Every once in a while you find something that is enjoyable for both you and your children and good for them, too. And if you can actually enjoy it in your own home without having to shell out for “an educational program that’s fun for the whole family,” then all the better, right? Imagine if said activity could also be done with the kids tucked into their beds and then send them sweetly off into the night. Perfect.
A. A. Milne’s collection of children’s verses, When We Were Very Young, does just that. Young C got a copy as a Christmas present and cannot get enough of it. We like to read several pages — though he would read the entire book in a sitting if I had the time — in the afternoons while baby sister is sleeping. Even L’il I loves to listen to the lyrical verses, though she would also eat the pages given the opportunity. I’ve read that learning nursery rhymes at an early age can help children with reading later on, and I can only imagine that supplementing Mother Goose with some of these delightful A. A. Milne poems will give kids an even greater edge.
It’s rhymes and sounds and images and ideas and words and phrases that we don’t use when we talk to them. They won’t get this from tv and they won’t get this from standard picture books either. We dwell on a page and Young C has time to engage with the words beyond what is depicted in the book. He remembers whole passages and incorporates the different langauage structures into his own speech. It’s words, baby. Washing over our little ones. Fostering a culture of words.
Here’s one of my favourties:
Disobedience
James James
Morrison Morrison
Weatherby George Dupree
Took great
Care of his Mother,
Though he was only three.
James James Said to his Mother,
“Mother,” he said, said he;
“You must never go down
to the end of the town,
if you don’t go down with me.”
James James
Morrison’s Mother
Put on a golden gown.
James James Morrison’s Mother
Drove to the end of the town.
James James Morrison’s Mother
Said to herself, said she:
“I can get right down
to the end of the town
and be back in time for tea.”
King John
Put up a notice,
“LOST or STOLEN or STRAYED!
JAMES JAMES MORRISON’S MOTHER
SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN MISLAID.
LAST SEEN
WANDERING VAGUELY:
QUITE OF HER OWN ACCORD,
SHE TRIED TO GET DOWN
TO THE END OF THE TOWN –
FORTY SHILLINGS REWARD!”
James James
Morrison Morrison
(Commonly known as Jim)
Told his
Other relations
Not to go blaming him.
James James
Said to his Mother,
“Mother,” he said, said he:
“You must never go down to the end of the town
without consulting me.”
James James
Morrison’s mother
Hasn’t been heard of since.
King John said he was sorry,
So did the Queen and Prince.
King John
(Somebody told me)
Said to a man he knew:
If people go down to the end of the town, well,
what can anyone do?”
(Now then, very softly)
J.J.
M.M.
W.G.Du P.
Took great
C/0 his M*****
Though he was only 3.
J.J. said to his M*****
“M*****,” he said, said he:
“You-must-never-go-down-to-the-end-of-the-town-
if-you-don’t-go-down-with-ME!”