What Will Poor Robin Do? and other Essential Nursery Rhymes

NURSERY RHYMES AND OTHER NONSENSE ARE ESSENTIAL TO EVERY CHILD’S DEVELOPEMENT. It is up to mothers to ensure their children are inundated with nonsense.

It is still winter. In fact, it is snowing today, even though the official first day of spring is in about two weeks. Unfortunately the birds do not know that this is an unusual winter; we saw a robin on the side of the road, right at the end of our driveway. I hope robins eat something more than earthworms. I quoted this little rhyme last year but I think of it every March since my mum repeated it to me every March.

The North Wind Doth Blow 

The North wind doth blow and we shall have snow,
And what will poor robin do then, poor thing?
He’ll sit in a barn and keep himself warm
and hide his head under his wing, poor thing.

This nursery rhyme is referred to as either the North Wind doth blow or The Robin. ‘The North Wind doth blow’ is British in its origins, originatING in the 16th century history. ‘The North Wind doth blow’ uses the olde English word ‘doth’. The purpose of the words is to encourage children to empathize with the plight of the robin.This English poem originated in the 16th century, so it would seem that I am not the only mother to have a childhood nursery rhyme engraved in her mind in order that I too will pass down this oral tradition.

The use of catchy rhyming poems to teach children and to preserve oral tradition is probably thousands of years old.

The problem I see in schools these days is that parents put pressure on even preschool teachers to equip their kids to get ahead in the world. The lessons and brain development techniques start soon after birth. By age 3, kids are learning to operate a computer, taking swimming lessons, learning to skate and attending a  French Nursery School so  they will be bi-lingual and fit into immersion schools by grade I. School is serious business these days with no time for delightful nursery rhymes.  The result is kids with little or no imagination, creativity or time for the arts. Society is  raising a generation of driven, pedantic thinkers trained to succeed. How terrible.

NURSERY RHYMES AND OTHER NONSENSE ARE ESSENTIAL TO EVERY CHILD’S DEVELOPEMENT.It is up to mothers to ensure their children are inundated with nonsense. Listen to Dr. Seuss

I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells.

Adults are just outdated children.

 

You make ’em, I amuse ’em

Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.