Four Animal Fables For Children
Animal fables are still a means of teaching our children certain lessons. You have probably already read a fable by Aesop or perhaps told it to your children.
Aesop’s animal fables
Aesop’s work is still important today and serves as an inspiration for many children’s stories and pictures. Aesop was a fabulous poet from ancient Greece and animals are the main characters in most of his stories.
Little is known about his life and some stories are only ascribed to him, but his legacy is known all over the world.
We would like to tell you some of his most famous animal stories. They convey important values that we adults can also apply in our lives.
1. Animal fables: the scorpion and the frog
The story of the scorpion and the frog (see also our cover picture) is certainly one of Aesop’s best-known fables. It starts with a frog in the river and a scorpion trying to cross it. In the beginning the frog doesn’t really want to help the scorpion because he is afraid that it will sting him.
The scorpion promises that it will not sting the frog, otherwise both would drown.
After they have crossed the river and almost arrive on the other bank, the scorpion stings. The frog asks, aghast, “How could you do that? Now we’re both dying! ” The Scorpio replies: “I just couldn’t avoid it, because it’s in my nature.”
The moral of the story? You must not lie to yourself by imagining that a person would act the same way you would act in their place. There are people who do the same thing over and over again without paying attention to the consequences of their behavior.
They are just like that, they will never change.
2. The lion and the mouse
This fable has a less bitter ending than the last. A lion sets out to hunt and catches a little mouse. This begs him not to eat her. The lion then takes pity on the little creature and lets it go free.
A little later the lion gets stuck in a net that some hunters have set up. He is afraid for his life and therefore asks for help. Suddenly the mouse appears that he had caught earlier and frees him by nibbling through the net with its sharp teeth. The lion then offers the mouse his friendship out of gratitude.
3. Tiefabeln: The cricket and the ant
This is another of the most important animal fables from Aesop’s legacy. The cricket was enjoying itself all summer long and not working. She preferred to sing and rest on the leaves instead.
When she was hungry, she asked her neighbor, the ant, for food. She was a tireless worker who was constantly collecting fruit and grains so that she had plenty of supplies in winter.
The cricket, on the other hand, made fun of the ant. She said the ant didn’t enjoy the summer at all and that it wasn’t really intelligent. When winter finally set in, it got freezing cold and the feed was no longer so easy to find.
Now the cricket couldn’t find anything to nibble on, so she knocked on her neighbor’s door, but during this time of year the ant just couldn’t help the cricket out. She didn’t have enough food for both of them and she scolded the crickets for their lazy behavior during the summer. She should have prepared better for winter!
You’ve probably heard this story before. Parents and teachers are particularly fond of sharing them to teach us that hard work is rewarded and laziness is punished.
4. The hare and the turtle
This is another story with a similar message.
One day the hare challenged the turtle to a race. Of course, the rabbit knew he was much faster than the turtle and so he took a nap on the way. When he woke up, the turtle had already reached its destination. Slowly and confidently, she had crept forward until she got there to win the race.
The moral of the story? Don’t give arrogance a chance! Often people, whom we don’t appreciate, get much further by moving forward bit by bit and being constant at the same time.
As you can see, the animal fables have important lessons that will help us throughout our lives. The humanized animals in these fables are very close to us and are a great way to teach important things to our children.
