What's the nation's favourite nursery rhyme? Are nursery rhymes dying out?

Apparently, it's Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, at least according to new research for National Bookstart Day, which offers a list of the most popular (you can see it below). They wouldn't be my top choices, although that may be because I favour them more for their tunes (a beautifully sung Little Boy Blue is a joy!) than their words...

I've always enjoyed telling nursery rhymes to my children, and they've enjoyed joining in, getting into the rhythm and starting off their journey into the world of books.

But apparently many parents now feel that nursery rhymes are too old-fashioned for their youngsters. Just over a third of those surveyed said they used rhymes with their kids, and almost a quarter admitted they had neversung a nursery rhyme with their child (which I find rather sad). And there is an age-gap problem too - younger people are far less likely to know the words to the rhymes.

In addition - and rather oddly - more than a fifth of those asked said they didn't use them because they were not considered "educational". Well, they may not teach you lots of facts or figures, but they do teach you about language, and stimulate your brain by remembering the words (and songs). And if you don't believe me, read what Professor Roger Beard, Head of Primary Education, Institute of Education, has to say:

"Sharing rhymes with young children is as important today as it ever was. It helps them to enjoy playing with language and to learn about its patterns and rhythms. Some favourite rhymes date back 200 years or more. For instance, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star has an enduring simplicity, while also allowing children and grown-ups to share in their wonderment about the night-time sky. The appeal of other rhymes, like Incey Wincey Spider, is probably linked to the simple actions that accompany them and which are easily shared with small children.’

The top ten rhymes across the UK:

1) Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

2) Incey Wincey Spider

3) Round and Round the garden

4) Baa Baa Black Sheep

5) The Grand Old Duke of York

6) If you're happy and you know it

7) Humpty Dumpty

8) This Little Piggy

9) Ring a Ring a Roses

10) I'm a Little Teapot

(What no Mary had a LIttle Lamb or Hey Diddle Diddle?!)

Read School Gate:

Are fairy tales too scary for kids?

The top 20 picture books

Comments

[Tracy]

A quarter had never done nursery rhymes with their children? That's truly sad.

I was surprised to learn that a local charity offered classes on how to read to your kids to low income mothers. I spoke with the woman who organized the classes and she said so many of the moms grew up with nobody reading to them and that there really were a lot of skills involved in reading to children/engaging them in rhymes and songs. Most of us learn these skills as children when our parents read to us, but if you've not had that experience you'll likely find it hard to engage a squirmy infant/toddler in a book or rhyme and give up.

The state I live in, Tennessee, sends a free book a month to every child age 0-5 as part of a scheme to promote literacy. I've been very please with the variety they've sent, including a few books of nursery rhymes and other children's poetry. It will be interesting to know in 10-15 year's time what difference this has made.

[Cathy]

Many of these aren't strictly nursery rhymes (but I'll let that go!).

Any parents who doubts the eductaional value of rhymes might like to google the work of Goswami & Bryant. Name-dropping warning: I did my PGCE with Dr Goswami in 1982-3 and my goodness she was a clever girl ;)

[Angela]

I sang nursery rhymes endlessly with my three boys. It never crossed my mind to wonder whether they were educational. We did it because it was fun and made us happy. At the time I thought that was enough to make it worthwhile as with so many other things we did when they were very little. I can't think of any reason why that isn't still absolutely valid.

[Cathy]

Angela: You made me smile with 'it was fun and it made us happy' - my dear, where have you been? You must be of my generation of mothers (ie before the world went mad!).

[David Carrick]

My grandfather used to recite;
"Danny Devito, Danny Devito, Danny Devito's tiny hand. Barack Obama, Barack Obama, Barack Obama's transit van."

[Kim Righetti]

Nursery Rhymes are an excellent way to teach rhyming words.

[paulc]

I'm surprised they're allowed to use Baa, Baa, Black Sheep these days...

