Here we go a rhymin'

How many rhymes can one mother say or sing in one day? Apparently quite a few and they do a body (and brain) good! I’ve realized that the days where Ephraim and I sing and rhyme through our ups and downs seem to go much more smoothly than the days where we don’t sing or rhyme.

Annie and I are just finishing up a Lullabies and LapRhymes session with Erika Webster, daughter of Toronto storyteller Sally Jaeger. I am so glad we signed up for the class (I went with Ephraim when he was a baby also). It has allowed me to not only get through the days more happily but to also give Ephraim a way to bond and play with Annie. He loves to tickle her toes and her tummy and to make up his own rhymes. On days when getting our shoes on to go out the door is a gargantuan struggle, singing our way through it calms everyone down! Furthermore rhyming and singing is so great for both Annie and Ephraim’s developing language skills.

Here are some of our current favourites:

Round and round the honey

Goes the little bear

One step, two step

Tickle under there

-       adapted by Ephraim from the famous “round and round the garden”

Across the plains 

And back again

Round and round for miles and miles

Until we come to dimples and smiles

Dimples and smiles

(As you say this rhyme, trace across your child’s back or tummy and back again, then round and round. Then give a little tickle on their cheeks!)

            -I don’t know who to credit for this…I will ask Erika!

And here’s a little song that Ephraim loves to sing either sitting on my lap or driving his little car around and then falling off of it.

I was driving down a country road

From Jarvis to Port Dover

My wheel got caught inside a rut

And I went tumbling over  woo!

Over, woo!

Over

I went tumbling over

Woo!

For the tune for this song check out Kathy Reid-Naiman’s cd “Reaching for the Stars”