Our little Oak tree just turned 4! He’s such a delightful kid - kindhearted, creative, observant, funny…I could go on and on. This past fall we started doing a once a week homeschool fairytale preschool and it has been so fun! We decided awhile back that we would homeschool him for kindergarten and then go from there. The main reason for this is that I don’t love how all kindergartens, at least in Minnesota, are full day, every day now. I personally think that’s too much for 5 year olds and we wanted to give Oak more time to play, be outside, and cherish the simplicity of childhood a bit more. With that in mind, I also knew that I wasn’t really interested in putting him in a part-time preschool program. The socialization would be great, but I don’t think its necessary for 3 year olds to know their numbers and letters - there is plenty of time for that! And as for socialization - we have our weekly Free Forest School outdoor play group, his class at church, and occasional play dates with cousins/friends. However, I still felt like we could add some sort of formal preschool-like activity to our week simply to add some intentionality and structure. Something that was special just for Oak. Considering all this, I knew I wanted this preschool time to include storytelling of some sort. Waldorf education places a lot of emphasis on oral storytelling and I know there is a lot of educational value that comes from the art of narration, so I really wanted to start incorporating these things into our weeks. So, I searched for some simple preschool homeschool curriculums and found a few that were story based and nature based, which is so great, but I also felt strongly that I didn’t want to spend money on these things. That just felt unnecessary for us at this time.
Then I came across a quote that is attributed to Albert Einstein. It reads, “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
Fairytales! That was the answer!
So I created our little Fairytale Preschool and it has been so lovely. On Tuesdays we spend about an hour doing our preschool and that’s it for the week. It’s such a small part of our week, but it has had a large impact. First, Oak loves it. He lights up when he finds out that it’s time for preschool. It’s also added creativity to his play and structure to his week. I’ll talk more about these things below, but here is what our Fairytale Preschool looks like:
Oral Storytelling:
I orally tell the fairytale for the week with props and figurines. I use wooden Waldorf people and trees that I bought on Etsy and painted with watercolors. I also use our Schleich animals and have even used cartoon pictures I’ve printed from my computer. I use what I have and make imaginary leaps when needed (like a German shepherd being used as the wolf in Red Riding Hood because we couldn’t find our wolf that morning!).
I orally tell the story the second time, but have Oak help me with parts of it.
If the story is short or if Oak is really into it, we tell it again, but I let him tell even more of it himself.
We sometimes “play” the story with the figurines - this is essentially whatever Oak wants it to be and it often means the story takes interesting turns that may or may not include an appearance by a dinosaur.
Recipe:
We then make a recipe in the kitchen that is often related to our story - pie for The Three Little Kittens, apple cake for Snow White, crispy green beans for Jack and the Beanstalk, or sometimes we just make granola - because we need granola!
Picture Book:
We then read an illustrated version of the fairytale. I try to pick versions that are beautifully illustrated and stay true to the original stories. There are a lot of fairytale books out there and they are NOT all created equal. Finding a good version has been very important and sometimes challenging.
That’s it! It’s very simple, as I said, but it’s been so wonderful! Here are the fairytales that we used this past fall and their recipes. I’ll write another post after we’ve finished our spring fairytales as well.
Jack & the Beanstalk - Crispy Green Beans
Little Red Riding Hood - Apple Cake
Three Billy Goats Gruff - Oat, Seed, & Nut Granola
Snow White - Apple Breakfast Cookies
Three Little Pigs - Pumpkin Bars (this was an unrelated recipe)
Emperor’s New Clothes - Applesauce (this was an unrelated recipe)
Tom Thumb - Little Hotdogs (Tom Thumb) wrapped in dough (like Tom hides in a shell)
Sleeping Beauty - Granola (we needed granola!)
Three Little Kittens - Mini Pumpkin Pies
The Little Fir Tree - Lemon Cream Cheese Snowballs
Hansel & Gretel - Graham Cracker Candy House (This was in December, so it was very similar to a gingerbread house)
The Gingerbread Boy - Gingerbread Christmas Cookies
So far, here are a few of the things I’ve noticed from this intentional time together each week:
Connection: This has been such a great thing for us. Having this intentional time together each week, which is almost always when Alder is napping, has been so good for our relationship and overall connection. His demeanor on preschool days is often cheery, lighthearted, and easy going - rather than other days when there can be more challenging behaviors.
Creativity: The use of the Waldorf people and our use of blocks as buildings/towers/etc. has given him more ideas for how to play creatively. The Waldorf people are extremely open ended - they can be pretty much anyone from an ogre to a prince, or witch to a maiden. Oak already plays a lot of stories - he is often pretending to be a character from a book or a story, but we’ve seen an increase in this since starting our preschool.
Structure: Oak is a quintessential first born, so having a clear structure for the week is very helpful for him. He asks most mornings, “What day is it today? What do we do on [Tuesdays]?” I love that this small part of our week has added a bit of structure that has been meaningful to him.
Recall and Compare/Contrast: It’s been fun to listen to him retell the fairytales to Dan in the evenings. Some he remembers better than others and some he understands better than others, but he overall gets them and enjoys retelling them. Reading different versions of the fairytales in picture books and watching some the Disney movies has also given us opportunities to discuss similarities and differences - which has been really fun to watch him do! It’s amazing the different things he picks up on and how he is able to compare and contrast things even at such a young age.
I will revisit this all again later as there is more to say - like the whole topic of how dark so many fairytales are! But for now, I’ll leave it here. It has been a wonderful start to a wonderful year with Oak. I’m so thankful for this intentional time we’ve had to explore stories together.