[BlueWolfie]

Ring a ring a roses, was about the black plague/death/rather nasty case of the sniffles, was it not?

I think they should bring it back for this HN51 thingy. Mind you, after saying that, more people die each year from regular flu, so it's really just a case of panic over absolutely nothing.

[Kim]

Bluewolfie - I think that story about Ring a ring a roses is just a myth, disappointingly.

I love nursery rhymes, and we did them a lot with daughter when she was little. I also remember years ago visiting work colleagues in the States, and doing "Walking round the garden like a teddy bear" with a colleague's six year old son. He'd never heard it before, and loved it.

Two my dad used to do with me when I was a little - and which I subsequently did with my daughter - were "Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross" and the Welsh rhyme "Gee, ceffyl bach". Both involve bouncing the child on your knee and then dropping the child to the floor at certain points (while still holding on, of course). Guaranteed way of making said child scream with laughter.

[Kim]

Having got all nostalgic on this thread, I think I might ask Sarah to start a thread about children's games we used to play. Anyone else here old enough to remember "I sent a letter to my love"?

[RDW]

I thought it was the "Itsy bitsy spider"

[Cathy]

Paul C: if you're referring to the well-publicised myth surrounding 'Baa baa black sheep', this is the closest I've got to any information that doesn't come straight from the gutter press

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loony_Left#Baa_Baa_White_Sheep

- although that hasn't stopped a ST columnist repeating it this very day!

[Peter]

Baa Baa White Sheep
Have You Any Wool
No I'm a black sheep
You politically correct fool!

[Another mum]

Brings it back ... I used to do ring-a-ring of roses in the mother and toddler pool, bouncing my tiny son round and round in the water at tummy depth and picking him up and throwing him in - to his delight - (with arm bands or whatever) at the end.

And he loved the ones with tickles - incy wincy spider; hickory dickory dock; round the garden with the teddy bear. You don't get that with pop songs.

[nan]

Singing nursery rhymes with my children and now my grandchildren has to be counted as one of lifes greatest pleasures. Long may this continue and I truly hope it does for generations to come.

[Mike Adams]

I thought it was "Baa Baa Green sheep"

[Prav]

When I read articles like this I really do think these experts and some parents have too little to think about in their dull lives. Who cares if they are not educational or too traditional, etc? If the child enjoys them and grows up happy surely that what matters...

[Mike]

Many rhymes and jingles were political satire when originated.
Ring a rosie is indeed about the black death.
The rosie is the ring of pustules on the skin. The posie is the flower posie used to alleviate the smell.
Atishoo, atishoo, is obviously the sneezing before 'we all fall down' dead.

[Cathy]

Mike: You're wrong, I'm afraid. This is a myth.

[Peter Bulmer]

Nursery Rhymes are vital for learning English as they re-inforce the ryhthmn of the mother tongue language which we get from our parents, bad or confused ryhthmn will result in bad or confused grammar. The English ryhthmn is bascially one word up in sound and one word down in sound. This ryhthmn is also essential for developing a powerful English breathing technique which is vital for pronuciation and multiple syllabel words and phrases and public speaking.

[Michael]

Hi Sarah,

The Powerhouse Museum in Sydney has produced an upbeat version of Twinkle Twinkle to celebrate the International Year of Astronomy.

It can be downloaded for free on their website:

http://play.powerhousemuseum.com/space

Cheers

Michael

[Huw Roberts]

I've written a children's rhyme that's very popular. Its 40 minutes long though. Kamakan The Vampire Slug. I've just staged it as a live show. Kids and parents love the rhyming style more so than straight storyteling. There's something that draws you into a rhyme, a sense of the hypnotic I suppose. There's a clip of the live show on You Tube if you search for the book title.

[Sarah F]

Kim, was it this one:
I wrote a letter to my friend (or love)
And on the way I dropped it
Someone must have picked it up and put it in their pocket.
It was you
It wasn't you
It was you
It wasn't you
IT WAS YOU!

