Learning and reciting nursery rhymes play a vital role in the development of the child's intelligence. Learn how to sing nursery rhymes in the right way.
Singing nursery rhymes is an everyday bedtime activity of Chinmay and his mom. Today they are going to learn and recite the poem, 'Baa, Baa, Black Sheep' from the wide range of the Mother Goose collection. Chinmay knows many rhymes by heart. His mom finds it really sweet when he sings a nursery rhyme with hand gestures and facial expressions. He has learnt to count from one to ten by learning the poem, 'one two buckle my shoe'.
Stories and poems fascinate children the most. They have myriad characters, funny rhyming words, interesting narrations, and tunes that make little ones clap and nod. Be the perfect parent to your child by teaching him the right way to sing a nursery rhyme.
Make learning a fun activity
Do not make learning a boring task for your child; rather make it enjoyable and playful activity. Colourful books attract children like nothing else. What fun it would be to learn the poem, 'twinkle twinkle little star' while looking at the picture of a dark sky with twinkling stars. A child would surely like to recite the poem, 'hot cross buns' if he has a picture of mouthwatering steamy buns alongside the written verses.
Just the click of mouse and there you have so many nursery rhyme videos to choose from. Show your child the video of the nursery rhyme, Jack and Jill, so he will not find it tedious to by heart and sing the rhyme along with the video. Not only English rhymes but you will find Hindi rhymes and Marathi rhymes videos too on the internet.
Audio cassettes and CDs of nursery rhymes would be a great learning treasure to possess. Tune on the record player and let your child hum the nursery rhyme along with the tape. It would be fun to sing a nursery rhyme if you have chirpy background music. Hearing the poem, 'jingle bells, jingle bells' on the tape-recorder would make your child rock and roll while tapping his foot on the rhythm of the jingling bells.
How to remember a poem?
Remembering a poem would not be hard if you use certain techniques. You must have seen some children singing movie songs word to word. How do they do that? They do that as no one forces them to learn these songs. No one asks them to sit down and learn word to word several times. It is the same with nursery rhymes. Do not portray the activity of learning nursery rhymes as the part of academics, but put forward it as a fun activity. Following are some tricks to make your child interested in singing rhymes.
- Sing the poem to your child and explain him the meaning of the poem. Tell him the meaning with the use of some interesting anecdotes.
- Make reciting a poem an everyday activity. You can assign a particular time for singing rhymes such as before going to bed or on Sunday afternoons.
- Make your child to write down a nursery rhyme and ask him to draw and paint the picture that comes in his mind after singing a particular rhyme. Your child can create a beautiful scrapbook full of rhymes and colourful pictures.
- Make it a point to correct the mistake if your child is making any while reciting a poem.
Singing a nursery rhyme
How would it look if your child is singing a nursery rhyme while standing straight with his hands folded? Boring, isn't it? Singing a nursery rhyme is something that should be cheerful. A child should join his hands, place them near his ear, and tilt his head a little while reciting the poem, 'are you sleeping'? A toddler should make crawling gestures with the fingers while singing the nursery rhyme, 'incy wincy spider' which tells the story of the spider who climbs up the water spout.
Make puppets out of a white cardboard, paint them and paste them on the wooden stick. Enact a nursery rhyme while mimicking its words with the use of these puppets. You even do not need to make puppets to act out certain poems like 'teddy bear, teddy bear', where you can use a stuffed teddy to enact the poem.
Make a small group of children and let them enact a nursery rhyme. 'Ring-a-ring a roses' is the poem to perform in a group. Let all the children hold their hands and fall down at the end of the poem. You can also enact a poem with your child. Let your child be a Johnny and you are his papa and have fun while enacting the poem, 'Johnny Johnny, yes papa'.
Importance of nursery rhymes
Nursery rhymes are being sung, recited, mimicked, enacted, and learnt for ages. Learning nursery rhymes is an important pre-school activity. A child will never forget how many days are there in each month after learning the poem, 'thirty days of September'. Learning seven days of the week would not be difficult after learning the poem, 'Solomon Grundy born on a Monday'. Counting from one to ten would be the easiest task for your child if he knows the poem, 'one two three four five', by heart.
Singing nursery rhymes enhances a child's reading and learning ability. It makes the child more confident. Learning and reciting nursery rhymes improve the memory and the language skills from early age. Sing the lullaby, 'hush-a-bye, baby' to your toddler and read out the poem, 'Mary had a little lamb', to your child.
After singing the rhymes, it is time to make your own rhymes. Challenge your child's intelligence and see if he can come up with a great poem. Let your child challenge the famous Mark Twain quote which says, "Anybody can write the first line of a poem, but is a very difficult task to make the second line rhyme with the first."
Do you read nursery rhymes to your child? Does your child enjoy singing nursery rhymes? How important is learning nursery rhymes? To share your tips, views, and experiences, click here.
|
