Fairy Tales in Different Cultures--Perrault's Cinderella

In honor of our "trip" to France with Around the World in 12 Dishes, I thought we would feature Charles Perrault's Cinderella. When I introduced this series I gave a little history on Perrault's version. The version I shared however was more of the Disney one that I grew up with rather than Perrault's.  Before going on the story, we will talk a bit about France.

Source

France is located in Western Europe with several overseas territories and regions. It is the largest country in Western Europe and the third largest throughout Europe. It has the nickname l'Hexagone (the hexagon) because of its shape. France is a developed country with the world's fifth largest economy. It is the wealthiest country in Europe. French residents have the longest life expectancy, a high standard of living including the best health care according to World Health Organization and a high level of public education. It is also the most visited country in the world with 79.5 million tourists a year. (Source)

The translation of Cinderella I am using came from The Complete Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault by Neil Philip and Nicoletta Simborowski. We had taken this out to get some French stories to go with our French dishes. It is the first time I had read a real Perrault version.

The story begins with a man with a young daughter of his own marrying a haughty, stuck-up woman who has two daughters exactly like her. The woman takes a dislike to the man's daughter since she is so good and beautiful and it makes her daughters look even worse. She gives the man's daughter all of the worst household chores. The girl does them all without complaint. She knows her father would scold her for complaining. When she finishes her work she would retire to the chimney, so her stepsisters took to calling her Cinderbutt or Cinderella. (The younger one called her Cinderella since she was not quite as mean as her elder sister). Cinderella was also given a room in the attic on a shabby mattress while her stepsisters have beautiful bedrooms with the latest beds.

One day  the prince invites the stepsisters to a ball.  They are so excited and try on many gowns and outfits to decide what to wear. Cinderella offered to do their hair for them and of course they accepted. They teased her while she did their hair by asking her if she would like to go to the ball. Once they left, she watched them until they were out of sight and then she began to weep. Her godmother came by and asked why she was weeping. She was crying too hard to tell her, so her godmother asked if it was that she wanted to go to the ball. The godmother told her she would send her. She sent Cinderella to get a pumpkin. Cinderella looked for the finest pumpkin she could find. The godmother hollowed it out and then tapped it with her wand (she was a fairy afterall) and it changed into a beautiful gilded carriage. She changed mice into horses, a rat into a coachman and lizards into footman. Then she changed Cinderella's dress into a beautiful gown made from silver and gold fabric. She warned Cinderella that she must leave by midnight or everything would be back to what it was. She promised and went off to the ball.

The prince as told a princess no one knew arrived and he went at once to greet her. He even helped her out of the coach. Cinderella made quite the entrance on the prince's arm. Everyone stopped what they were doing to stare at her beauty. She was given a seat next to the prince and he danced with her as well. She even took time to go talk to her stepsisters, but they did not recognize her. She left before midnight and was telling her godmother about the ball and how the prince asked her to come the next evening as well when her stepsisters came home. They were so excited to tell her about the beautiful mysterious princess. 

The next evening the stepsisters went off to the ball and then Cinderella went off in a gown even more beautiful than the one the night before. The prince did not leave her side all evening and she was having so much fun she lost track of time until she heard the first chime of midnight. She ran out and lost one of her glass slippers.

The sisters came home and told her again about the mysterious princess and how upset the prince was after she left. A few days later, there was a trumpeted announcement that the prince would marry the woman whose foot fit the glass slipper. After trying it on all the princesses, duchesses, etc., the servant came to the stepsisters. They tried to force their foot into it, but could not. Laughing Cinderella asked to try it on. The servant noticed her beauty and said she should. Of course it slipped right on. Her stepsisters were shocked and even more so when she pulled out its mate from her pocket. They begged her forgiveness for how they mistreated her and she forgave them. She even brought them to the palace with her and had them marry lords. The prince and Cinderella were also married the same day.

For crafts I made Hazel a clothespin doll and shared again some of the pictures we colored the other day.

Sharing Saturday 13-14

Sorry for the late start to this week. We dealt with a sick little girl tonight and took her to Urgent Care at her insistence. Luckily it is not strep or an ear infection and just a virus again. Now onto Sharing Saturday. Thank you to everyone who shared last week (even without my email reminder). If you missed any of them, please check them out. Please make sure you check out the features of my co-host, Having Fun at Chelle's House as well. Now onto a few of my favorites!