Que much running in circles and laughing.

Yup, I'm of your generation.

[Early Years Professional]

Young children can learn SO much from nursery rhymes. It's not just language skills that are developed. Many elements of mathematics and science are introduced through nursery rhymes e.g. counting skills in Baa Baa Black Sheep - 3 bags with one for the master, the dame and the little boy each, as well as notions such as 'up' and 'down' (Grand Old Duke of York, Ring a Roses) which help children make sense of their worlds. Nursery rhymes e.g. Ring a Roses allow for group play where children begin to learn co-operation and most nursery rhymes involve actions, which help children to learn about their bodies. Most importantly nursery rhymes are FUN so children are learning without us even realising it.

[Skelly]

Ring a Rosie is about the Black/Bubonic Plague. Due to the PC squad getting their claws into traditional nursery rhymes (I refuse to let my child say Baa Baa Pink/Green/Yellow Sheep - it is a black sheep, I fail to see what is wrong with that) I went out and bought the 1960's Ladybird Book of Traditional Nursery Rhymes from a car boot sale. Best thing I ever bought for my child. We had lots of laughter and fun reciting those and loved the pictures, too. Ever tried to work out how many were going to St Ives?

[Skelly]

I loved "I had a little nut tree" rhyme. We had a nut tree in our garden and I used to check it out regularly as a young child, hoping to see a silver nutmeg and a golden pear on it. Alas, it didn't produce anything, not even nuts! The rhyme did inspire the imagination, though.

[Marg]

Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!
How I wonder what you're at!
Up above the world you fly,
Like a teatray in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle little bat!
How I wonder what you're at!

-- Lewis Carroll

It doesn't get much better than this!

[Kim]

Sarah F - yes, that was it! Used to love that. Ah, kids today, etc...

[Kim]

Well, not Paddy - Taffy! Taffy was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief, etc.

You don't hear that one these days, strangely enough.

[Naomi Thompson]

The one I do with young children is this, told to me by my mother who was told it by her grandmother, which means that in my family alone, I can trace it back to 1880. Whether it has any historical reference is irrelevant - it is part of the history of my family (clearly a group of hideous racists, but hey, I'll deal with that at Christmas), an heirloom in its way, and something I am determined to pass on to my children.

It's one with clapping and a tickle at the end. Good fun, and incredibly politically incorrect:

My mother said, I never should
Play with the gypsies in the wood
If I did, she would say
Naughty girl to disobey.

[Colleen]

I'm pretty young - but remember most of the rhymes mentioned. My favourite though hasn't been listed at all!!

Sing a Song of Sixpence :o)

I re-learned it when my son was little and now my daughter is learning it.

Nursery Rhymes are just fun and playful. Good to snuggle and tickle with.

[Kim]

Naomi - my thought on reading that Gypsies rhyme was that it sounded like a skipping rhyme; it had that kind of rhythm. Just checked and it seems it is: http://www.homeschool.co.uk/resource/jump-rope/jump-rope-rhymes.html.

Obviously rhymes have multiple uses, though!

[deia]

Skelly; it's an urban legend/misconception that Ring of Roses is about the black death. It came about as people tried to force a meaning upon it. The rhyme didn't spring into being until around 1881.
http://www.snopes.com/language/literary/rosie.asp

[glyn shaw]

When I was a little child I used to recite 'twinkle twinkle little star' each night before bedtime. I'd kneel and put my hands together while gazing at my chosen star. This was to replace the lord's prayer because I kept forgetting the words. To me, the meaning was the same and I felt like I was talking to God when I focused my prayer on a star rather than an invisible entity.

