When you sing nursery rhymes to your children, you may be telling the same poems and tales that, in some form, were told by firelight from parents to their children centuries ago, perhaps even as far back as the Middle Ages. Determining the origins of these famous tales before they were written down is impossible, but many have made guesses about their early roots. “Ring Around the Rosy” may refer to the swollen cysts that afflicted the sick during the Black Death. You might be recalling an ancient Welsh king in “Old King Cole” who drowned in a swamp 1700 years ago, and in “Little Miss Muffet” the daughter of a bug expert in Shakespearean England, or a queen beheaded for her Catholic faith in “Mary Mary Quite Contrary.” These stories have undergone so many changes over the centuries that these meanings –if they did originate in these long-ago dark circumstances –are mostly obscured.
Benefits of Nursery Rhymes
Why rhymes are important for my child\Importance of nursery rhymes
1.Language Development:
When children hear nursery rhymes, they hear the sounds vowels and consonants make. They learn how to put these sounds together to make words.
They also practice pitch, volume, and voice inflection, as well as the rhythm of language.For example, listen to how you sound when you ask questions. Do you sound different whenyou tell a story?In nursery rhymes, children hear new wordsthat they would not hear in everyday language
(like fetch and pail in “Jack and Jill went up thehill to fetch a pail of water”).Nursery rhymes areshort and easy t0 repeat, so they become some of a child’s first sentence.
2.Cognitive Development:
Since nursery rhymes are patterns, they help children learn easy recall and memorization.Nursery rhymes usually tell a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. This teaches children that events happen in sequence, and they begin to learn how to understand stories and follow along.Nursery rhymes use patterns and sequence,so children begin to learn simple math skills as they recite them. Many rhymes also use numbers, counting, and other math words that
children need to learn, such as size and weight.Nursery rhymes also introduce alliteration
(“Goosie Goosie Gander”), onomatopoeia (“Baa Baa Black Sheep”), and imaginative imagery.
Children hear these rhymes and act out what they imagine the characters are doing.
3.Physical Development
Children develop their mouth and tongue muscles by using the different sounds in the
rhyme.Rhymes that involve movement help withcoordination.In dramatic play, children use their whole bodies to act out the nursery rhymes they hear.
4.Social/Emotional Development
Sharing nursery rhymes provides a safe and secure bond between parents and children.
Positive physical touch between a parent and a child or between children, for example,
during clapping rhymes, is important for social development. Funny nursery rhymes allow children to develop a sense of humor. Nursery rhyme characters experience many different emotions. This can help children identify their own emotions and understand the real emotions of others. When children act out the nursery rhyme stories they hear, they learn to imagine, be creative, and express themselves.
Benefits of Nursery Rhymes
- They are good for the brain. Not only does the repetition of rhymes and stories teach children how language works, it also builds memory capabilities that can be applied to all sorts of activities. Furthermore, as Vandergrift points out, nursery rhyme books are often a child’s first experience with literacy: "Even before they can read, children can sit and learn how a book works." This extends to the pictures and music associated with nursery rhymes: it is a full visual and oral experience.
- .Nursery rhymes preserve a culture that spans generations, providing something in common among parents, grandparents and kids—and also between people who do not know each other. Seth Lerer, Humanities Professor at the University of California San Diego and expert in the history of children’s literature, says that reading nursery rhymes to kids is, in part, "to participate in a long tradition … it’s a shared ritual, there’s almost a religious quality to it."
- They are a great group activity. Susie Tallman, who has put out several award-winning nursery rhymes CDs, and is also a nursery school music teacher, describes how singing nursery rhymes allows all kids—even shy ones—to feel confident about singing, dancing and performing because they are so easy to grasp and fun: "It builds confidence right in front of my eyes," she says. "They really see the connection between movement, rhythm and words." She has also had kids of different ages collaborate on making music videos for their favorite nursery rhymes.
- .Most important is that they are fun to say. Lerer downplays the life lessons that some rhymes contain, arguing that while parents might consider them important, children probably do not register them. He remembers how as a kid he had no idea what "Peas porridge hot/peas porridge cold" meant but that "he just loved the way it sounded." One should not let any supposed deeper meanings or origins to nursery rhymes obscure their true value: the joy of a child’s discovery of an old, shared language.
Why rhymes are important for my child\Importance of nursery rhymes
1.Language Development:
When children hear nursery rhymes, they hear the sounds vowels and consonants make. They learn how to put these sounds together to make words.
They also practice pitch, volume, and voice inflection, as well as the rhythm of language.For example, listen to how you sound when you ask questions. Do you sound different whenyou tell a story?In nursery rhymes, children hear new wordsthat they would not hear in everyday language
(like fetch and pail in “Jack and Jill went up thehill to fetch a pail of water”).Nursery rhymes areshort and easy t0 repeat, so they become some of a child’s first sentence.
2.Cognitive Development:
Since nursery rhymes are patterns, they help children learn easy recall and memorization.Nursery rhymes usually tell a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. This teaches children that events happen in sequence, and they begin to learn how to understand stories and follow along.Nursery rhymes use patterns and sequence,so children begin to learn simple math skills as they recite them. Many rhymes also use numbers, counting, and other math words that
children need to learn, such as size and weight.Nursery rhymes also introduce alliteration
(“Goosie Goosie Gander”), onomatopoeia (“Baa Baa Black Sheep”), and imaginative imagery.
Children hear these rhymes and act out what they imagine the characters are doing.
3.Physical Development
Children develop their mouth and tongue muscles by using the different sounds in the
rhyme.Rhymes that involve movement help withcoordination.In dramatic play, children use their whole bodies to act out the nursery rhymes they hear.
4.Social/Emotional Development
Sharing nursery rhymes provides a safe and secure bond between parents and children.
Positive physical touch between a parent and a child or between children, for example,
during clapping rhymes, is important for social development. Funny nursery rhymes allow children to develop a sense of humor. Nursery rhyme characters experience many different emotions. This can help children identify their own emotions and understand the real emotions of others. When children act out the nursery rhyme stories they hear, they learn to imagine, be creative, and express themselves.
