The paper emphasizes the need in differentiated cultural historical analysis of children’s development in the contemporary social and cultural stratification of the Russian society. The latter requires an analysis of different cultural and historical environments that are specific for different social strata, subcultural formations which are specified step by step in a particular family where the child is reared.

The paper focuses on analyzing cultural historical and social situations with the development of contemporary children (5.5 to 7 years old) in high-resource families of mid-upper social stratum living in the metropolis areas. On the basis of the empirical data receives within a particular family structure the child’s character is discussed on a par with his qualities which are most desirable, emphasized by parents and associated with the priorities of the group, according to which parents chose the way of developing their child. The discussion focuses on the strategies of child development in one of the most prestigious preschool educational institutions: the credo of the institution is analyzed, the main teaching strategies using the «fairy tales» are highlighted, the nature of the typical relationship between teachers and children in the institution is emphasized. Narrative allows to single out features of child perception and “recycling” this educational technology.

The results obtained make it possible to identify major areas of risk in the emotional and personal development of children in this group supported by the ill-conceived teaching strategies, and they provide an opportunity to understand the obtained data in the wider cultural and historical perspective.