Wednesday, October 21, 2009

On sharing folktales...

Folktales, an important branch of the multi-cultural genre, can be an excellent resource for parents/caregivers to tap into when it comes to exposing children to cultures around the world. Folktales have enchanted children for many centuries simply through oral story-telling traditions.

In folktale plots, you will find allegories and rich commentaries about life, narrated by animals or a particularly unique character playing a key role. They offer glimpses of socio-cultural, historical and moral perspectives of a group of people from a certain time and place, most being globally-relevant and valuable even today, for children and grown-ups alike.

Lastly, the moral underpinning and wisdom imparted in folktales can help children find solutions to problems they may face in social situations. Hence, the importance of exposing children to ample number of folktales from around the world cannot be over-emphasized.

In CROCUS 2009, find a selection of folktales for you and your children to enjoy from around the world! Read the reviews with your children, and talk about the tales they focus on. You and your children can make up your own modern folktale or may be even a twisted or fractured one must be fun. Best of all, you really don’t need a book to share a folktale from another part of the world. All you need is a little bit of imagination and the possibilities are endless! Together, this CROCUS 2009, let’s share lots of folktales with our children and pass on the torch of story-telling traditions for future generations!

5 comments:

Choxbox said...

Lovely P!

Sheela said...

Agree with you 100%, P! Oral folklore tradition is almost extinct, not to say books made it so, but, you have a great point!

Praba Ram said...

thank you,chox!

thanks, sheela. yes - thanks to handful of story-tellers, we still have the tradition of story-telling alive in some urban communities...here's one who deserves a special mention for her work in story-telling... Jeeva Ragunath - http://www.hinduonnet.com/2000/07/15/stories/13151109.htm - - has books with Tulika as well.

Choxbox said...

praba, padmavati rao (a.k.a. pinty aunty) also runs awesome story-telling sessions for kids in bangalore.

artnavy said...

two more sessions in chennai on 24/25th october - check this link
http://www.storytellinginstitute.org/36.pdf

jeeva as praba mentioned in chennai is a wonderful story teller- here is an on going workshop by her
http://www.thehindu.com/2009/10/15/stories/2009101550860200.htm

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