Nursery rhymes actually go back at least 200 hundred years but possibly more, nobody is quite certain. The reason that nobody is really sure as to how far back nursery rhymes go is because over 200 hundred years ago nobody but the upper upper class knew how to write so most of the time any kind of stories or songs were actually only handed down by word of mouth and this included nursery rhymes. But basically the nursery rhymes were created for a variety of different reasons.
But regardless of why, how or by whom nursery rhymes were created they were made and written for a certain purpose and that purpose was to help out children of all ages. In fact most of the nursery rhymes we know and love also have nursery rhyme activities that go along with them to help teach those hard concepts to children. But something that isn’t very well known is that Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes are actually only taught in English speaking countries, mainly because of the fact that they are English nonsense poems. Some people don’t know that these rhymes were not originally written in English.
It was in the mid to late 1600s that the first nursery rhymes were actually created, but during this time they were not actually nursery rhymes; they were actually fairy tales. It was not in England that these tales were first printed, but it was in France that these fairy tales such as Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella were first published for little children to enjoy. These fairy tales actually told a story that had a moral to it, basically the story taught the children some kind of lesson. And these stories actually became quite popular, as you are probably aware of.
Because of these French stories an Englishman came up with the idea that other children who spoke a different language would enjoy these stories as well so he translated them into English and called them Mother Goose’s Tales. But these were still not the nonsense poems or rhymes that we know and love. These were not published until the middle 1700s and they were first published by a woman. But these rhymes did not become popular until John Newberry and his stepson after his death decided to publish volumes of children’s literature including the nursery rhymes that we know as Mother Goose’s Nursery Rhymes. But because of the popularity of these rhymes in England they were soon to be published in the United States.
Regardless of how mother goose nursery rhymes actually came about they are a great tool for early childhood education. In fact nursery rhymes have been used in early childhood education for years because it provides young children with a fun and exciting way to learn about math, letters, opposites, position words and other important concepts. But nursery rhymes were not only created to teach young children about hard concepts, they were actually created to help teach children things in general. In fact nursery rhymes were also created to help soothe babies who were crying and to give a voice to numerous fears that people had. It has even been said that some of the nursery rhymes were created because of politics, such as Humpty Dumpty.