A Fairy-Tale for Your Little Child

A recollection from my childhood: there are lots of book in my grandfather’s bookcase, 7 volumes of fairy-tales from all over the world being among them. In those days, I read many stories from different countries. And now, when I am a mummy myself and read books to my daughter, I thought it would be nice to share a Russian fairy-tale with the readers of our blog.

The fairy-tale published in this post is one of the first fairy-tales which is read to a little one. The idea of it is repetition of the action for the toddler to remember the words. I also like the moral of it. Frankly speaking, I got it only when I started reading it to my daughter – I had never thought of the idea of that story before . If English is not the mother-tongue of your baby, you can use the story below for teaching him English. The story is meant for the beginning level (about 50-100 words are used in it and the grammar is very simple). That is what I do – I read this story to my daughter (12 months old now) in English and because of frequent repetitions of the words she feels the rythm, intonation and remembers the words of the language foreign to her.

We hope your little one(s) and you will enjoy “The Bun”:

“One day the old man says to his wife, “Please, bake me a bun.” The old woman takes some flour, some sour cream, some butter and some water, and makes a bun. She puts it on the windowsill to cool.

But the bun cannot sit on the windowsill! It jumps from the windowsill to the bench, from the bench to the floor, from the floor to the door, and runs away.

The bun runs along the road and meets a hare. “Little bun, little bun, I want to eat you!” says the hare. “I ran away from Grandfather, I ran away from Grandmother. And I can run away from you, little hare!” sings the bun and runs away.

The bun runs along the road and meets a wolf. “Little bun, little bun, I want to eat you!” says the wolf. “I ran away from Grandfather, I ran away from Grandmother, I ran away from the hare. I can run away from you, grey wolf!” sins the bun and runs away.

The bun runs along the road and meets a bear. “Little bun, little bun, I want to eat you!” says the bear. “I ran away from Grandfather, I ran away from Grandmother, I ran away from the hare, I ran away from the wolf. I can run away from you, big bear!” sins the bun and runs away.

The bun runs along the road and meets a fox. “Oh, little bun, how wonderful and rosy you are!” The bun is very happy to be admired. He starts singing his song, “I ran away from Grandfather, I ran away from Grandmother, I ran away from the hare, I ran away from the wolf, I ran away from the bear”.

“What a nice song it should be!” says the fox. “But , little bun, I am old and I cannot hear you well. Sit on my nose and sing your song again.” The bun jumps onto the fix’s nose, starts singing and the fox… opens its mouth and eats it.”

When I was a child, I felt sorry for the bun. But was not he punished right? The fairy-tale depicts how wrong it is to be selfish and enjoy flattery.

Anastasia

Translation

by N. Naumova (with some changes by Anastasia)

Illustration s to the fairy-tale

Pic. by A. Kuznetsov

First published by “Iris-press” in 2009

Next time we will share with you a recipe of a cake for the first birthday of the child – especially for him!