Deja Vu

Remember the time when you were little and off you went to Nursery school. It was the time to learn about 'How twinkly the stars were' and about 'Mary's Little Lamb'. We learned them with such enthusiasm. Never a doubt or a quandary about them.

Our generation of kids never asked questions about these Nursery Rhymes. No doubts at all. If the teacher said 'Mary had a little Lamb' then she had one. I had never seen an actual Lamb in my life till I came to UK.

My sudden interest in Nursery rhymes and the reason to blog came after I received a mail from my sister. She is the one with twins aged 3.5years. I receive regular updates from her about their antics. The recent one was quite thought provoking.

It was a nursery rhyme singing session. And this is how it went.

Sis: Jack and Jill went up the Hill.


A(Boy): Why?

Sis: To fetch a pail of water.

B (Girl): Why Mama? They don't have water in the house? what's a pail?

Sis: Um, this is a song. Lets sing it?

A (almost screaming): Nooooo, don't say that.

B: Mama, lets watch Dora.

Sis: Ok, I give up.


They are so perceptive and so practical. Who needs a pail anymore? We have water coming in our homes

These Nursery Rhymes are so antiquated and totally not in tune with today's fast technological growth. A child starts using a computer at the age of 3 and we are still stuck teaching him rhymes written centuries ago. Kids now need new nursery rhymes...mainly I guess talking about technology and computers.

Something which goes like this

Twitter Twitter your'e so cool
You're so great, what a tool!!

My friends know each minute what I do.
They put funny messages, which makes me go Yahoo!!


P.S: This site will give you a history and origins of Nursery Rhymes. 
This is a recycled post :)  one which got tucked away....

Comments

  1. Speaking of nursery rhymes, here is an interesting titbit for you:

    Did you know, Humpty Dumpty was actually a cannon or a toph. It used to be there in the city of Colchester in UK. It was a very powerful cannon. But during one battle, it fell from the wall and was broken. People could not repair it.

    Hence:
    "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall" (The cannon named Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall and it fell down during the battle).
    "All the kings horses, and all the kings men, could not put humpty dumpty together again" (The king's soldiers with their horses tried to repair it but could not do so).

    Howz that! Fascinating isn't it?

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  2. oh wow this is fascinating...I've heard that the game we played Ring a Ring a Roses also has some weird origin...I think it was to do with the great plague of london.

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  3. Since I read this after your Pune-first stop post,let me say-maybe u should tell this kid about how you went round the building to fetch a pail of water?(Sounds humorous now,I know,but,it must have been a nightmare then.:))

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  4. amit : heheh that's a Good idea...but right now my nephew is too small to understand. Let him grow up a bit and I surely will...

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  5. i wonder what rhymes i will teach my kids???!!! :) i am not even sure if i'll ever be able to answer their "so practical questions". We will look like fools in front of them singing rhymes :)
    imagine: pussy cat pussy cat where had u been?
    i had been to London to look at the queen?
    pussy cat pussy cat what did u do there?
    i frightened the little mouse under the chair!!!!
    hahahahahaha LOL :)

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  6. Harya : You had to go and pick the weirdest of Nursery Rhymes :) .

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  7. Wow this post was so refreshing... I thoroughly enjoied it n went in the memorly lane...And did recollect some of the school poems....

    I will not teach any studies to d kids damn I WILL NEVER EVER STUDY :P

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  8. Jack and Jill went up the hill
    To sell some pails of water
    'Cos they're good little entrepeneurs
    But they could sell nothing
    'Cos no one wanted to climb a hill
    Just to buy water that wasn't bottled
    So Jack and Jill came tumbling back down
    And died in a gutter because of starvation and harsh market realities


    This post inspired me, LP. Fabulous! :P

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  9. Yes, most of the nursery rhymes are outdated. You replace it with new ones..like the Twitter rhyme you mentioned or come up with a parody of the old one. Like this...Two little 'dick'ie birds sitting on a Gate (IPL Gate), One named Sashi, One named Lalit, Fly away Sashi, Fly away Lalit, Dont come back Sashi, Dont come back Lalit.

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  10. Ah Vins, this brings back memories. As you know they have now started asking even more difficult questions that mom and dad sometimes scramble to answer in a non-scary, non-weird 4.5 yr old perspective.

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  11. Most nursery rhymes have 'adult' meanings. 'Oranges and lemons' is actually a lewd wedding song. These rhymes sometimes comment to the political goings-on (sing a song of six pence), or socio economic conditions. Adults taught these songs to kids because they were pretty much all they knew.

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  12. Wow....this indeed is the twitter/facebook generation. Didn't think the kids would be soo into it.
    Makes even me feel like a dinosaur at times!!! :)

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  13. Kids are amazing. It is not easy to answer their innocent questions.

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  14. Yeah. I had been to the nursery rhyme site before.
    It's a good thing that kids these days question. Even we did not use a pail. But did we question? Why pail ma? Why? No!:D

    I think the rhyme should say:
    "Jack and Jill got on the escalator
    To get to the higher floor faster
    Jack ran on it
    Jill did not hold the handrail
    They both tripped and fell
    Broke their crowns
    And everyone behind them came tumbling after"

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  15. ha ha your new age rhyme was awesome! Am sure kids will identify with the tech rhyme than the antiquated rhymes... Time to change it and time for me to learn new age rhymes to tell my kid ;)

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  16. Pls meet Education expert Kapil Sibal asap

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  17. That's an interesting question. I am glad they got to watch Dora. Actually, even she says stuff that sound like rhymes!
    Anyways, loved your Twitter rhyme. Very cute and I am singing it right now...:)

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  18. LOL...naive is the word for what we were...I mean,can you imagine today's kids wondering why anyone would wonder what a star(Twinkle Twinkle) is?Or, why Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall?(They'll probably say that the civil engineering failed his job)..:)

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  19. Lol! The scary thing is, they could actually make nursery rhymes that have such spellings! :P

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