While I was working on my "Fair" post, the words to the following nursery rhyme kept running through my head:
Simple Simon met a pieman going to the fair;
Said Simple Simon to the pieman "Let me taste your ware"
Said the pieman to Simple Simon "Show me first your penny"
Said Simple Simon to the pieman "Sir, I have not any!"
Which makes me wonder: WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR NURSERY RHYMES?
We cut our teeth on these things. I LOVED them - - - shoot, I still do!!!
But I doubt if kids today would even recognize one line of any of them. What happened?
Another sad loss, I say!
27 comments:
Hey, I know that one!
I think many have been replaced by political correctness, which is to misinterpret the original meaning of the text, but I won't decry the sad state of public education. I won't. I won't.
I don't think this loss is coming from public education - - - I did NOT learn my nursery rhymes in school. I learned them in little books at home.
Somehow, they have lost popularity, and those little nursery rhyme books aren't being read to children any more.
I think I should FIND a good nursery rhyme book and BUY it for my grandchildren - - - that way THEY at least could know these great little poems.
I just have to remember to find that book!!!!
Keri, do you have that fat book of rhymes that Peepaw and Grandma bought for you kids when you were little? It had some of those nursery rhymes in it I believe.
I read nursery rhymes to my girls. Braylen learned a lot of the popular ones at preschool as well. When I taught first grade (before becomming a mommy) I was always amazed that my students had never heard some of them!!. I do not know the one you mentioned though! Hmmmm...I need to branch out and read some that are not familiar to me!!
Oh Carmen, look that one up. I only quoted the first "verse." It's called "Simple Simon"
I did find a site (first try) that gives nursery rhymes and their lyrics. I think I just googled Nursery Rhymes.
No I don't have that book but I wish I did!!
Hmmmmm I wonder where it is. I'll have to try to find it.
It's so funny you should mention this. I was just at a baby shower and one of the games we played was to fill in blanks of nursery rhymes. Most of us didn't do very well. (But it was fun. I just made up stuff when I didn't know!)
I'm not sure why it's the case, but it seems to me that nursery rhymes don't play the same role that they used to. There are so many other things aimed at children these days.
Speaking of losses - so sad about Notre Dame !! heh heh!!
My mother-in-law gave our kids Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes when they were little. We read, read, read, and re-read it. BUT some of the nursery rhymes are kind of strange when you think about them.
My favorite is "please don't throw me in that briar patch"....I don't have that one but I found a "Grimm's and Andersen's "Fairy Tales". It has "Cinderella" "The Ugly Duckling" "Little Red Riding Hood" "The princess and the Pea" "Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs" "The Emperor's new Clothes" "Hans Christian Andersen".It's a new book...I wonder if the tales have been changed? hmmmmm????? Will forward it to Macky Doodle & Piper Nae.
Oh yes, and Kae also. In fact she is at the age where she will really enjoy these "tales" now. Won't be long till she'll be reading them to the other two. The are all three so cute together.
Kathy, most of the nursery rhymes have their basis in actual historic events, but since the history part isn't remembered, then the "strange" part is just - - - well - - - STRANGE.
Grammy, those are Fairy Tales, which are a close cousin to Nursery Rhymes.
As an early childhood/elementary educator, I will try not to get on my high horse about this topic- but it IS a shame we do not see much of these any more. From an educational perspective, these rhymes are good at teaching fluency, repetitiveness, beginning sounds, and ending sounds. Not to mention that many stories now a days are based on original nursery rhymes and fairy tales but if the child is unfamiliar with the original, the new one won't make sense!
K- I am off my high horse!
Thanks for your blog ;)
Heather - - - I rather LIKED your high horse, since I love nursery rhymes and am sad that kids aren't learning them.
Awwww...dumb me....rhymes as in...."this little piggy". Guess I'll have to throw the book away or maybe give it to Goodwill!!!!
LOL Grammy!!! Don't throw it away!
Surprisingly, Mackinley has always had more interest in these things than Kaeleigh. She's more hands-on and Macky is more literal.
I LOVE nursery rhymes and I would LOVE to read them to my children, but now-a-days the books are all different, they've changed the words like Char said. I would rather my kids not learn them than learn these new messed up ones. Maybe I'll find an old book of rhymes at a Garage Sale or something.
Of course, I am going to send it & I will also look for rhyme books too. That's interesting isn't it, that Macky is more interested in books. I'll bet it's because you always read to him and that's a good thing!!!
I'll look for the rhyme books also. I found this Fairy Tale book at the grocery here in Madison.
Keri - - - it isn't as good as a book in your hand, but there are a lot of sites online that give the nursery rhymes AND the history of what they mean.
Oh Grammy - - - the FAIRY TALES are just as good - - - don't throw them away!!!!!
Greg used to do a little sermon using Fairy Tales as his "text!"
Ahhhh...I'll bet that would be a neat sermon. He, Jeany & ME, liked Dr. Suess!!! I can still here them laughing and in fact still have "The Hat and the Cat" book. Wish now I would kept all of them.
It depends on what the kids are taught. Some do know nursery rhymes.
What about fairy tales? What kid knows, say, "Cinderella," except for maybe the Disney version? Or "Three Little Pigs," or "Goldilocks"?
Or what kid now has heard, or read, "Winnie the Pooh?" There's been a giant culture shift.
We homeschool, so we read ALL the classics. Although some "classics" are so lame we've thrown them out.
Gulliver's Travels? Gag
Moby Dick? Yawn
Vanity Fair? Oh stop preaching and just tell us the story, please.
And Mother Goose? Well, depends on the rhyme. Frankly, I'm not too enthralled with lullabies that include babies falling out of trees or pumpkin headed idiots that lock their wives up...
I know, I know, it's terrible!
Woooo Hoooo - - - I stirred up some talk on this one, didn't I?
And WHAT about poor old Humpty Dumpty????? That was my all time 1st grade favorite!
I wonder if he ever tried to sit on that wall ever ever ever again!?!
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