Nursery Rhymes

Ever since he was five weeks old, the Wee Man has been taken to baby groups which all seemed to involve some degree or other of singing.

For me, used to singing rock / classical / a bit of whatever was on the radio, it was a bit of a shock to the system. All the songs I’d sung as a child came flooding back to my brain, except some have had a modern makeover! Baa Baa Black Sheep has now gone all manners-like, and requires a second thank you verse, and Humpty Dumpty now has help to put himself back together, rather than being destined to lie in pieces for eternity…

I even heard that the Grand Old Duke now meets a dragon when he gets to the top of the hill, clearly his men got bored of just traipsing up and down repeatedly in the interventing 28 years.

And new rhymes have joined the old – I now know how to wind the bobbin up, zoom to the moon, and drive a big red bus. (I tried driving a bus once. It didn’t go well).

The Wee Man is now a MASTER of nursery rhymes, and I couldn’t help but smile as listened to him serenading himself to sleep last night with a tuneful rendition of ‘A,B,C,D,E,F,G….’.

But it turns out that nursery rhymes are useful as more than just a ‘going off to sleep aid’ or ‘boredom in the car avoidance’ tactic.

Whilst the Other Half gaily watched the F1 this morning, the Wee Man wandered in. ‘I don’t want to watch the fast cars, Daddy’ he moaned, heading for the Peppa Pig DVD’s.

‘Oh’ said the Other Half, thinking on his feet. ‘But look, there is a Ferrari, like in your [aforementioned big red bus] song!’

‘I LIKE Ferrari’s!’ said the Wee Man, waving his hands about in the correct ‘Ferrari flying over your shoulder’ motion.

The Other Half sighed in relief and settled back to watch in peace. Well, relative peace. Because of course the F1 was then accompanied by a rousing rendition of ‘Big Red Bus’.