Just in time for us to restart this program. The kids are bugging me constantly to pull out the nursery rhyme book. We really enjoyed our look into history last year and with the twins one year older I am hoping their enthusiasm to find out the weird but true will help keep me on my toes!!!  

So, as I promised HERE… the further adventures (and really mostly resources) of our foray into Nursery Rhymes. I try to pick rhymes that I remember and that may be at least a fun challenge to learn for half of the kids. As I am sure those who are on my Facebook or Instagram have noticed, not all of our rhymes have gone over well with the minions.

Hush a Bye Baby/Rock a Bye Baby is another of those. While looking into cradleboards was fun and interesting and the multiple origin theories fun to explore some of the kids were put out by the “meanness” of the original rhyme. Echo espeically disliked the idea that ANY babies were harmed in the making of the story. After all for the rhyme to have been written she believed at least one baby had to fall. So of course we included the “not scary” version in our copy work. You can read about that version HERE. I didn’t make them memorize this vsersion as it is not common, but it was fun to read through the sweetened up version and wonder if it was necessary to do so.

We made sure to do some research about Cradleboards as soon as it was made clear that that is what the poem is referring to. And am I ever glad we did, they are BEAUTIFUL! And then, at the science museum, we found an actual example of one. You can read all about them HERE.

There is always Wiki for a brief write up HERE, try Song Facts for more information about various uses of this rhyme HERE, and Mom.me for a dark origin HERE.

MotherGoose.com has a cute colouring page HERE. We did a craft for this rhyme with Education.com called Baby Footprints. As you can see from the additional picture… we really didn’t stop there!

3 Blind Mice was our next nursery rhyme. It was sadly much delayed with noise from siding construction. We could not get our video recorded and everyone was out of sorts so rather large amounts of work did NOT get done. BUT I do have links to share…

KidZone had an Itsy Bisty Book to share HERE. DLTK has a fun number sheet related to our rhyme HERE. A cute shaped colouring picture HERE was used by the kids. Check out Reading With Kids for another colouring page HERE

For research purposes check out rhymes.org.uk HERE or All Nursery Rhymes HERE. For a good joke page with animal related jokes, and most of the way down one specifically about the 3 blind mice head to THIS Activity Village link. Education.com has a list of brief information for various rhymes including this one HERE.

Hot Cross Buns came next with a lovely printable of pennies and buns that I printed in colour and laminated from Play at Home Teacher HERE. DLTK has a printable recipe HERE. Sadly we did not have time to bake buns but we saved the recipe for the holiday season to add to our cooking experience.

There is definitely religious significance to the rhyme in the subject matter, so if you are researching be aware. But the actual origins of the rhyme are as a selling tool. End of story. So not the most exciting. Though the kids loved singing it with the extended verse about having a daughter or son. You can read about it all on Powerfulwords.info HERE, Rhymes.org.uk HERE, Smithsonianmag.com HERE.

Kiddyhouse.com has both verses HERE.

Now as an additional bit of info Zander took some time and researched Mother Goose herself. Not an easy woman to pin down. But you can do your own reading with our resources. Bluebonkers.com HERE.

Back to the rhymes and Ring Around The Rosies (which does not have the origin story most people think it does). Echo really enjoyed learning the dance.

I will say straight off, I too thought it was about the plague. Wiki has a good run down HERE. Library of Congress has a helpful site HERE, Dictionary.com has information HERE. Dover Publications has a great colouring page with the lines of the rhyme in a traditional style HERE. And that is where we ended our series. Check back in the next months to see how we get on with our reboot!!

Ok WOW this has been here a while without posting (like last year prepped and not quite posted)… talk about a look back… long hair on me and tiny Echo! Well better late than never! A bit of a filler before I get the January reflection up and running. So enjoy the glance back at our fun in Minnesota!

There is just too much to see and do in Minnesota and we plan to do our best to share it all!!! Enjoy the overflow.

MINNESOTA HISTORY CENTER

I had to do these two pictures as Scouts is new and so much fun for our Emanuel! So anything about them interests him!

Checking out an old fashioned nursery

An old projector

The house through the years had some amazing variety in cultures that had lived there!

You can see the capital building from here!

Learning all about how the Native Americans utilized the bison.

COMO ZOO

Bison

NATURE IN GENERAL!

MINNEHAHA FALLS!

View from the top

April 10-11

Thursday was a rather special day. Family field trip! The first on our Spring/Summer odyssey. We packed everyone up and went downtown to the Mill City Museum. Did you know that Minneapolis was once the Mill Capital of the world? In fact, the one we were in… well the remains of it… was the largest briefly (4 months) until they built a bigger one across the lake. We also learned that the waterfall that ran the mills was gotten from the Native Americans, the flow changed and often even dirtied up. What a history!

We did have a blast. We came at the perfect time and were able to watch the video and take the elevator tour pretty much alone. Though the elevator scared the crud out of the kids.

Waiting for the movie to start

Ken went all the way to the top of the building and took some amazing pictures.

I think they had the most fun at the water lab… but then who doesn’t when you can play with water and wood.

Of course, I made sure to stop and take pictures of the kids in their Aunty Holly finery. An early Easter present. She does have some great taste.

The day was breezy but lovely so we spent some more time outside afterwards.

Friday was a special half day of school… after all, Nana and Baba came home! So spelling tests and then fun in the sun.

Emanuel even helped out with snacks and lunch for his Scout achievement! FRUIT SALAD!!

We ended the day with a family walk. Just the 7 of us, down the street to the walking path. Maybe not a lot of green but it was a lovely walk. At one point the frogs were so loud that when a friend called Ken he had to walk back the path to hear the call!

It always feels absolutely amazing to have so much family outing time. Healthy Kenny is a FUN Kenny and he is stepping right up and willing to go to these events I line up. So pleased.

Enjoy the picture overflow from our Mill City Museum trip!!! Check out their site HERE.