time immemorial, stories have been a mode of instruction to emphasize values and morals. Not only to children but also to grown-ups. Stories are part of their lives.

In ancient days, stories were mostly told by people. From being written on rocks, stones and some leaves they were carried on by mothers and grandmothers as bedtime stories. Much later they were printed on books. Today stories are made into real with the aid of animations. The conspicuous fascination for stories has still been enthusiastically growing.

The folklore and fables have been an eternal part of every culture since ages. India, a country known for its diverse religions, languages and cultures has a monumental range of tales and short stories. Indian folklore has a wide variety of historical stories and mythological legends, which emerge from all walks of life.

Two epic stories Mahabharata and Ramayana are so popular not only because of their character but also for its abundant source of life lessons and moral values. There are many interesting and famous stories that range from the remarkable Panchatantra Tales to Hitobadesh Stories, from Aesop Fables to, from Grandma Tales of life to Stories of Akbar and Birbal.

Children really enjoy reading and listening to stories. Children are fascinated by stories of animals and birds, kings and queens, fairies and adventures. And Indian stories have all of these in abundance and more.

Kids get involved to a greater extent because their imagination derives from these tales. Each story gets deep rooted in the hearts of children with value.

Children love to dream. The world of fancy and fantasy is the privilege of their childhood. And stories justify these attempts to nurture their imagination and foster moral values. Mostly every story is concluded with an appropriate moral. The stories will not only entertain the children but also inculcate the sublime virtues and worldly wisdom in them.

Panchatantra stories, Jataka Tales, Thenaliraman Tales, Vikram and Vedhal, were my son’s favorites during his childhood. We enjoyed our nights through our bedtime stories.

As a mother, I am often disappointed though nowadays, because of the disappearing love for stories. Also I feel in the digital age there is a dire lack of value based storytelling.

Really story telling is an art and story teller is an artist. When told right, a story has the power to magically inculcate children with not only morals but bring them face to face with their culture and heritage as well.

Some personal tips on developing the skill of it.

Dedicated Reading Time

You can select any convenient time for you and your kids to tell stories. Mostly I prefer night time to share Bedtime Stories. Really the story time will be a bonding time for your family.

Enact The Story

While telling the stories, you act and make music. Parents making funny voices and getting the kids involved in the process makes the stories impact stronger.

Pause At The Right time

Let the kids guess what comes next. Ask them what they would have done in the same situation. This builds thinking power.

Leave Room for Discussion

Stories of long ago or a mythology have concepts hard to understand. Encourage kids to talk, discuss, share and express. Parents should respond, encourage, listen and guide. Parents should respect kid’s feelings and thoughts. Let them ask question and even disagree with what the story says. Don’t stop reading that story to them, though. That teaches them to learn to agree to disagree.

Create

Painting and creating art work after they hear a story will let You see what the children actually thought of the story.

Share Your Memories

Let kids into your life with the history of your family and what you thought when you first heard the story. Discuss with the kids what you thought and ask them what they think of your opinion.

Games And More

For stories of mythology and history which have complicated names, it is a good idea to create games. Give points for guessing the protagonist of a certain story is and what happened. Another amazing way is to have the kids pretend to be they are one of the characters and play a game of dumb charades with them.

Introducing Kids To Stories From Cultures Around The World www.raisingworldchildren.com #storytelling #stories #multicultural #cultures #global #kids #parenting

Story telling is the first and foremost step to introducing kids to any new culture, and specially their own heritage. Be the story teller of your family. And don’t just limit yourself to your own culture. Choose different countries and find what their mythology or history says!

Vasantha Vivek loves to call herself as a happy woman, daughter, sister, wife, mother, teacher, friend, mentor, seeker, lover. She’s from Kovilpatti, a small town of Southern Tamilnadu of India. She was a teacher by profession. She worked as a professor at an Engineering College for nearly 15 years. She has learned a lot as a teacher. She hopes that she had inspired some hearts during that period. Teaching is her passion Reading is her love. Cooking is her heart. She enjoys reading and writing very much. You can find her @mysweetnothings on Facebook and Twitter.

 

 

 

Is it really essential to be a secular being?

Is it really essential to be a secular being?

Or is it all just a hype ? 

In the fast paced modern society, when everything is changing so rapidly, I think it’s our obligation to make us as well as our family, more flexible, more adjustable so as to be more compatible with the norms of the society. The migration of people from one part of the world to another has also become one such norm.

Whether in search of job or to earn more money or just for a change or for their families or for any other reason, people today are not reluctant in making a change. Though the world is a small place, still the cultures, customs and traditions are quite different in each and every part, whether it’s within a particular country or outside a country.

