NURSERY RHYMES

The term nursery rhyme is used for traditiona poems and songs for young children in Britain and many other countries, but usage only dates from the late 18th and 19th century and in North America the term " Mother Goose Rhymes". introduced in the mid-1700's, is still often used.

HISTORY

Lullabies
The oldest children's song of which we have record are lullabies, intend to help a child sleep. Lullabies can be found in every human culture. The english term lullaby is thought to come from "lu lu" or "la la" sound made by mothers or nurses calm children and "by by" or " bye bye", either another lulling sound, or a term of good night. Until the modern era lullabies were only recorded incidentally in written sources.The Roman nurses lullaby, "Lalla, Lalla, Lalla, aut dormi, aut lacta" is recorded on scholium on Persius and maybe the oldest to survive.
Many medieval English verses associated with the birth of Jesus take the form of a lullaby, including "Lullay, my ling, my dear son, my sweting" and may be versions of contemporay lullabies. However most of used today date from 17th century. For example, a well known lullaby such as "Rock-a-bye baby on a tree top" cannot be found on records until the late 18th century when it was printed by John Newberry.

It has been argued that Nursery Rhymes set to music aid in a child's development. research also supports the assertion that music and rhyme increase a child's ability in spatial reasoning, which leads to greater success in  school in the subjects of mathematics and science.

Videos of Nursery Rhymes

                                                         Mary had a little lamb

                                                       Row row row your boat