Have you ever heard the story of The Monkey King (Sun Wukong)? Do you remember the lesson it teaches: that steady consistent work results in success? If so, then you’ve already benefited from a fable.
What are Fables?
Fables are a wonderful way to teach your child about morals and life lessons. They are stories that have been passed down over generations, trickling down to the present to deliver important lessons about life, nature, love, friendship, and being a good person. Very often a fable involves one or more animals who can speak and relate to your child. These characters are usually involved in some sort of moral conundrum or faced with a unique challenge that activates a child’s creativity. This excites their imaginations and brings them necessary knowledge in a comforting way.
The Positive Impacts of Fables
By reading fables with your child, you will be imparting truths to them in a fun, easy way. Each time you open up a book of fables your child will learn how to be brave in the face of adversity, how to cooperate with those close to them, how to accept everyone for who they are, and how to make good life choices. These are effective tools that will stay with your child for their entire life because children are like little sponges. What you choose to read to them when they are still young can have an impact that is far-reaching. Children have consistently loved reading fables or having fables read to them, so don’t be surprised when they ask for the fable book more than any others that they typically enjoy. Reading a fable is highly important in child development.
The Benefits of Fables
The benefits of reading fables to a child are exponential. Your child will:
- become well-rounded morally
- learn important life lessons
- have a deeper connection with others
Your child will grow up having a more solid, rounded, and deeper moral foundation that will help shape his or her life choices as they grow up. The stories are memorable enough to where they will be able to easily recall the imagery and situations presented. With this, they will understand how to handle different situations in life that would otherwise be overwhelming or new. This will lead to better problem-solving skills, especially when the problem involves their feelings and the feelings of others. Your child will have more empathy for those who are different than they are. This is something that is perhaps most important because all through life he or she will have to interact with unique individuals. Fables instill a kind of empathy that may be hard to pass on in other ways.
As a parent, it is simple to get started with fables. Simply find a book of popular fables in Chinese, such as Bamboo and the Turtle, and make it a habit to read a story twice a week to your child. There also exist plenty of online collections if you want to get started right away. It takes almost no time. If you would like to do something new, special, and time-honored, try reading a fable to your child. The effort is small, but the benefits are endless.