1) From Life with Moore Babies: The Paper Bag Princess and Fizzing Rocks (Love the lesson being taught and in such a fun way!)
2) From Gift of Curiosity: Easter Egg Sound Matching Game (What a fun way to learn about sounds and more!)
3) From Teaching Little Ones at Home: Celtic Knot Cross (Ok, as a former geometry teacher, love Celtic knots and what a great tutorial!)
4) From ArtClubBlog: Origami Flowers (Aren't these pretty?)
5) From Mama of Many Blessings: Fun Ways to teach the REAL Meaning of Easter (Great ideas!! Sorry I couldn't grab a picture from it!)

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! If you were one of the ones picked as a feature here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog.

Button Code:

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My Week in Review: This week I shared Raisel's Riddle--A Jewish Cinderella, our Resurrection Garden with peg dolls, our French day--food, What the Ladybug Heard with ladybug crafts, and Teaching children to manage money.

 

Now for This Week's Party 
 
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1)  Please follow Crafty Moms Share and Having Fun at Chelle's House via GFC (or one of the other ways that work for you).  

2)  Link any kid-friendly, child-centered post. Please no etsy shops or giveaways, etc.  Remember to link to your actual post. 

3) Post the newly updated button on your sidebar or somewhere on your blog to help spread the word.

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A Day in France--Around the World in 12 Dishes

This month we are "traveling" to France with some dishes, crafts and stories. Won't you join us?

Coloring Pages Available at DLTK

Wednesdays are our day to catch up with life and relax since it is the day between Hazel's two school days. This Wednesday we didn't have plans, so we decided to explore France a bit. I had gotten some books out of the library about French cooking. We decided to look at the Fiesta one.

This is a fun series which focuses on celebrations in countries. Each book introduces the country with a map and things about the different parts. There is always something about the religion as well and then it gets into holidays and festivals. The first recipe we found was for Croque Monsieur (or what I call a grilled ham and cheese sandwich). Hazel asked for a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch and I asked if she wanted ham as well on it. She of course did since she has my love of ham. 

Then we saw a recipe for a French Apple Tart. Now apple pie is Steven's favorite dessert, so we decided we had to try it. Before going to the store to get the ingredients I looked for some French themed crafts and found some great ones over at DLTK's Kids including a recipe for a food her family had while in France, so we decided to try it for dinner as well. We went out to run errands and stopped at AAA for a tour book on France and some maps. They gave us a tour book for Europe since they did not have one on just France and some maps. We haven't had time to look at them yet, so look for our follow-up post on our "trip" to France. We also stopped at the library for some French stories. Again, look for details in our follow-up post. Today it is about the food!

We made the French Apple Tart first. My little baker loved helping with cutting the butter and controlling the mixer. She also tried to peel the apples, but had a bit of difficulty. The recipe for the tart came from the Fiesta! France book. It was very simple and delicious! 

Next we made the tartiflette.The recipe came from DLTK Kids. I used of course fat free sour cream and reduced fat cream cheese and fat free mozzarella. The only cheese of the three choices listed our store had was Gruyere. I wish I had shredded it. It did not melt well, but the meal was still delicious!!

We also discovered at DLTK Kids that the rooster is the national animal of France and the iris is the national flower. We also got all the coloring pages from that link.

The France coloring placemat right here and the passport right here. Also check out these great French adventures and add your own here.

Teaching about Money--Savings, Charity and Spending

Piggy Bank (Source)

Well for Easter, my mother-in-law hid plastic Eater eggs for Hazel. Some had Lindt white chocolate truffles in them and some had money. Steve and I thought nothing of the money since we assumed they would be coins, however she put bills in them. One even had a $5 bill. (I should also note that she has already given Hazel a $5 bill as well as all of her change.) We decided it was time to talk about money with Hazel. I should also add we have two savings accounts for Hazel. One is money we received as gifts (mostly when she was a baby) and the other is one we opened recently and I have put some spare money in it as well as we take her piggy banks and deposit it there. Hazel went with me to open the account and received a piggy bank similar to the one pictured above (but it is blue and has the bank name on it). They have a change counting machine that is free if you have an account, so we always take the piggy bank there.

