Rhymes and poems that we said to our children

Grannyknot - he has a CD called Songs of Home - so lovely.

It is lovely hearing these lovely rhymes; and brings back memories.

From US friends, they also loved

When you kiss your honey
when your nose is runny
you may think it's funny
but it's not (it's snot!)

Our family definitely like silly rhymes, not romantic, lol.

And from French friend, they always sung this one in the bath when little, on the tune of 'Frère jacques'

au clair de la lune
j'ai pèté dans l'eau
ça faisait des bulles
c'était rigolo

Again, not very 'delicate'

in the moonlight
I farted in the water
it made bubbles
it was funny.

Simple souls we are.

Wouldn't that be to the tune of 'Au clair de la lune'?

But yes, that sort of humour is always popular with littlies!

I still have the Ladybird books of Memory Rhymes and Nursery Rhymes, which the DGD are enjoying.

Ana - doh ;) of course ;)

Ooh I've not heard that one for years merlotgrann- it stirred up some memories!. I remember my mother singing it to me when I was quite small.

HildaW Thank you for reminding me of that one! Ours was a bit different but, like you, I always enjoyed it, even though I found it quite scary when my lovely mum recited it in a rather spooky voice which was quite out of character!

T'was a dark and stormy night
Three robbers sat in a cave
'Tell us a tale said one
And Antonio began...
T'was a dark and stormy night...

Juliette here is the rest of it:-

We are all thy children here
Listen while we pray
Keep us while the night is here
And through every day.

More nonsense rhymes have just come to mind after reading the robbers one:

One fine day in the middle of the night
Two dead men got up to fight
Back to back they faced each other
Drew their swords and shot each other.

And...

You know last night, well the night before
Three tom-cats came knocking at our door
One had a fiddle and one had a drum
And one had a pancake stuck on his bum.

Our two loved these silly rhymes. Might try them on DGS - about right for a 9-year old boy!

I went downstairs to let them in
they knocked me down with a rolling pin.
The rolling pin was made of glass
It cut three slices off my . . .

Ask no questions, tell no lies.

Elegran my father had a version of that:
Ask your mother for nine pence to see the elephant walk
It walks so fast it wobbles its.....
Ask your mother for nine pence. Etc etc
Similar word play! And my Dad was very strait laced normally!

Another favourite nonsense rhyme...

Yesterday upon the stair
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today,
I wish that man would go away.

There was an old man called Michael Finnegan
He grew whiskers on his chin again
The wind came out and blew them in again
Poor old Michael Finnegan, begin again

There was an old man called . . . .

Here's another version on "three robbers"

'Twas a dark and stormy night
Three robbers built their tent,
One said "Antonio tell us a tale",
And this is how it went...

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear
But Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair
So Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't very fuzzy, was he?

My two used to laugh like drains at that one.

My Aunt' version goes:-

I went to the pictures tomorrow
I took a front seat at the back
A lady gave me a banana
I ate it and gave her it back.

hidajenni I used to sing the full version at bed time when I stayed with grandma, we only sang the first verse at school. Such a simple belief. Did you sing it too?

Juliette We used to sing it as the last song every Sunday before Sunday School finished, and we went home.

I used to sing 'Summertime' from Porgy and Bess to my two.

Summertime,
And the livin' is easy
Fish are jumpin'
And the cotton is high

Oh, Your daddy's rich
And your mamma's good lookin'
So hush little baby
Don't you cry

One of these mornings
You're going to rise up singing
Then you'll spread your wings
And you'll take to the sky

But until that morning
There's a'nothing can harm you
With your daddy and mammy standing by

Summertime is a beautiful song and I have performed it in public many times. I feel a real affinity with it - and there was a programme that other night that was devoted to the song. (BBC 4 I think if you want to try iPlayer).

I do get very annoyed when it is sung as a florid operatic aria - it is an intimate lullaby and should be sung as such.

Thank you! I will certainly look that up, I love that song.

Used to sing (not very well) Summertime to the children. We were reasonably well off at the time and I wasn't bad lookin' so it seemed appropriate.

My eldest son still loves this song and says it brings back happy memories.

A poem they liked was:

Mrs. White had a fright
In the middle of the night.
Saw a ghost eating toast
Halfway up a lamp post.

We used to live next door to a Mr and Mrs. Wyatt - so I used to say
"Mrs Wyatt had a fright."

It used to make the kiddies laugh.

For a humourous song, the one mine liked best was The Ogo Pogo. My mother used to sing it to me, and her mother to her. I believe it is dated 1924, so my grandmother would have heard it as a teenager.

One fine day in Hindustan,
I met a funny little man.
With googly eyes and lantern jaws,
A new silk hat and some old plus fours.
When I said to that quaint old chap:-
"Why do you carry that big steel trap,
That butterfly net and that rusty gun?"
He replied "Listen here my son:-

I'm looking for the Ogo-pogo,
The funny little Ogo-pogo.
His mother was an earwig, his father was a whale,
I'm going to put a little bit of salt on his tail.
I want to find the Ogo-pogo
While he's playing on his old banjo.
The Lord Mayor of London,
The Lord Mayor of London,
The Lord Mayor of London wants to put him in the Lord Mayor's show".

On his Banjo night and day
The Ogo-pogo loves to play,
He charms the snakes and chimpanzees,
The big baboons and the bumble bees.
Lions and tigers begin to roar:-
"Play us that melody just once more".
Did I hear the sound of an old banjo?
Pardon me I shall have to go!

As soon as I got pregnant I made her write down the words! Now my daughter sings it to her two. Along with Summertime and various others, she has a beautiful voice.

It would be good to know what the tune is to the above.

Couple of others that we used to say to our children:

1. Substitute child's name for Phoebe....

Phoebe in a rose bush,
Phoebe in a tree
There's many a Phoebe in the world
But you're the one for me.

The last line is of course accompanied by a big hug. The children loved it.

2. All tucked in and roasty toasty
Blow me a kiss goodnight
Close your eyes till morning comes
Happy dreams and sleep tight.

The other thing we would play with them (and do now with the GC) was to ask "How much do I love you?", holding our hands close together in front of us. "This much?" You keep asking it and each time move your hands a little further apart, until the last time when your arms are at full stretch and ready for........a big hug! Once they knew the punch line they would ask for it over and over again as you can imagine. And you can do it very slowly opening your arms a tiny bit more each time and then suddenly very fast and big - lots of happy chuckles.