What Kids Learn From Storybooks

there’s a facebook status that has been going around these days.

 

 

the status went like this :

How do you expect kids to listen to their parents as, Tarzan lives half naked, Cinderella comes back home at midnight, Pinocchio lies all the time, Aladdin is the king of thieves, Batman drives at 320KM/h, Sleeping beauty is lazy and Snow white lives with 7 guys. We shouldn’t be surprised if kids misbehave at times! They get this from their own storybooks :P

 

as a HUGE fan of fairytales, and imagination world built by the brothers grimm, enid blyton, walt disney and roald dahl, i was very offended! hahahaha. offended, but very amused. it’s true that the storylines did have these unsightly traits in them! so i really wanted to reply in a way that shows the positive side of storybooks!

this was my reply :

hmm. interesting. but tarzan learns quick from an entirely different species, cinderella does housechores, pinocchio beats a whale to save his father, aladdin selflessly wishes the genie free, batman fights for justice, sleeping beauty is simply a victim of a curse and snow white is compassionate towards animals. we still have hope from kids' storybooks. ;)

 

and throughout the day, i saw few more of my friends who put up this facebook status. and to each one i replied the same!

 

 

what do i really think? what kids LEARN from PARENTS, and their UPBRINGING, they will apply when they read storybooks.

you see, if for example, a child grows up with a maid waiting on him, on her toes upon his every command, wants and needs – (of course not all kids take advantage of having maids, but i personally know that there are kids who yell at their maids, and even tell their teachers how ‘slow and stupid' their maid is!) they won’t see anything wrong with piling works on cinderella.

when their own father ignores the speed limit and drives like they’re racing for F1, then they would idolize batman’s driving skills, “because that’s how my daddy drives!”.

my point is, when your child already has a strong base on morals and manners, and a decent knowledge of the world, storybooks are nothing but fun-filled imagination fantasy-land where they go and meet made-up characters and learn a few lessons on the way.

pick up a book today, read with your kid, and explore the world together. khaleef and i – our pick would be dr. seuss. currently we’re reading ‘horton hears a who’.

lessons learned : ‘a person’s a person, no matter how small!’

 

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on the other hand, i read one of the comments suggesting that we expose our kids to kisah-kisah nabi tales of the prophets of islam). oh, how we’re so indulgent in western tales of fairies and magic, that we forget the incredible tales of miracles and mukjizat of our prophets.

i admit my oversight!

i hope to get a whole bunch when we get back to malaysia. any suggestions of any particular books specially for kids? khaleef can read about the prophet who can speak when he was a baby, the prophet whose mother stomped on a spot and there sprinkled the zamzam water, the prophet who can understand animal language, and of the prophet who once had a cloud that follows him, sheltering him from the sun…