This is the joy of Curious George, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, How Do Dinosaurs series, Granny Torelli Makes Soup, Mop Top, The Pigeon Doesn't Want to Take a Bath etc. Lots of watching people be naughty and figuring out if we behave like that. Kids find it so relatable but if the plot isn't FUN and organic it is a real bore.
I see your point of view as a moral compass quandary, but the heart of Curious George is he is a preschooler. I take his moral choices as that of a preschooler unintentionally causing chaos.
He frequently tries to fix his mistakes, morally good, but messes up further (morally neutral). He is really quite relatable and not truly naughty as long as you view him as developmentally a preschooler.
Speaking of shaping imaginations, do you have recommendations for pictures books that would help shape a little boy's sense of virtue? Trying to train him up rightly, to protect and serve, and love, and it is honestly kind of hard to find books that encourage that.
Wonderful resource! Love it! Also I’m reminded how books give us great parent tips as well:
“Pa asks the right question: “Do you know what people have to do to anyone they can’t trust?” “
Love it! Putting that line in my parenting tool kit.
I have used that line a few times, too. Pa is so wise!
This is the joy of Curious George, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, How Do Dinosaurs series, Granny Torelli Makes Soup, Mop Top, The Pigeon Doesn't Want to Take a Bath etc. Lots of watching people be naughty and figuring out if we behave like that. Kids find it so relatable but if the plot isn't FUN and organic it is a real bore.
My kids love Curious George, but I tend to hide these books. He always runs away from trouble he caused and somehow ends up as the hero!
I see your point of view as a moral compass quandary, but the heart of Curious George is he is a preschooler. I take his moral choices as that of a preschooler unintentionally causing chaos.
He frequently tries to fix his mistakes, morally good, but messes up further (morally neutral). He is really quite relatable and not truly naughty as long as you view him as developmentally a preschooler.
That is a helpful way to think of him! I will give him another chance :)
Speaking of shaping imaginations, do you have recommendations for pictures books that would help shape a little boy's sense of virtue? Trying to train him up rightly, to protect and serve, and love, and it is honestly kind of hard to find books that encourage that.
I think this will have to be my next book list! Off the top of my head:
The Kitchen Knight
St. George and the Dragon (by Margaret Hodges)
The Boy Who Held Back the Sea
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
Pink and Say
The Bravest Man in the World