Did you have a favorite poem, nursery rhyme or song as a child? Describe what you remember liking about it.
I didn't really have one specific nursery rhyme that I liked as a child, but I do remember loving Mother Goose rhymes. When I was about four, we had a computer game of Mother Goose. The goal of the game was to go around Mother Goose land and find all the different parts of the different rhymes and put them back together. So you would have to find Jack and Jill and lead them back to their hill so that they could tumble down it.
I think what I enjoyed so much about Mother Goose was the rhymes themselves, as well as the stories they told. The rhyming schemes were easy and sing-song, so they were easy to follow along with and to remember. And the stories themselves were often quite funny or silly, like the old lady who lived in a shoe. I love the commercial that's out now, about the old woman with a bunch of children and the agent who found her the perfect house, which is of course in the shape of a shoe. I think it was always that little touch of fantasy that I liked, knowing that something like that couldn't really exist, but it was just so much fun to imagine that it did. What would it really be like to live in a shoe, or to see a cow jumping over the moon?
After all, the fantasy world outstripped the real world most of the time. I was an extremely shy child, the type who would cry as soon as you looked at her. So I suppose for me, it was much easier to lose myself in the world of fantasy, where nobody would ever bother me, rather than having to endure a much more painful reality. Luckily, I outgrew the shyness (for the most part) and retained my love of reading and make believe. I still enjoy silly children's rhymes and singing the songs I learned as a child. The ones I can remember at least. When looking for a selection of rhymes for our next assignment, I happened upon the most wonderful book.
"Spinster Goose: Twisted Rhymes for Naughty Children"
I think I may have found a few new favourite nursery rhymes :)
