Children's songs

Thank you for reminding me of lots of these.
Time and Tune was great. Three friends and I who meet up from time to time bought a similar book so we can sing some of these old favourites at our tea parties. Maybe next time I'll add 'Popeye the sailor man'!

I remember singing Michael Finnegan from the Time and Tune books. We listened to the radio programme in class and learnt lots of lovely songs from it - from traditional folk songs to nonsense rhymes like that.

Chewbacca Sound a very engaging lad to me. Bet you love him to bits

The House That Jack Built

We used to sing "I know an old lady who swallowed a fly" when my girl was little.

Chewbacca

Unconventional but little GS absolutely loves the Popeye the Sailor Man song. He sits on my knees, facing away from me but with me holding on to him.

I'm Popeye the Sailor Man
I live in a caravan
I opened the door......
And I fell on the floor
I'm Popeye the Sailor Man, toot! toot!

When it gets to the bit "I opened the door, and I fell on the floor...", I let him "fall" between my knees and he shrieks with laughter! --no wonder I need a TKR--

Now that your DGS is 16.....shouldn’t he have moved on from that??

Ten Green Bottles
The Farmer Wants A Wife
And the one that all our DC loved when small.... Six currant buns in the bakers shop, large and round with sugar on the top, along came ( insert name of child) with a penny one day, bought a currant bun and took it right away.This is usually played with a small group of children and each child represents a bun and is played until all the children have been ‘taken away’.

Well BBbevan I spent this afternoon with the GC and I tried out your version of the Popeye the Sailor Man song! 3 year old GS laughed his head off and kept climbing back on to my knees shouting "Again Granny!"

When I started school, they asked us one day if anyone knew a song to sing. There were contributions of Baa Baa Black Sheep, Twinkle Twinkle etc. When it was my turn, I stood on my chair and gave them a rendition of Micky McGilligan's Daughter (which my dad used to sing to me, and to my innocent ears was just another nursery rhyme) :
It starts -

Micky McGilligan had a daughter name of Mary Anne
She tipped the scale at nearly 20 stone
She didn't use a powder puff and here's the reason why
She shovelled on the powder with a spoon.

I don't know how far they let me get! My parents were mortified when I told them!

A lot of these are still sung now. The bunnies one Luckygirl is sung at both DGD and DGS2 gym monkeys to calm them down from free play. At least it was before lockdown. The toddlers love it. And we too have all sorts on the bus Quizqueen - dinosaurs, snakes, monkeys, and all the family members with their sayings and habits. It got us from our house to DGS2 s house after tea when he was tired - about 10 minutes.

I know most of those older ones.
The Popeye ones - I know an even ruder one but it would be banned from here. And certainly not for children.
A skipping game - Wallflowers.
I like the song about Michael Finnegan I was just thinking about it yesterday as I was plucking out my old lady's hairs from my chin .

Did anyone's Dad do this one with them?

Under the water, one, two, three,
catching fishes for my tea
Round, dead or alive!

I think I may have done it with my own kids but I so clearly remember having it done to me.

You stand with the child's legs astride at hip level and hold the child sort of horizontal. You can bounce them for the first two lines, then on "round" you turn around, then on "dead", you duck them right down so their head nearly touches the floor, then on "alive" you lift them up really high or throw them up (depending on how heavy the child is!)

I’m sur I posted on here this morning.
Anyway never mind. Reading Chewbaccas post I was reminded of a incident when I was teaching 6 yr olds. If they had been good we had a little concert on Friday afternoon. Poems, jokes dances etc. One little boy sang Popeye the Sailor man
However when we came to the 3rd line it Wes

“ There’s a hole in the middle
Where I do a piddle
I’m Popeye the Sailor man.

The children loved it. He said his Grandad had taught it to him

Unconventional but little GS absolutely loves the Popeye the Sailor Man song. He sits on my knees, facing away from me but with me holding on to him.

I'm Popeye the Sailor Man
I live in a caravan
I opened the door......
And I fell on the floor
I'm Popeye the Sailor Man, toot! toot!

When it gets to the bit "I opened the door, and I fell on the floor...", I let him "fall" between my knees and he shrieks with laughter! no wonder I need a TKR

Ah rubysong I have just spent many happy hours doing that one with my 16 month old grandson. Sadly we have now come home and left him with his parents in New Zealand. How I miss him!

Our version is slightly different:
This is the way the little boys ride trip trot trip trot
This is the way the ladies ride- gee up, gee up, gee up
This is the way the big daddies ride - gallop a gallop a gallop
This is the way the old men ride - hobble dee, hobble dee, hobble dee and Down in a Ditch!

He would scream with laughter when he went down in the ditch!

Luckygirl, my mum used to sing a version of that song. Maizy doats and dozey doats. Looking it up it was a song from the war time.

This is the way the ladies go. Niminy nim, niminy nim, niminy nim. (Bouncing child gently on your lap)
This is the way the gentlemen go, Trottety trot, trottety trot, trottety trot. (Bounce a bit faster)
This is the way the farmers go, Galloping, galloping, galloping ( bounce faster)
And fall in a ditch! (Make them "fall" but hold on to them).

Grannybags you have to have actions and noise effects or it’s not scary.

The farmers in his den, the farmers in his den, eee I eee I the farmers in his den. The farmer wants a wife the farmer wants a wife, ee i cherry pie, the farmer wants a wife

Five little ducks went out one day
Over the hills and far away
Mother duck said quack, quack, quack, quack, quack,
But only four little ducks came back.

Next verses are 3, 2, 1, then no little ducks came back, ?
And the line of quacks gets one shorter each time.

My girls would say
“Again”
each time we finished the 6 verses. Oh what memories.

tanith I remember my big sister telling me that one making all sorts of squirmy noise effects as she did!

I loved it!

At our annual Town Show, my Service would have a marquee every year with musical activities for the children.
One of the activities was TIM TAM (music and movement for toddlers) and perennial favourites were ‘The Wheels on the Bus’, with infinite variations, and ‘Row, row, row your boat’ with adjustments to the verses ...

‘Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream,
If you see a crocodile,
Don’t forget to scream ... AARGH...

Nobody likes me
Everybody hates me
Just because I eat worms
Short fat hairy ones
Long tall skinny ones
See how the little ones squirm
Bite all their heads off
Suck all the juice out
Throw the empty skins away
Nobody Likes me
Everybody hates me
Cos I eat worms all day
Nobody likes us
Everybody hates us
Just because we eat worms
Short fat hairy ones
Long tall skinny ones
See how the little ones squirm
Bite all their heads off
Suck all the juice out
Throw the empty skins away
Nobody Likes us
Everybody hates us
Cos we eat worms all day

The playgroup children and my own loved this one

Thank you for some of these. I get tired of Itsy Bitsy Spider and Round and Round the Garden.

I'll have to look up the tunes for some of the above; I'm sure they will be on you tube.

Ah....great memories!

I remember my gran singing Mares eat Oats:

Mares eat oats
And does eat oats and
little lambs eat ivy

Although it sounded like a nonsense rhyme when sung.

Anyone remember this one?

Tommy Thumb, Tommy Thumb
where are you?
Here I am, here I am,
How do you do.
Peter Pointer, Peter Pointer
where are you?
Here I am, here I am,
How do you do.
Middle Man Tall, Middle Man Tall
where are you?
Here I am, here I am,
How do you do.
Ruby Ring, Ruby Ring
where are you?
Here I am, here I am,
How do you do.
Baby Small, Baby Small
where are you?
Here I am, here I am,
How do you do.
Fingers All, Fingers All
where are you?
Here We Are, Here We Are
How do you do.....
(wiggle all fingers to wave)