When reading to children, one of the most popular go-to stories that parents choose to share are nursery rhymes. Nursery rhymes are old favorites that many parents remember from their own childhood. Many nursery rhymes are hundreds of years old, and there is a reason why these stories have stuck around and become classics. For thousands of years, even before the written word, stories were told orally and the best way to remember such stories was through song and rhyme. Putting a story to a tune, especially if the lines rhyme, helps with memory, which is why stories were shared like this before they could be written down and well after that.
Nursery rhymes today can be beneficial for children in many ways, and for many of the reasons listed below.
Brain Food
Not only are nursery rhymes a great way to acquaint children with language, but the mnemonic devices inherent in their structure can help bolster your child’s memory skills as well. According to Kay Vandergrift, Professor Emerita of Children’s Literature at Rutgers University, nursery rhymes are often a child’s first interaction or experience with literacy. Even if children cannot sit down and read a book on their own, the sing-song rhyming of nursery rhymes helps activate the parts of their brain that are active while learning and actively reading.
Cultural Significance
Nursery rhymes have become a staple of Western Culture, and many other parts of the world have their own equivalent songs and stories that have been passed down for centuries and generations. Since nursery rhymes are common among older generations, they provide a great way for families to bond and form a sense of shared understanding.
They’re fun!
You don’t really need a study to tell you that singing is fun, but when children are able to sing along and share the experience with others, it can be a great learning and social experience. This is why nursery rhymes are so popular at daycares and schools. The children can learn the rhymes and songs, sing along together, and sometimes even participate in dancing and re-enactments, such as the hand-holding and spinning that goes along with “Ring Around the Rosie”
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| Nursery Rhymes Personalized Book and Music |
Nursery rhymes can be even more fun if they’re personalized, and KD Novelties offers a book and CD that can offer that experience. The Mother Goose Personalized Book and Music set puts a unique spin on the nursery rhymes that we all know and love by putting your child on an adventure to help Mother Goose find her way home. Along the way, they take part in nursery rhymes and meet Humpty Dumpty, the Cat and the Fiddle, Little Miss Muffet and many more favorite characters in this classic tale.
Oral storytelling has been a part of human culture since the very beginning, and nursery rhymes helps perpetuate that tradition while also teaching kids about language, boosting their memory, and getting their brains working. Sharing nursery rhymes with your kids will not only bring memories back of your own childhood, but you will be actively making new memories with your children as well.
