This is a great list of stories to tell your children! 

You may think that some stories in this list can be scary for your children, but remember, as Miss Marcie says in her article about the importance of storytelling, «What is important to know is that a child will only imagine a picture in his mind that’s as scary as he can handle. For example: if we tell the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff a three-year-old might imagine a troll that’s not much more than a blob, whereas a six-year-old might imagine a hairy, ugly troll with big teeth and ears. A Waldorf teacher will tell a fairy tale to young children with a gentle, pleasant voice, without over-dramatization. Again this leaves the child’s imagination free to picture the story to be as scary or as benign as he can handle.»

The following list has been compiled by Megan Young from Carnegie Rudolf Steiner Pre-School Centre Inc. and they appear in You Are Your Child`s First Teacher by Rahima Baldwin. Her section on Fairy tales and the Young Child is well worth reading (pp. 172-181) Most of the stories are from the Grimm Brothers.

 

Key to age suitability

• Kinder (4 to 7 years old)
• Class (7-8 years old)

Simple or sequential stories

Kinder

• Sweet Porridge  (Grimm)
• Goldilocks and the Three Bears
• Little Tuppen.
• Little Louse and Little Flee
• The Turnip 
• The Mitten
• Little Madam
• Gingerbread Man
• The Jonny Cake
• The Hungry Cat

Slightly more complex stories

Kinder

• Billy Goats Gruff
• Three Little Pigs
• The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids (Grimm)
• Masenka and the Bear
• The Shoemaker and the Elves (Grimm)

More Challenge and More Detail

Kinder

• Star Money (Grimm)
• The Frog Prince (Grimm)
• Mother Holle (Grimm)
• Little Red Cap (Grimm)
• The Bremen Town Musicians (Grimm)
• Little- Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty) (Grimm)
• The Donkey (Grimm)
• The Queen Bee (Grimm)
• The Snow Maiden 
• The Seven Ravens (Grimm)
• Rumpelstiltskin (Grimm)
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (Grimm)

Class 1

• The Golden Goose (Grimm)
• Spindle, Shuttle, and Needle (Grimm)
• The Hut in the Forest (Grimm)
• Snow White and Rose Red (Grimm)

Classes 1 and 2 

• Hansel and Gretel (Grimm)

Tales that have a personal experience of suffering or sorrow

Six years old in Kindergarten or Class 1- to match their sense of departure from the heart of early childhood

Kinder and Class 1

Rapunzel

Class 1

• Jordina and Joringa (Grimm)    
• Brother and Sister (Grimm)   

Class 1 and 2

• Cinderella