The Tale of the Snow Maiden, or Safety Lessons for Your Kids

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

Winter in children is associated with snow, sleds, snowballs, Santa Claus and his beautiful granddaughter Snegurochka. At this time, New Year's miracles traditionally happen, long-awaited gifts materialize under the tree. And in the evenings it’s good to get together with the whole family and listen to fairy tales about the Snow Maiden. With their help, children will learn a number of important lessons in an unobtrusive way.

Folk tale about the Snow Maiden

For the first time Alexander Afanasiev writes about this winter character in 1867. He collected folklore, so he included the fairy tale in his work "Poetic Views of the Slavs on Nature". According to this version, the Snow Maiden was made of snow by the childless spouses Ivan and Marya. With their ardent desire to have children, they revived the girl. She became their daughter, grew up in one winter, got girlfriends. The parents couldn't be happier, but the blush never appeared on the snow girl's cheeks.

With the onset of spring, she became sad, did not go out. Ivan and Marya were afraid thatdaughter got sick. They persuaded the Snow Maiden to go with her friends to the forest. The girl obeyed them. She spent the whole day by the cold stream. But in the evening, the children began to jump over the fire and persuaded the Snow Maiden to take part in the general fun. She jumped and melted. Turned into a cloud of steam.

What does history teach?

Despite the sad ending, it is very useful to read the fairy tale about the Snow Maiden to children. With its help, you can learn several important lessons at once.

1. Before you do something, think about whether it is dangerous. You can't go along with friends, even if they persuade you and tease you.
2. People's bodies are built differently. Therefore, what is harmless to one child may be harmful to another.
3. Don't listen to adults mindlessly. The Snow Maiden went with her friends and did not tell her parents that she did not feel well in the sun. This led to disaster. If something hurts you, you should definitely tell your mom and dad about it.

The fairy tale "The Snow Maiden Girl" by V. I. Dahl

Safety lessons can be continued, this time offering the child an example of the correct behavior in a difficult situation. To do this, let's read the author's fairy tale about the Snow Maiden, written by Vladimir Dal. It starts like this: an old man and an old woman make a girl out of snow, who comes to life. But then the stories diverge.

The important character of Dahl's fairy tale is the Bug. Out of the kindness of her heart, she lets the fox spend the night in the barn. Sly Patrikeevna eats chickens. For this, the old man kicks the bug out of the house. A little later the Snow Maiden,going with her girlfriends into the woods, she gets lost. She climbs a tree to find her way home.

A bear, a wolf and a fox appear in turn at the edge of the forest, offering their help. But the Snow Maiden refuses to go down to them, as she is afraid of being eaten. Finally, a bug comes running, whom the girl trusts. The kind dog scares away the animals by barking and brings the Snow Maiden back to the old people. They happily allow the Bug to live in the house again.

Who can you trust?

Dal's Tale is an excellent occasion to talk with children about the concepts of "ours" and "strangers". Many children tend to trust all adults, especially if they are polite and call themselves friends of their parents. Experiments show that only in one case out of 20 will a junior student refuse to carry a bag to an unfamiliar grandmother or scream when a strange aunt takes him by the hand and leads him along.

The fairy tale about the Snow Maiden shows with specific examples what this can lead to. The wolf and the bear promised the girl their help, but in fact they wanted to eat her. The fox pretended to be kind, tried to lure the Snow Maiden with cunning. So a stranger can seem good, praise the child, promise gifts. But in reality, he may be up to no good.

The Snow Maiden trusted only Zhuchka, whom she knew well. And she did the right thing. Be sure to discuss with the baby a circle of people whom he can unconditionally trust: parents, grandparents, aunt. Explain who to contact if the child is in danger. These are policemen, sellers andsecurity guards in the store, on duty at subway stations, as well as women with children.

Reading fairy tales about the beautiful and kind Snow Maiden will teach kids to be careful, and also create a New Year's mood. Don't miss the opportunity to introduce children to the dangers in a playful way.