In this age, the idea of being secular becomes essential.

When you respect each and every religion along with its customs –

–You’ll be able to mingle up with the residents of that place and definitely feel one amongst them.

–You’ll be joyful throughout as you can take part in their celebrations too , with full energy and enthusiasm.

–You’ll never be aloof or desserted in the hour of need as there’ll be a support system for you with whom you can share your griefs and sorrows.

–You can have celebrations round the year, thus leaving little or no room for negativity.

–And most importantly, you’ll also have a chance to spread your fragrance too.

Having no idea of tomorrow, I make it a point to teach or discuss various festivals with my kids so as to make them a responsible and a compassionate being. But, it was not easy initially as the obsolete but important question—

How to give them knowledge when I myself was not aware of most of the facts?                 

But it’s said-Where there’s a will, there’s a way. And in the process of finding the answer to the above question, I also became a ‘Learner’. And that helped me a lot, even helping now.

What I did was

–I educated myself about the particular festival. For example, if about Christmas, I learnt about its origin and importance through books and internet, of course.

–I got myself involved with the members of the particular community, who used to celebrate it and learnt to make the dishes and little things related to that festival. Like for Christmas, I learnt to make Christmas tree, bells and Christmas cake. Once we even made the snowman. And believe me, the experience was ecstatic.

–I even learnt some stories to narrate to my children about that festival. For Christmas, I learnt the story about Jesus Christ .

–And nothing is complete until you give your imagination, some colorful wings. So for Christmas, I created an imaginary Santa in my kids’ mind who would give them chocolates on 25th December. And it worked. Just after getting up, they look for their chocolates under their pillows. They thank Santa for the chocolates and relish the experience that they get from these little things whenever we come across any Christian family as they never feel left behind.

That’s why I feel it’s the feeling, the empathy towards any religion that matters a lot which only, we as parents can instill in the little hearts of our children .What they develop is faith, which they’ll definitely cherish later.

How Do We Achieve A Goal When We Have No Knowledge Of The World | Raising World Children | Parenting | family | kids | teaching Kids

  Ruchika Rastogi, an Indian who was born and brought up in Delhi. She loves to explore the unexplored. A mother of two lovely kids, she works as a teacher and her passion for writing has helped her survive during her hard times. Her first non fiction book got published last year with the name-A Mystical Majesty-the woman. As a contributing author, her anthology with the title–Wait Till I Tell You got launched recently. With dreams in her eyes, she believes in living life optimistically.

Indian Historical Stories – Chetak The Immortal Blue Horse

Chetak : The Immortal Blue Horse

 

Battles are won and lost. Leaving behind stories of heroes. Often times in war, it is not only the men fighting but the animals who fight for them that make for tales of glory.

Chetak was the horse of Maharana Pratap, whose role in the battle of Haldighati is worth repeating. Folklore has it that Chetak coat had a blue tinge to it. That is why Maharana Pratap is  often referred  to as the “Rider of the Blue Horse”.

Mahrana Pratap SIngh, King of Mewar found his biggest rival in the then Emperor of India Jalal ud-din Muhammad Akbar. Akbar was the one because of whom Pratap’s father had to flee from Chittorgarh and establish a new empire in Udaipur. Many Rajput Chiefs had expressed their loyalty towards Akbar but not Maharana Pratap.

The animosity brought the troops of Akbar and Maharana face to face in the battle of Haldighati. Pratap’s forces were decisively outnumbered but Maharana Pratap stood strong riding his royal, fearless horse Chetak. WhenMaharana Pratap realized that the battle was slipping away from his hands, he charged the elephant of the appointed captain of Akbar’s troops, Raja Man Singh. Pratap made a frontal charge and his fearless horse Chetak reared high in the air and planted his hooves on the forehead of the elephant. Pratap threw his lance towards Man Singh but missed.

During this hustle one of the tusks of the elephant tore Chetak’s rear leg, crippling him. This was a pivotal moment in the battle. Maharana Pratap had to retreat .

Inspite of his fatal would, Chetak  ran for miles and miles, even jumping high and through a river to get his master to safety.  Once assured that his master was out of danger ,Chetak collapsed and let out his last breath.

Chetak’s heroic act of bravery and loyalty towards his master made everyone forget the defeat Maharana Pratap had to face during the battle. Instead, it is his  his death that  has been immortalized in the ballads of Rajasthan.

Moral : Bravery displayed in the face of challenges becomes immortalized.

Illustrated by Shruti Prabhu. Retold by Vinni Mishra