Rhymes and poems that we said to our children

Indeed - tempus fugit!

Sign of the times: the line used to be 'No more Latin, no more French...'!

Here is a song my young son sang to his teacher on the last day of term:-

One more day of school,
One more day of sorrow,
One more day in this old dump
And we'll be home tomorrow.
No more English no more French
No more sitting at the old school bench.
If the teacher interferes,
Blow her up or box her ears,
If that does not do the trick
Dynamite will make her sick.

Needless to say his teacher wasn't impressed. She said it was rather unkind to poor teachers.

Brilliant!

Loving all these and they brought back a memory of a wee four line ditty that I made up to sing to DDs (1 and 2).

Princess Piddle and Princess Pong
Go to bed with nappies on.
You can bet that before too long,
Piddle will Piddle and Pong will pong.

They screamed with delight at the naughtiness but never knew which was which!

It is a lovely tune. I used to teach singing to a group of Irish Travellers - they loved this one - but, to be honest they could not sing in tune! But they really enjoyed it!

My (Irish) mother used to sing something like -

Over in Killarney, many years ago
My mother sang a song to me in tones so sweet and low
Just a simple little ditty
In her good old Irish way
And I'd give the world if she could sing
That song to me this day

Toora Loora Loora, Toora Loora Li
Toora Loora Loora hush now don't you cry
Toora Loora Loora, Toora Loora Li
Toora Loora Loora, that's an Irish lullaby

I have no idea what it means but it's a lovely lilting tune.

We used to sing everything. No wonder we all sing now! We used to sing 'The north wind' too. And I remember most of the rhymes mentioned - apart from Cari's...

Which is wonderful! DGCs will love that.

My DSis's favourite was

Nobody likes me, everybody hates me,
Think I'll go and eat worms.
Long, thin, slimy ones slip down easily
Big fat juicy ones stick
So I put them between my teeth
And let the juice just drip.

Down goes the first one, down goes the second one,
Oh how they wiggle and squirm.
Up comes the first one, up comes the second one,
Oh how they wiggle and squirm.

I'll cut their heads off
suck their guts out
and throw their skins away
Surprising how us girls can eat
those worms three times a day.

My mother taught it to her because she was the chief worm-eater out of all of us when she was little, and we others would run away screaming as she chomped them in front of us deliberately. She now restricts herself to eating her chickens' dried mealworms!

Taking my grandson to school this morning I was suddenly reminded of:

The North Wind doth blow and we shall have snow
And what will poor Robin do then?
But sit in a barn and keep himself warm,
And tuck his head under his wing (poor thing!).

I can remember my mother reciting that back in the 1950s, but I have no idea where it comes from.

When my two were little, I used to read to them at bed-time from the Puffin Book of Children's Verse. They really liked the poems by Spike Milligan. So did I.

My elder son was called Billy when he was young.
My younger son used to annoy him all the time with this one....

Billy, in one of his nice new sashes,
Fell in the fire and was burned to ashes,
Now although the room grows chilly
I haven't the heart to poke poor Billy".

What a strange upbringing you had Cari - I have ever heard that one but suspect that some of my GC might appreciate it!

The mention of 'Summertime' has reminded me of:

Hush, little baby, don't say a word
Mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird
And if that mockingbird won't sing ...

Oh, I can't wait for my little grandson to be old enough for these.

I shall try the huggy one with my GCs!

How wonderfully innocent all these songs from the 1920s now seem.

Amazing!

Well I would sing it to you, if you were here...

The lion has to roar convincingly.

I shall google it, you never know, youtube may have it hidden somewhere.

Well I never! I have found it. I can't believe it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQE8T6Ip6Ic

Although our version is a simplified one, of course.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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