Folktales and Fairy Tales from Western Europe {Part 1}

We’re reading around the world through folktales as we follow our geography topics from our homeschool co-op. Next stop, Western Europe! This was an overwhelming region as there are HUNDREDS of traditional stories thanks to the giants of folktales, you may have heard of them– the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault! To tame the overwhelm by 15% I decided to focus our first few weeks on France (Perrault) and Switzerland. My next post will zero in on the Grimm’s tales that aren’t too “grim” for young readers.

Oh, and to backtrack, if you’re wondering how I introduced geography to my Kinder Bookworm, I wrote a post of our favorite map skills books, and I’m working on a roundup of our favorite geography reference books (do you follow along on FB or insta for updates??)

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France:

Charles Perrault’s Fairy Tales

There are technically 11 tales attributed to Charles Perrault, dating back to the mid-late 1600s. But, these could keep us busy for an entire year, I reckon, considering all of the “fractured fairy tales” to be explored! The stories I decided to focus on for my Kinder and Preschooler were Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, The Fairies (we read a version titled Toads and Diamonds), and Puss in Boots.

For all the folktale purists out there, note that some of Perrault’s tales were reworked by the Brothers Grimm, but Perrault’s predate those versions by 100 years. So, you’ll see some versions of Perrault’s tales being attributed to Brothers Grimm. How’s that for muddy waters?