I am not the kind of mom who really gets a LOT of joy from sitting on the floor and playing toys with my kids for hours on end. I'll do it some, but my love language is a little different. I prefer to spend most of our "mom and me" time interacting with them by doing things that we BOTH like.
I truly believe that kids have a fifth sense of sincerity and can tell if you're really into something or not. And that can have a tremendous impact on the atmosphere of the play and the level you're able to connect and bond. It's something called 'looping' , where each person's happiness and enjoyment feeds off another. It's one of the most organic ways to bond with someone.
For me, one of my favorite things to do with my kids is to read. I could read their little books to them for hours a day (and some days we do!). I also LOVE to sing with them. We love nursery rhymes, in particular (which are a combination of the two), and there are SO many developmental benefits to incorporating them into your child's life. A lot of it has been formally researched, too, which I cite at the end of this post for those who are more analytical, like me! After doing so much research in the child development sphere over the last 5 years, it's become important for me to incorporate scholarly material on anything I include in this blog.
Here are some of the main benefits of nursery rhymes for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers:
- An Early Love of Reading:
- Children begin to catch on quickly that these are not just meaningless songs and sounds - they are stories! They begin to see the joy in a narrative and find enjoyment in listening to or reading a story from start to finish.
- Social Development:
- Many nursery rhymes are sung in a social/circular setting. The children see and hear other children singing and dancing with them which fosters a prosocial experience. This is a way small children can connect with each other (since often they are in the 'individualistic/solitary play' phase prior to preschool). We have always gone to little 'mommy and me' music classes or Kindermusik - they are held all over the U.S. in Rec centers or community centers for nominal costs. It's a GREAT way to make friends, too!
- Word Development:
- Nursery rhymes have a LOT of repetition and a lot of patterns. That predictability (and repetitive nature) helps them grasp the word by use of hearing the sounds of it over and over - and also often times hearing the word in several contexts. Why is language development even important? Won't a child learn that on his own? To see the answer to that question and the impact of parents on their kids language development, go *here.* Nursery rhymes are an easy and super enjoyable way to incorporate language learning!
- Organized Speech:
- When you hear a nursery rhyme, you can hear sounds and words that are emphasized more than in every day speech. When babies hear these, they are more easily able to organize them into categories. This is important to learn how to speak in sentences as well as for learning to read.
- Familiarity:
- Rhythm, tradition, and predictability are so comforting and grounding to children. Having a few songs that you sing with your child frequently end up being staples of familiarity to them, often times in times of stress or feeling unsure. She ALWAYS asks for her Kindermusik cd to be played on drives to preschool. I can tell how happy and calm they make her! They also serve as entertainment that a child can provide for themselves as they get to toddler-age. I have caught Juliana singing a song or two while waiting for me to finish getting dressed or feeding Micah. It's such a great skill and keeps her from whining!
Nursery rhymes are a staple in our house! We sing them a lot and read them in her sweet stories. At age 2 she had about 20 memorized. We end up switching words out and making jokes, now that she's a preschooler, and she thinks its hilarious. She also grasps meanings of them more which has sparked her asking more inquisitive questions like "why did he do that??".
Nursery rhymes provide such a language-rich, positive environment of familiarity. They are easy to incorporate by either class or personal use! If you don't know very many, do a quick google/youtube search or get a few books! I would also recommend Kindermusik a million times (which incorporates movement - added bonus!).
To see our VERY favorite nursery rhyme book that we got at an old library book sale in Virginia (and which has over 100 rhymes and the most gorgeous illustrations!), go *here*.
For anyone interested in excerpts of scholarly research:
"[nursery rhymes] promote awareness of phonemes"(Rieben & Perfetti, 2016).
"What was important in the child's eventual acquisition of phonemic knowledge and, in fact, reading acquisition, was whether the child knew some nursery rhymes by age 3" (Rieben & Perfetti, 2016).
"Meta-analyses of art education research studies suggest that music activities in particular are strongly associated with non-musical curricular outcomes. Music activities can enhance students academic performance, social skills, and content learning" (Smith, 2000).
"[For children who frequently engage in nursery rhymes,] there was a strong relationship between early knowledge of nursery rhymes and success in reading and spelling over the next three years even after controlling differences in I.Q., social background and children's phonological skills at the beginning of the project were taken into account" (Partridge, 1992).
"Children's knowledge of nursery rhymes can be their path to learning to read and to enjoy reading if handled properly by their teachers and parents. Each session with a child or group of children must be enjoyable, non-threatening, inspiring and challenging for the children. They should be able to feel that their parents and teachers are also enjoying the rhymes, not just helping them because they feel it is their duty to do so. The use of nursery rhymes as a pathway for children's learning to read might be the answer to the present concern, the use of whole word versus decoding skills in teaching children to read, for the use of rhyme provides for both. Furthermore, since children like rhymes, they discover from the onset that reading can provide much pleasure. The also learn that the help they get in decoding and the discoveries they themselves make add to their enjoyment of rhymes" (Partridge, 1992).
SOURCES:
Partridge, S. (1992). Nursery Rhymes, a Pathway to Reading? Nursery Rhymes, a Pathway to Reading?Retrieved January 19, 2018, from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED353539.pdf.
Rieben, L., & Perfetti, C. A. (Eds.). (2016). Learning to read: basic research and its implications. Mawah, New Jersey: Routledge.
Smith, J. A. (2000). Singing and Songwriting Support Early Literacy Instruction. John A. Smith,53(8), 646-649. Retrieved January 19, 2018, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20204857
