Mother Goose Monday

A Mother Goose Cookie Jar

Recently as I hunted through various booths at an antique/thrift store, I stumbled upon a Mother Goose Cookie Jar. It was labeled at an irresistible price!  I had to bring her home!  Now she sits proudly on my countertop, where she is a constant reminder to me, of the joys of sharing traditional rhymes with children.

I've shared nursery rhymes with my preschool classes when I taught Head Start children years ago. I recited them and sang them to my own babies as they grew into preschool and then school aged children. And now I've been sharing them with young children, first as a reading specialist and now as an elementary school librarian.

Nursery rhymes were such a big part of our daily lives and routines for my own girls. We recited, “Rub-a-Dub-Dub” when it was bathtime, “”Jack and Jill” as they ran up and rolled down a small hill in their grandparents front yard.  Taste-tested peas and honey from a knife, as we ate peas for dinner and recited, “I Eat my Peas with Honey.”. And I was told by my late husband, John, that I was the cause of my older daughter's fear of spiders because we acted out “Little Miss Muffet!” (I'm not convinced of this, though Sienna did burst into tears when we were frightened by the spider!). Integrating nursery rhymes into our lives was so natural, as they lend themselves to so many childhood routines.

As a former early childhood education student, and then teacher, it was natural for me to understand the value of integrating these childhood rhymes into my babies’ lives. It was amazing and beautiful to watch as John seemlessly did the same with our girls. He so enjoyed finding opportunities to recite with the girls as he dressed them and recited, “One Two Buckle My Shoe,” or played “Ring Around the Rosie,” as he held their hands and danced around the living room. What precious bonding time these simple nursery rhymes offered our family. Now they remain, just as precious in our memories. Not just memories of days gone by, but memories of a mom who is still here as a mom to two teenagers, but also as a memory of a dad that is no  longer with them  Memories of their dad that has passed away but a dad who has left his children with beautiful, yet simple memories.

All of this has come from the simplicity of a cookie jar that was happily discovered as a treasure from the antique/thrift store. What memories are you making today?  What simple objects hold a memory of the past?  What treasures might you discover, that will bring about memories of the past?  Memories that cause you to smile each time you look st your treasure.