Honey for You, Honey for Me

There are five simple activities you can do with your young child to help him become a reader: read, sing, play, write, and talk. As a librarian whose focus is on youth services, I knew about these activities and often recommended ways for adults to do them with their little ones. Yet, it wasn’t until I had my first son that I learned one of these practices was hard for me to do.

Reading to him? No problem. Singing? Love it. Play with stuffies and doing tummy time? Got it. Even doing some pre-writing activities like holding rattles was golden for us. But talking to my son was difficult. I’m no talker and I found it draining to constantly “talk up my day” with my infant son. I couldn’t stand describing everything I was doing.

It wasn’t until I attended Denton Public Library’s Baby Story Time with my son that I learned talking comes in different forms. The entire story time was completely different from anything I encountered before because the bulk of the 20-minute story time was in rhymes.

Rhymes are short stories told with some pretty interesting words. That’s the beauty of nursery rhymes: they are a fun way to build vocabulary, which is one of the benefits of talking with your child.

I also learned that nursery rhymes aren’t just fun for children. They are very interesting for adults. Consider the rhymes “Goosey, Goosey, Gander” and “There was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe.” To this day, I cannot not look through nursery rhyme books. There is always a new rhyme to discover.

Recently, the library purchased Michael Rosen’s newest nursery rhyme compilation illustrated by Chris Riddell, Honey for You, Honey for Me. There are some unique rhymes Rosen discovered that my children and I were delighted to learn. We even added new parts to the rhymes, especially for “One Day a Boy Went Walking.”

These rhymes not only help my children learn vocabulary, but they also help to create family memories. Saying rhymes and doing the accompanying actions with my children has helped to build a special bond between us (yup, “honey for you, honey for me”). I cannot recommend enough the experience of discovering nursery rhymes with your little ones.

Make sure to share your favorite rhyme with a child close to you today!

To learn more about these Early Literacy Practices, visit this web site: https://www.clel.org/fiveearlyliteracypractices

To request Honey for You, Honey for Me please click here.

Christina Jane Stuck has worked for 14 years in public libraries. The last four have been here in Charlotte. The other ten were in the state of Texas. She is married and has two boys.