To pass time in the car as we run errands, my children and I often take turns repeating nursery rhymes. Even the littlest can fill in the words at the end of a familiar line. For my older masters of verse, I've tried to add a couple of easy poems to test their skills. I like to think that this quick activity helps their memories and their vocabularies, as well as providing some fun.
A few rhymes to refresh your memory:
Hickory, dickory, dock,
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one,
The mouse ran down.
Hickory, dickory, dock.
Hey, diddle, diddle, the cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon.
The little dog laughed to see such a sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.
Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells
And pretty maids all in a row.
And two of our favorite poems:
Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies.
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand.
Little flower--but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.
(Alfred, Lord Tennyson)
To see a world in a grain of sand
And a Heaven in a wildflower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
(William Blake)
**Just when I think my brain no longer thinks deep thoughts, I find myself trying to memorize and understand poetry to teach my kids while we drive to the bank.
