Nursery Rhymes... Are you Kidding Me?

In our house, we read. We read a lot. My motto is that you can never have too many great books. Our friends know how much we value reading, so we are often gifted with books.

Our latest gift was for my little ones. An absolutely gorgeous large print, colorful book with gorgeous illustrations called Nursery Rhymes for Children. On Shabbos, we love snuggling on the couch to read, and sing Shabbos songs. So we took our new book, on the couch to read/sing them and as I am paging through this beautiful book and my kids are enjoying me singing the songs, I am actually reading what some of these nursery rhymes are saying and it is ridiculous!

Most of us grew up hearing these rhymes and probably never thought anything of them, but as a mom, I now see the world very differently.

Okay, some nursery rhymes are sweet- Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Here we go round the Mulberry Bush and Baa Baa Black Sheep. And apparently a lot of them have some historical significance or whatever.

But in this book, we meet the Queen of Hearts who BEAT the Knave because he stole the tarts. Don't even get me started on Rock-a-bye Baby... "Down will come baby, cradle and all." Seriously? then Old Mother Hubbard who has NO food for her poor dog! And then there's Jack and Jill who both broke their crowns tumbling down a hill and an Old Woman who lives in a shoe who whips her kids and doesn't give them any bread. And to top it all off, Goosey Goosey Gander talks about taking an old man who doesn't say his prayers and THROWING him down the stairs.

Wow.

Now to some of you, this post will not matter as you may not have Nursery Rhymes in your home- but for those who do, I have put together a really adorable Jewish Book of Songs and Rhymes to replace these insane nursery rhymes that the world apparently thinks are okay to sing to children- and I don't care about how poetic or meaningful some of them may be- children hear things at face value.

So here it is! Print it out on card stock, staple together and you will have 10 really sweet Jewish Children's songs and Rhymes to read and sing with your sweetie pies~

Jewish Songs and Rhymes for Children

{Click Here to Download and Print}

We live in Olam HaSheker- a world of lies, and it is up to us as mothers to only show our children that which is true. Which is something that is so beautiful about Judaism. There is only one truth to be learnt and taught.

Enjoy and have a wonderful Shabbos,

Always,