Yes, Nursery Rhymes Are Still Relevant!

Engaging in nursery rhymes playfully with your child is a great way to spend time together and strengthen the parent/child or caregiver/child bond. Kids love the silliness of the rhymes and the motions or sounds that they get to do. Simply put, nursery rhymes are really engaging for kids! Not only are these rhymes a fun way to play together, they actually pack a punch when it comes to educational benefits for your child. Being familiar with and engaging in play with nursery rhymes can actually help kids develop important early literacy skills, such as rhyme production, phonological and phonemic awareness, and vocabulary. We know that kids learn best through play, and playing with nursery rhymes is a wonderful way for young children to learn about sounds, words, and rhythm!

Here are some quick ideas to get you started with nursery rhyme play with kids birth-preschool age:

• Try singing a certain song or rhyme with daily activities. Incorporating play and song will actually make these transitions easier and more fun for your child!
  • “This is the way we…”: Use during handwashing or bathtime (“This is the way we wash our hands”, hair, arms, etc.)
  • “One, two, buckle my shoe”: Use when buckling your child in their carseat or high chair. 
  • “Do you know the Muffin Man”: Use while putting on mittens/gloves/coats/shoes (Try changing to “Do you know the mitten man?”)
• Try changing the words in the nursery rhyme: 
  • Toddlers and preschoolers love making songs silly and incorporating their name or their loved ones in songs! For example, older preschoolers may be able to come up with silly or nonsense words that still rhyme with the correct word “Row, row, row your goat/loat/zoat…” 
  • Try coming up with silly words that don’t rhyme: “Row, row, row your stroller/grandma/cat…” Simply playing around with the songs and rhymes is a great way to deepen your child’s early literacy skills!
• Any time you can connect songs/rhymes/learning to motions, more connections will be made in the brain! If a song doesn’t have motions, have fun making some up with your child.

Check out additional Nursery Rhyme resources for babies ages birth-2 HERE.

Check out additional Nursery Rhyme resources for toddlers and preschoolers ages 2-4 HERE.