It just so happened that I browsed the used book store last week and found a copy of Three Cups by Mark St. Germain. I had picked it up to think about and then ended up buying it without thinking about it. I guess it was God's way of saying I would need it and I did.  This book tells about how Mark St. Germain's parents introduced money to him. They gave him three cups for his fifth birthday. One was for spending, one for charity and one for savings. They helped him figure out how much of each allowance should go into each one. He wrote this book to explain the method and to use with his own son. 

On Sunday I read the story to Hazel and asked her if she wanted to have three cups like the boy in the story. She did. So we set them up. I grabbed three mugs from our spare mugs and we labeled them with sticky paper and tape. I let her pick the colors for the labels. Then we divided the bills among the cups. The next day we took the savings cup and her two piggy banks (we left her quarter supply since she uses those for rides at local malls and stores) to the bank to deposit in her savings account. The book went into how the bank paid you to keep your money there. 

The bank is next to Target, and we needed to do an exchange there, so we headed in. While looking through the toys and such she kept seeing things she wanted. We talked about how we can put them on her wish list (I keep one on Amazon as well as in Pinterest, so I can easily send it to family members) or she can save her spending money for an item.

The final cup is the charity cup. Trying to explain charity to a four-year-old is not really easy. She knows we have gathered clothes and toys for children in need at her birthday parties, but I don't think she really gets it. And right now I am about to kick-off our stewardship campaign at church including lessons for the Sunday School classes, so I have had a lot of charity and giving on my mind. I found a book at Amazon, The Giving Book by Ellen Sabin. This book explains about charity and really works as a journal for children to explore giving and helping throughout the world. It includes stories and things to explain situations as well as places for the children to draw, write and record.

I am going to introduce this book to her as her charity cup begins to fill a bit more.

We have decided to start an allowance for Hazel. I think we will be giving it in change so she can divide it among her three cups. How have you handled money with your young children? What age did you start? What has worked for you?

Virtual Book Club for Kids-- What the Ladybug Heard

Congratulations to Trisha over at Inspiration Laboratories for winning The Gruffalo books by this month's author, Julia Donaldson! Over the last two weeks we have shared activities to go with Julia Donaldson's books: Room on the Broom and The Snail and the Whale. This week we are going to share What the Ladybug Heard. Now this book is written in rhyme like so many of Julia Donaldson's books. And of course we love it, but I will admit we are drawn to ladybugs right now since that is Hazel's symbol at school.

This story goes through the animals on a farm.

The ladybug did not say a word, but she saw and heard. She heard two crooks plan to steal the prize cow. She talks to tell the other animals about it and her plan to stop them.

The ladybug's plan involved tricking the crooks into where they were on the farm by having other animals make different sounds. The duck mooed so they ended up in the pond. We gathered the animals so she could act out the story. I also made a sort of match game. You can match the animals or the animals sounds or you can use them to sequence the story.

Source: Everything Ladybug!

 Since the hero of this story is the ladybug, we looked a bit up about ladybugs. To start we found the life cycle of the ladybug at Everything Ladybug! We also discovered why farmers like ladybugs. They eat the aphids which eat and damage crops. The ladybugs coloring is meant to be unattractive to its predators. They can secrete a foul tasting fluid from their legs. (Source)

We also did some ladybug crafts. We made some using construction paper, glue, a brad, googly eyes and a piece of pipe cleaner. Hazel likes these since the wings move. We were inspired by For the Children.

We did a similar one with paper plates as well. We painted one red and one black and used a brad again. We were inspired by Learning Ideas - Grades K - 8.

Then we made egg carton ladybugs which were inspired by Crafts by Amanda and by Scribbled.com.

I have pinned some other ideas for ladybug crafts including a cute snack. If you are interested in seeing more of them, check out my Bugs Board.It includes a song for this book, dominoes from the publisher, and more!

Now it is your turn to share an activity for a Julia Donaldson book! Just link up to this blog hop. Also since April has begun, I will let you know the next author is David Shannon! Join us on the 15th for his books!