This summer I got the grand idea to have us go through nursery rhymes and learn more about them. This is a great way to expose Echo to them all and in turn refresh the rest. Additionally the twins are looking into the history of the rhyme (if there is one) and we are doing lots of little side reports.

We had 2 books initially. The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes by Iona and Peter Opie HERE which was a bit too dry for the kids but a good (though pricey) resource for me. Our second book was easier for the kids to comprehend – Pop Goes the Weasel by Albert Jack HERE.

Zander picked our first rhyme – Itsy Betsy Spider.

For our historical significance we used the site All Nursery Rhymes HERE.

Our second choice was Hickory Dickory Dock.

For our historical significance we went beyond our books with the site Nursery Rhymes With Mother Goose HERE. Also check out All Nursery Rhymes HERE

Our third rhyme got two weeks as Emanuel had a week of camp. We chose London Bridge is Falling Down. A fun nursery rhyme AND game.

For historical significance we went beyond the book to All Nursery Rhymes HERE and Nursery Rhymes Lyrics and Origins HERE. An explanation of versions of games connected to the rhyme (and the extended version) we used Encyclopaedia Britannica HERE.

We worked on a short write up about what is actually the London Bridge vs what is sometimes mistaken as the same bridge in the song – Tower Bridge. The best place for statistics on these bridges was Wiki. And colouring pages are all over the place (though be careful, often Tower Bridge pictures are mislabeled as LONDON BRIDGE).

We had an extended run at that one with Emanuel gone for camp for a week, then its was onto Little Miss Muffet.

Super Coloring has some great vintage style colouring pages for many of the common nursery rhymes HERE. Since we already did a spider report for Itsy Bitsy we chose a couple spider crafts instead. One with First-School.WS HERE and the other on Red Ted Art HERE.

For further historical past our book… check out Treasury Islands HERE, Rhymes.org.uk HERE or All Nursery Rhymes HERE.

From Little Miss Muffet to Jack and Jill Went Up the Hill.

If you want some fun printables that practice spelling, printing, even handwriting head over to Free Homeschool Deals HERE.

We supplemented the books on hand with a few sites for this nursery rhyme – Rhymes.org.uk HERE and Funlinks Daily HERE. Gavin found this a more complicated nursery rhyme to explain as one possible interpretation requires some knowledge of taxes and liquor and kings, but he has taken on this aspect of the program with great enjoyment.

For a lot of our crafts and printables head over to Education.com and my Nursery Rhymes collection HERE

At this point I originally intended to end our summer program and wrap it all up for a September reboot, but the kids are loving the rhymes. This means extension time. Especially since we lost about 2 weeks of half days to a surprise cousin visit. So… I will end this post with our 5th rhyme. Watch for the second half of our foray into the history of popular nursery rhymes!