Fairy stories.

A friend of ours has taken to writing stories for his grandchildren. And why not? They apparently enjoy them. He emailed us one to see what we thought of it. Lots of witches (good and bad), wizards (good and bad) and dragons (also good and bad). And, of course, a princess. A princess, moreover, brought up by good, loving common folk until the moment comes to reveal her true identity. Well, don't an awful lot of little girls think they are really princesses being brought up by common folk? I'm just a little surprised that our friend, who never struck me as a royalist, should go down that route, but life if full of surprises. 

 It's a good enough story, perhaps a little derivative - naming day for the little princess and good wishes given (by witches, not fairies) when the door slams open and the bad wizard is there on his dragon, demanding the princess! But there are really only so many scenarios you can put in a fairytale. I wonder if he plans to publish. Worse things have been published in their time. Of course, he doesn't have the advantage of being a duchess, married to one of the royal princes, but you can't have it all. At least his grandchildren are hearing stories, told by their grandfather, their imagination being stimulated, and not just staring at a screen. 

Mind you, opinion on that seems to be divided at the moment. There is a scientist who believes that children should be given iPads almost as soon as they are born. Tablets should be part of a baby's world from the start, she maintains, declaring that they provide more sensory stimulation for babies than books do. 

"They learn so fast on tablets. It is shocking how fast they learn – even faster than adults – to do things like scroll up and down text." These are her words. Really? They learn useful things like scrolling and texting? Texting before they can speak or read perhaps? The perfect excuse for the parents who hand over their iPhones to keep their toddlers quiet. You may have gathered that I am less than convinced! 

I am even less convinced when she goes on to say, “Books are static. When you observe babies with books, all they are interested in is the sound of the pages turning. Their visual system at that age is attracted by movement." She clearly has not seen our small granddaughter with books. From a very early age she sat and looked intently at picture books, progressing to pointing out individual items in the pictures. Only attracted by the movement, my eye! 

Of course babies are attracted by movement. A baby in its pram under a tree will watch the leaves moving. Mobiles (the things hanging from ceilings or above babies' cots, not the telephonic kind) are wonderful for keeping small babies happy. 

Don't get me wrong. I am all in favour of a bit of technology. It's just that I tend to agree with the child development people who recommend delaying its introduction into a child's life as long as possible and then limiting its use. Tiny minds need to be expanded, not blown! 

Keep on writing and telling those stories!