Sleeping Beauty Inspires Play-of-the-Day
Snuggle under a cozy blanket in case you get sleepy after reading the story of Sleeping Beauty and need a nap. Then wake up for some stimulating fun and play.
Sleeping Beauty was cursed by a wicked fairy who was left off the guest list. On her sixteenth birthday, Sleeping Beauty would prick her finger on a spinning wheel and sleep for a hundred years. Despite a royal decree that destroyed all spinning wheels, she found one at the crucial moment and fell asleep until she was awakened by a prince. This is another traditional fairy tale with dozens of versions in books. If you do not have one at home, you can tell the story in your own words.
With the time change coming up, this story is very timely, pardon the pun. The sense of time develops slowly for kids and needs lots of experiences. With your child, talk about some of the words that we use for time, like second, minute, hour, day, week, month, and year. You can get an idea of your child’s level of understanding by asking questions such as which is longer a minute or a day? Or, which is shorter, a day or a week? Take a walk thru the house to see all the clocks there are. Which one is biggest? Which is the smallest?
Although there is no wolf in this story, he often makes an appearance in fairy tales. There’s a fun game about time that kids can play outside or inside in a big space called What Time Is It Mr. Wolf? Kids line up at one end, with a wolf in the middle. The kids ask the wolf “What time is it, Mr. Wolf? The wolf replies with various times and the kids take that number of steps. For 3 o-clock, kids would take 3 steps and so on. At some point, the wolf calls out “It’s lunch time!” and the kids all run away while he tries to catch them, although pigs are really his favorites.
After playing the game, everyone might need a nap. Sweet dreams.