Children and adults love music. We start out listening to fun nursery rhymes and nonsensical songs. Our tastes then grow to enjoy more personalized sounds and lyrics. What our kids listen to often reflects what we jam to and what nursery rhymes we enjoyed as kids. David Weinstone, of Music for Aardvarks fame, sees how much effect music has on children and adults alike and decided to make a music app for kids that isn’t lilke any other! The Music for Aardvarks Coloring Jukebox has added original songs that are different than typical nursery rhymes. But, are nursery rhymes really that typical? Let’s take a look at some of the top 10 nursery rhymes & stuff you didn’t know about them. It may give you a little insight as to where these fun little rhymes came from because not everything is as it seems.
1.) Humpty Dumpty
This rhyme, as we all know it, is about a clumsy egg that fell off that darn wall. Well, it isn’t really clear why Humpty Dumpty is an egg, but this rhyme originally referred to a clumsy guy that couldn’t keep his balance. Some say it could be referring to Kind Richard III and that wall he fell of was really his horse. Whoever Humpty Dumpty is, the rhyme scheme and funny image of him falling off the wall and breaking to pieces is, and always will be, a favorite!
2.) Rock-a-bye Baby
This nursery rhyme is one of my favorites and it’s actually thought to be the first poem written on American soil. As it is told, Native American mothers used to rock their babies in birch wood cribs. Someone saw them doing this and I would imagine got homesick or started to miss their “Mommy” and wrote a longing poem about it. It has put me to sleep many times as a kid and honestly, a few times as an adult.
3.) Little Bo Beep
This nursery rhyme has one of the cutest characters so it’s no wonder why it’s popular; baby sheep! Little, adorable, sweet, and misdirected sheep. That’s just cute! This nursery rhyme may be about a forgetful gal named Bo Peep, but many believe it’s simply based on an old children’s game of the same name “Bo Peep.”
4.) Baa Baa Black Sheep
Again, we have sheep! Of course it’s popular. Imagine little sheep full of wool, getting sheared, and then left all naked and cute. This nursery rhyme is set to the tune of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and is actually based on something not quite so innocent. Some people think it refers to the “Old Custom” wool tax back in 1275 in England. Why do taxes have to be everywhere? Whatever may have inspired this nursery rhyme isn’t going to change the way kids interpret it and parents read it.
5.) Mary Had a Little Lamb
Again, with the sheep, a cute little lamb at that! This nursery rhyme has a pretty neat origin. It is actually based on a real person and her real life lamb. Mary Sawyer used to take her little lamb to school with her each day in the morning and walked home with her after school. An onlooker, (maybe an innocent stalker) named John Roulstone, watched little Mary and her sweet Lamb each day and eventually wrote about her and the baby sheep and gave it to Mary. I don’t know what may have happened to Mary, her lamb, and John, but I like to think they’re a happy little family that made their own nursery rhyme.
6.) London Bridge is Falling Down
This is a nursery rhyme that is sang worldwide in all different languages and the origin of this fun song is unclear. One story that caught my attention was the idea that it refers to the practice of burying children alive in the bridge’s foundations. There isn’t a whole lot of evidence to support this theory, but with the strange minds of our world, it is one of the more popular ideas.
7.) Ring Around the Rosie
This nursery rhyme was another of my favorites mainly because I got to dance in a circle, continuously chanting, without anyone looking at me like I was nutty. The origin of this rhyme is a little dark as it is believed by many to refer to the Great Plague of London in 1655. Again, there isn’t a whole lot of evidence to support this, but many like to believe it’s true. Well, I now feel a little awkward dancing to such morbidity. So let’s just say it isn’t true for our sanity, okay?
8.) Jack and Jill
This is one of the most famous and widely used nursery rhyme and it makes no sense! Starting off, who goes up a hill to get water? A well is usually at he base of a hill. Other details in the rhyme are silly, but I did learn that Jack and Jill are most likely used just as a term to describe a couple. Shakespeare actually used this term in a couple of his writings. I just hope Jill was okay after Jack broke that crown of his!
9.) Itsy Bitsy Spider
This is a simple tale of a determined spider that wants to get up that spout, but the rain comes and whooshes him out. That doesn’t stop him though, cause he goes up that spout again and again. The origin of this one isn’t really clear, but I think it’s simple. Like the saying goes, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again!” I wonder how many tries it took for him to get up that spout. Did he ever get up that spout? What was on the oher side of that spout? So many unanswered questions.
10) It’ Raining It’s Pouring
This nursery rhyme seems innocent enough. It seems an old man decided to sleep during a rainy night. Well, if you really want to look into the lyrics, it’s a description of a head injury. Sounds like the old man bonked his head, giving him a concussion of sorts and then was unable to wake up in the morning. I’m not sure how valid this interpretation is, but it does sound about right, don’t you think?
Nursery rhymes are just one way to allow kids the chance to enjoy music. The rhythm, rhyming, and meter of the tunes help a child’s cognitive development, along with a hand/eye coordination and social skills. It makes sense to sing to our kids and David Weinhorne has taken it to a new level.
He developed an awesome app for kids that is like no other. The app gives access to about six album’s worth of David’s songs. Kids bring home their favorite Music for Aardvarks tracks. These tracks from David aren’t available anywhere else. It also contains an interactive coloring book. Kids can use the paint-pooping pigeon and fruit-throwing monkey to color their pictures too.
This app is now available for iPhone and iPad and will soon be coming to an Android near you! Download the Music for Aardvarks Coloring Book Jukebox now and enjoy all the great music and tracks while you and your little ones help the pigeon poop paint on a picture, just remember folks, your kids need a turn too, ha ha!
Do you have a favorite nursery rhyme or song that you sang as a kid? Do you sing those to your little ones? What other nursery rhymes have you heard strange things about? We love to hear what you have to say so share in the comments below!
3 comments
Boy, talk about the things that you learn. This was a pleasure to read.
Thank you for sharing these explanations. I have heard some of them, not all.
I have heard some pretty morbid explanations as to where certain nursery rhymes come from. I never know what’s true and what isn’t. These are tame, I like these better.