Rhymes for children: the importance of nursery rhymes

Posted on 9 November 2014

Most of the parents are aware of the importance of rhymes for children. Rhymes are far more than simple stories with matching ending words. Rhyming is one of the most important phonics skills that your child needs to learn. Nursery rhymes have been used in our schools since long time. Rhymes are considered to be important for proper understanding of language and helps children in finding more words out of curiosity. There are a lot of methods for making children learn and understand rhymes. We are going to discuss some of the best methods for teaching rhymes for children.

How to teach rhymes for children?

Kids are excited to learn something new and the only thing you need is to add the element of surprise and excitement in the activity. Let us find out some of the best methods for guiding your children through rhymes.

• Using pictures that rhyme: You can start with simple games including using two sets of pictures that rhyme. Ask your kid to find out images that rhyme and put that all together. It will help him in identifying the visual appearance as well as exact pronunciation of the words.

• Rhyme Worksheets: Most of the teachers prefer rhyme worksheets for helping kids in understanding the importance of rhyme. Set some pictures in one row of the worksheet and then spell a rhyming word matching one of these pictures. Now ask your child to match the word with the given set of images. It is one of the most interesting worksheet activities that you can enjoy with your child.

• Sing simple rhymes: Kids love singing and dancing. Singing the rhymes to the child is the best way to let them learn rhymes. After singing the rhyme to the kids, ask them to identify the matching word in the rhyme. Some of the best rhymes to sing to your kid are:

  Willaby Wallaby Wusan,
  An elephant sat on Susan.
  Willaby Wallaby Wark
  An elephant sat on Mark.

  Miss Polly had a dolly who was sick, sick, sick.
  So she phoned for the doctor to be quick, quick, quick.
  The doctor came with his bag and hat,
  And knocked at the door with a rat tat tat

  Full lyrics at http://bussongs.com/songs/miss_polly

Nursery rhymes for children are important because of many reasons. They help kids in improving their pronunciation, understand importance of facial expressions, build confidence, and help child in understanding important traditions of our culture. You can find lots of online resources to help your children in learning rhymes for children and even consult primary education specialists.

Some fun and interesting links:
Rhymes for kids
Rhyming Worksheets
Some more nursery rhymes for Children
Five Little Ducks
If You Are Happy