Mother Goose Rhymes

Not only are Mother Goose rhymes a part of our western cultural heritage, but Mother Goose has her own special holiday. May 1 is Mother Goose Day! Of course, these classic rhymes can be celebrated  any day of the year!

How well do you know your nursery rhymes? Can you distinguish Old King Cole from Old Mother Hubbard? Does Little Boy Blue get confused with Little Jack Horner in your memory? Take an online quiz and see how familiar you are with these timeless poems!

Then keep reading for more Mother Goose fun.

Hey diddle, diddle, The cat and the fiddle, The cow jumped over the moon;
The little dog laughed To see such sport, And the dish ran away with the spoon

What did your childhood Mother Goose volume look like? Was it a traditional one or a more modern one? For a bit of nostalgia, look through the books below and find your childhood version.

Mother Goose rhymes have been published in multiple formats over the years. They first appeared in England in 1780 in America in 1786. By nineteenth century America, Mother Goose had become a symbol of both children's literature and of childhood in general. Even today, nursery rhyme games are the staple of baby showers and Mother Goose rhyme art is still used to decorate a new baby's nursery.

Over time, the various images of Mother Goose and her nursery rhyme characters were used in advertising campaigns, such as the Jack and Jill Peppers seen here.

Eclipse offers a fascinating series of images of Mother Goose through the years. She is sometimes portrayed as a woman with a goose and other times as a goose herself.

A cultured, educated person generally is thought to be familiar with the canon of western literature -- including the Bible, Shakespeare, Greek myths, and Mother Goose rhymes! For example, A Treasury of Mother Goose is recommended by E. D. Hirsch's Core Knowledge Preschool Curriculum. The Poetry Foundation features Mother Goose on 3 lists of its Essential Children's Collection -- Anthologies, Contemporary, and Out of Print.

Make sure your children can recite some Mother Goose rhymes. They will love the silly images and musical language.

This was my Mother Goose, and the one that I bought for my daughter.

These options are all fairly traditional versions of the Mother Goose rhymes.

Georgie Porgie, pudding and pie, Kissed the girls and made them cry;

When the boys came out to play, Georgie Porgie ran away.

Omitting nursery rhymes from your child's library not only leaves a gap in the cultural literacy foundation, but also robs them of some delightfully frivolous fun.

Most parents want their children to achieve in every way possible. But they may also wrongly expect everything the child does, sees, and hears to have an academic purpose. Even if they do see the value of rhymes for learning the patterns of language, Mother Goose may seem to them simply outdated poems that can be effectively replaced with Dr. Seuss, Jack Prelutsky, or Shel Sliverstein.

The Uses of Enchantment by Bruno Bettelheim is an academic explanation of the psychological value of fairy tales and nursery rhymes for a child's development. Bettelheim holds that these childhood stories have great value in teaching children that "a struggle against severe difficulties in life is unavoidable, is an intrinisc part of human existance--but that if one does not shy away, but steadfastly meets unexpected and often unjust hardships, one masters all obstacles and at the end emerges victorious."

Others have tried to dissect the historical backgrounds and hidden meanings of the nursery rhymes in an effort to give them a "value."

But the reality is that although Mother Goose has value as poetry and may give children a structure by which to playact their deepest fears, and may also have interesting historical connections, many of them are simply nonsense. But children need time to play, laugh, and speak the nonsense of these rhymes. If childhood is totally devoid of nonsense, where is the wonder and joy of those years? The magic of the rhymes is their simple ability to please the child who hears and recites them. And to please a child is really reason enough to read Mother Goose rhymes.

So, Please don't kill off our nursery rhymes.

Because Mother Goose has been around for so long, many editions of the rhymes have passed into the public domain. These links are some of the most beautiful digital versions.

Early education professionals all recommend reading or singing nursery rhymes to your children. These board books are a great place to start.