[jenny]

but isn't that just refective on how some parents/carers view literature in general? Many never read with their children, and many more don't even acknowledge poetry both adults and children's which can be a step up from nursery rhymes. Sad but not surprising

[Skelly]

"Skelly; it's an urban legend/misconception that Ring of Roses is about the black death. It came about as people tried to force a meaning upon it. The rhyme didn't spring into being until around 1881.
http://www.snopes.com/language/literary/rosie.asp

Posted by: deia | 13 Oct 2009 16:55:53"

I was wrong, I'm sorry. Thanks for the link, it is great to read what the meaning really is behind the rhyme.

[Prashant]

Where would Agatha Christie be if she couldnt make sinister meanings of nursery rhymes ?
A pocket full of rye
Five little pigs
Hickory Dickory Dock
How does your garden grow ?
One, Two buckle my shoe
Ten little Indian boys

Not singing nursery rhymes to your child is just sad. Forget the educational value of it, it is a great mechanism to build a bond.

[Cathy]

Prashant: Thanks for making me smile (I love your point)!

[Baa Baa BLACK sheep]

Mike Adams it is NOT baa baa green sheep - unless you are fanatically politically correct!

[Dragon]

This little piggie went to market. Ten green bottles. Under the water, under the sea, catching fishes for my tea, up, down or round? This necessitated dangling the child upside down [under the water, under the sea. catching fishes for my tea]. The child was then sat up in your arms and given the choice of being raised high in the air, hung upside down, or spun around. I remember losing my grip when spinning my younger brother, and he had a lump like an egg on his head for a week.
The favourite of my 4 daughters, though not a Nursery Rhyme, was the Owl and the Pussy Cat. Guaranteed to send them to sleep. It has worked just as well for my grandchildren and great granddaughter.

[pamela]

Oh weren't they fantastic! I know hundreds, and my mum hundreds more! Even though I'm aetheist now, I used to pray every evening "Jesus gentle shepherd hear me, bless thy little lamb tonight. Through the darkness be thou near me, keep me safe til morning light". What a lovely rhyme. Also, Misty moisty mornin; the house that Jack built; Under a toadstool, fast asleep; I hope they live on for another thousand years!

[Sara]

www.hiyah.net offers free educational software downloads, of all the classic nursery rhymes. Individual words of each rhyme are decribed by photographs, movies, illustrations, animations, etc. The rhymes are literally explained word by word. It is especially helpful to children with autism.

[Anne]

This is the way the lady rides,
trit, trot, trit, trot,
This is the way the gentleman rides
Gallopy-gallop, gallopy-gallop,
This is the way the farmer rides,
Hobble-de-ho, hobble-de-ho,
Down into the ditch!

My 20 mth old loves it, bouncing on my lap and falling off at the end, and my 4 and 6 yr olds beg for a turn too!

[dic]

Kipling published the following for Baa Baa Black Sheep:

"Two for the Master
One for the Dame
And none for the little boy who cries down the lane"

This sounds vaguely familiar to me from childhood:
I was tought:
"Master" = landlord (feudal overlord)
"Dame" - church (thithes)

and none for the poor worker in the fields - the "poor boy who cries down the lane"

Now, of course, "Black Sheep" cannot be used in the UKSSR for fear of reprisals. The Newspeak "wooly sheep" is imposed upon the next generation, who look at me in shock and horror if I recite the original. Mercifully my own children are over 21 and the State cannot take them away from me.

[Darlene]

I have no children, but have a baby niece and me and my family have always sang nursey to her. She is two now and knows the words to most of the more popular songs, she sings along and does actions, as we are singing them. But something else you could do with your kids is listen to music, my niece listens to music and dances and sings along, so it is good to teach them songs. Even if the not that educational!

[gabrielle]

This article brought a smile! I've just spent almost two months staying with my daughter, son-in-law to help out with and an incredibly dear, but fussy four-month-old grandson who suffers from both severe colic and acid reflux!

For some reason I began singing Teddy Bear's Picnic to him and for an even more unknown reason this worked; albeit some times it took 40 minutes of singing TPB over and over again to get him to sleep.

I tried other nursery songs but none have worked. I eschewed singing the various rugby songs I learned in my youth!!!