Read different versions. Another way to build those flexible thinking skills and cognition is to read fractured fairy tales. These retellings have children looking at a story in a whole new way and stretching their imaginations. By publishing your document, the content will be optimally indexed by Google via AI and sorted into the right category for over 500 million ePaper readers on YUMPU. This story is good for all students in elementary school. It is a great way to introduce rules and doing the right thing even when we just want to do what we want to do. It is a great way to start the year with helping students understand the golden rule and being honest and accepting the consequences (which usually seem to be less severe when you are honest to begin with). Students can also do the old faithful activity of discussing how the stories are alike and different. Those are some large claims and I thought it would be wise to consult with an expert so I sought my sage 8-year-old son Christian Wagari Howell for some insight into one of his favorite bedtime stories. Herein, a transcription of that discussion (reader cautioned for plot spoilers!) From a kid’s perspective: For Lunar New Year, Goldy heads to the neighbor’s house with some turnip cakes. When they aren’t home, Goldy lets herself in and it doesn’t go very well. Can she make it right and befriend the neighbor? This book includes a recipe for turnip cakes.

The Ghanaian Goldilocks by Tamara Pizzoli, Phil Howell

C: It’s a change – it is kind of different. It’s a fairy tale except it is Ghanaian. The reason I think that it is important: it’s kind of different and it’s like a new idea. C: They are very interested in a lot of things. Some Ghanaians have interesting thoughts. Like if their mother tells them to go ask the neighbor for tomatoes and nobody is there, then the Ghanaians think there is no reason to go home. It’s interesting.Why do we tell fairy tales to young children? Familiar stories that can be retold again and again can help them build literacy skills, even before they are reading. Retelling a story can give children a chance to strengthen their storytelling skills and learn about story structure. It strengthens their thinking skills, including flexible thinking, perception, and memory. It also gives them a chance to stretch their focus, attention to detail, and creativity. In short, there are many reasons why telling fairy tales to young children is important.

Ghanaian Goldilocks’: A Colorful Take On a Classic Tale ‘The Ghanaian Goldilocks’: A Colorful Take On a Classic Tale

Let it flow. If your child is forgetting details or mixing things up, go with it! No need to correct them, they are giving their very own version of the story. I started giving myself permission to thrive, and to create relentlessly and referring to myself as ‘creative.’ This was a big step for someone like me. C: We both have long hair, long hair that is curly and long. We both have brown skin and we love our mommies. And his hair has a lot of curls. And mischief is very, very popular with both of us. For me and Kofi, that is something that is very similar to both of us. It’s kind of like when our mother tells us we can’t do something and then we do it anyways and then we get into trouble.I don’t want to give the impression that the path I’m on has been a walk in the park. A wise man named Don Folden once told me adversity guards the door to success, and, oh, how the last four years have proven those words to be true. A mom of four, with my Italian ex-husband and with my American partner who moved to Rome a couple of years ago, I ended up in a custody battle abroad. Let me just say that nothing will make you a womanist like getting divorced with children in Italy and the Trump administration. However, the tough times and learning how to navigate them really have polished me into a person who’s adept at spinning gold … in my daily affirmations I refer to myself as an artistic alchemist. All of our experiences, each and every one, are necessary for our growth and evolution. If only we could learn to look at the poo in our lives as fertilizer. Dr. Tamara Pizzoli is a lifelong learner and educator who splits her time between Italy and her native Texas. She's mom to two beautiful sons, Noah and Milo, who often inspire what she writes. C: Never go into somebody’s house and eat their food and sit on their stools and go in their closets and break somebody else’s chair. Children’s books are the best because you don’t have to choose between words or art—you get the best of both worlds. And I’ve always had an affinity for storytelling and well-crafted stories. As far as publishing my own stories, that came out of necessity. I didn’t want to wait for anyone else’s approval or endorsement, so I didn’t. I negotiated a book deal with MacMillan myself and signed it without a literary agent. God is my agent.