Your mission, if you decide to accept it: Paint your logic up and down City Line avenue for all to see! LOL!!! Who elected an egg into office in the first place?

The first stories were to keep children in line. I.e.don't go into the wood or the wild will get you, Chupacabra, etc. They're told now because we're a people who don't think. We simply did what was done to us without any thought of its dangers. It's a tradition that should be squashed.

They have Rhytm, they have Rhyme, they are an introduction to the world of music and dance. First poetry a child may receive... come on man... This aint sparta!

Love this.. how fun

Nursery rhymes are part of the common culture. Teach them stuff that other kids know so they will fit in. I help my granddaughter put on her socks and shoes to the Hokey Pokey. She has learned left from right as well as her first real dance. We always laugh when we turn ourselves around. These are great ways for kids to bond with their parents and grandparents. Reading Dostoyevsky to them never worked for me. Try to have more fun.

Most nursery rhymes have hidden political meanings. There are numerous books deconstructing and analyzing them if you are intere

LOL most are old tales to discipline and control children's behavior's Like my Nana did with the Mexican folktale of LaRona. . .

I'm pretty sure the hokey pokey isn't what it's all about, too. An surely not everybody was Kung Fu Fighting?

As a parent to bi lingual children, I can totally relate to the role nursery rhymes have for teaching rhythm, cadence and pronunciation. French and English rhymes have a very different sound. And my son who lisped in English for many years, never lisped when speaking French....
And as for bloodiness...Allouette, petite allouette is all about killing and plucking a darling little pigeon !!!

1. They're entertaining short stories that a parent can often recite from memory, having learned them very young themselves.
2. Young children adore repetition and predictability. They love hearing the same story or watching the same film over and over again. Rhyming makes the story easier to remember, and some of the words easier to predict. Oh, and they're big fans of silliness and nonsense, too.

Some of them carry warnings, probably dating back to when common sense was passed word of mouth, because the average person couldn't read or write. There are certainly recurring themes of risk and consequence.

Hokey Cokey/Pokey is one of those interesting differences between UK and US English. I'm not sure how it came about. A quick Google suggests that Hokey Pokey is the favoured version almost everywhere but the UK.

Most are historical tales but were contemporary at the time.
Hush-a-by baby for instance is about James ii. To give you a hint on just how unpopular this monarch was. When his brother Charles ii was running around with Nell Gwyn and generally living it up. James intermated that perhaps he should be a little more security conscious To which Charles replied " My dear brother. There is not a soul in the land that would have me dead and you on the throne! "
Charles ii died without a legitimate heir and James succeeded him. People were not happy but as he was childless, they knew it would only be temporary and a less catholic king would succeed. Then James`s wife got pregnant.....
What followed was civil war in all but name. Parliament impeached James who fled to France. Invited William of orange over from Holland, who had but a very tenuous claim to the throne and spoke no english at all. He showed up with a huge army (the largest invasion of England in history). The two of them fought it out in Ireland culminating with the battle of the Boyne. Even after that the " baby " still caused trouble with Jacobite rebellions in Scotland. Followers of " Bonny prince Charlie " etc.

I can't say for certain, but I have heard before that most nursery rhymes started as cautionary tales for kids, told in a way they could understand and remember.

I always changed the rock-a-bye baby line to "came floating down. Years later, my daughter thanked me, lol.

Nursery rhymes are sort of like the Disney versions of fairy tales - all the nice bits stay, the bad parts are white washed, and the truely gruesome parts just removed.

I don't

Most of them, according 2 the majority of scholars, where intended 2 teach various lessons or warn about certain things, ring around the Rosie was supposed 2 b about the black plague I think. And Mary Mary quite contrary was supposed 2 b about bloody Mary and the people she tortured, silver bells and cockle shells were not just the names of flowers, but also torture devices

A couple of things, we tell them now because they ryme, sound silly, kids remember them so its good for memory and speech.
Mary Mary quite contrary is a bit scary,
most of them were political satire when first derived.