![\"boy](\"http:\/\/comicphonics.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/06\/boy-pretending-to-be-humpty-dumpty.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThere are many reasons\u2014busy parents without time to read the rhymes, foreign-born parents unfamiliar with the rhymes, and competition from TV and electronics for children\u2019s time.\u00a0 Yet, for many reasons, nursery rhymes should be part of a child\u2019s education, and the earlier the better.<\/p>\n
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- Children\u2014even one-year-old children\u2014can appreciate nursery rhymes, often their first encounter with books, verses and rhythmical sentences.\u00a0 If they are being read to, they learn what a book is, what side goes up, how to turn a page, what words look like in print and how to get meaning from pictures.\u00a0 This experience is the beginning of getting meaning from printed words, a start to reading comprehension.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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- They learn that reading books can be fun, social occasions with Grandma cuddling as she sounds out the rhymes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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- Children can learn what English sounds like.\u00a0 They hear their mother\u2019s voice rising and falling, speeding up and slowing down, getting softer and louder, and sounding scared or full of laughter.\u00a0 This can be particularly important for ESL children who might hear these rhymes from preschool teachers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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- They develop an ear for fluency, and when they are ready to repeat the rhymes themselves, they are likely to add the inflection of a good reader.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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- Kids naturally like rhythm which nursery rhymes offer in abundance.\u00a0 If Dad claps out the rhythm to \u201cPat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake, Baker Man,\u201d soon the child will mimic him, picking up the cadence of English.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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- Because nursery rhymes are so rhythmical, children become aware of units of sound (called phonemes) from which words are made.\u00a0 They learn to progress through the sounds in a word in a particular order (called phonemic segmentation), a necessary prereading skill.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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- Children also love rhyme (one reason Dr. Seuss is so popular).\u00a0 They begin to learn patterns, expecting a rhyme every so often in the rhythm, and are rewarded when that word comes.\u00a0 They begin to share in the reading of nursery rhymes aloud.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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- Because nursery rhymes are short, children need only a short attention span for a single nursery rhyme.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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- Also because the rhymes are short, children can memorize them and recite them aloud.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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- Nursery rhymes contain words the child doesn\u2019t hear every day or in a familiar context.\u00a0 \u201cJack and Jill went up a hill to\u00a0fetch,<\/em>\u201d \u201ceating her\u00a0curds<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0whey<\/em>,\u201d and \u201cJack, be\u00a0nimble<\/em>\u201d are examples.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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- Many nursery rhymes tell simple stories with beginnings, middles and ends.\u00a0 The children hear of problems they might encounter\u2014falling down and getting lost\u2014and hear how those problems are resolved, or in Humpty Dumpty\u2019s case, not resolved.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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- Nursery rhymes are great for group chanting and singing, sometimes called choral reading.\u00a0 Think of \u201cMary Had a Little Lamb,\u201d \u201cTwinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,\u201d and \u201cLondon Bridge is Falling Down.\u201d\u00a0 Can you think about \u201cMary Had a Little Lamb\u201d without singing it in your head?\u00a0 The tune makes the rhyme easier to remember and makes reading fun.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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- Reading nursery rhymes to children preserves an older American culture and a connection with past generations.\u00a0 Many of today\u2019s grandmothers, as children, were read the same rhymes by their grandmothers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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- Later on in life, the child will encounter many allusions to nursery rhymes (and allusions to Greek mythology, Shakespeare and the Bible).\u00a0 But the child will only make connections\u2014and have a richer experience\u2014if he is familiar with the original rhymes.\u00a0 For example, Agatha Christie called one of her mysteries\u00a0One, Two, Buckle My Shoe<\/em>.\u00a0 Why?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Reading nursery rhymes to children preserves an older American culture and a connection with past generations.\u00a0 Many of today\u2019s grandmothers, as children, were read the same rhymes by their grandmothers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Nursery rhymes are great for group chanting and singing, sometimes called choral reading.\u00a0 Think of \u201cMary Had a Little Lamb,\u201d \u201cTwinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,\u201d and \u201cLondon Bridge is Falling Down.\u201d\u00a0 Can you think about \u201cMary Had a Little Lamb\u201d without singing it in your head?\u00a0 The tune makes the rhyme easier to remember and makes reading fun.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Many nursery rhymes tell simple stories with beginnings, middles and ends.\u00a0 The children hear of problems they might encounter\u2014falling down and getting lost\u2014and hear how those problems are resolved, or in Humpty Dumpty\u2019s case, not resolved.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Nursery rhymes contain words the child doesn\u2019t hear every day or in a familiar context.\u00a0 \u201cJack and Jill went up a hill to\u00a0fetch,<\/em>\u201d \u201ceating her\u00a0curds<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0whey<\/em>,\u201d and \u201cJack, be\u00a0nimble<\/em>\u201d are examples.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Also because the rhymes are short, children can memorize them and recite them aloud.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Because nursery rhymes are short, children need only a short attention span for a single nursery rhyme.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Children also love rhyme (one reason Dr. Seuss is so popular).\u00a0 They begin to learn patterns, expecting a rhyme every so often in the rhythm, and are rewarded when that word comes.\u00a0 They begin to share in the reading of nursery rhymes aloud.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Because nursery rhymes are so rhythmical, children become aware of units of sound (called phonemes) from which words are made.\u00a0 They learn to progress through the sounds in a word in a particular order (called phonemic segmentation), a necessary prereading skill.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Kids naturally like rhythm which nursery rhymes offer in abundance.\u00a0 If Dad claps out the rhythm to \u201cPat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake, Baker Man,\u201d soon the child will mimic him, picking up the cadence of English.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- They develop an ear for fluency, and when they are ready to repeat the rhymes themselves, they are likely to add the inflection of a good reader.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Children can learn what English sounds like.\u00a0 They hear their mother\u2019s voice rising and falling, speeding up and slowing down, getting softer and louder, and sounding scared or full of laughter.\u00a0 This can be particularly important for ESL children who might hear these rhymes from preschool teachers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- They learn that reading books can be fun, social occasions with Grandma cuddling as she sounds out the rhymes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n