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RHYMES FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION

Truth to Teach (Source)

Heart concept: Great Commission

Psalm 78:4 ‘We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord.’

 Adults will pass on to the next generation what is of importance to them.

Way to Work (Means)

1. Start a Mexican wave with the children and watch the effect as ‘it’ passes all the way down the line.
It is as though something is being passed from one to another to another. Recite a few nursery
rhymes, letting the children join in.

Ask what sort of rhymes these are. Explain ‘nursery’ and how these rhymes were passed on to young
children by nurses and nannies and parents.

2. Explain that many of them are very old. There may have been a little boy called Jack Horner eating a
fruit pie, and someone made up a rhyme about it, which other people learned and passed on.

Something like a battle may have happened and someone made up a rhyme about it so that that event
would not be forgotten, eg The Grand Old Duke of York. These were in the days before video
cameras and there weren’t many books, and rhymes made it easy to remember things.

With some rhymes it is not known how the rhyme got started at all and what it refers to. What does
‘Hey diddle diddle, The cat and the fiddle, The cow jumped over the moon…’ actually mean?!

3. Talk about parents who love God and want to tell their children all about him and what he has done.

‘Nursery Rhymes from Bible Times’ by Joyce Hamersma (published by Autumn House, ISBN 1-
873796-34-X) has been written by a Christian, who wanted to teach her children what was true.

Read: Martha put the kettle on
Three wise men
Hickory, dickory dee .

Discuss which Bible stories and songs the children may have heard from their parents. The children’s
parents are one generation and they want to tell the next generation about the praiseworthy deeds of
the Lord. Telling others about God - what he is like, what he has done, how we can please him - is the
most important thing to pass on to the next generation.

Explain that the children may find themselves teaching a song to a younger brother or sister now, and
one day they may find themselves teaching their own children to love Jesus, because that is what is
important to them.

4. Emphasise that it is also good to pass on what is ‘wholesome’ – kind and lovely and pleasant, not lies
or about unkindness or cruelty. Another lady decided to write modern nursery rhymes for children,

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