Billy Goat Nursery Rhyme

Dear friends,

The rhyme you are going to read today is meant for children, but, in fact, their parents will surely find some hints having to do with their adult life. Meet Billy Goat – an ill-starred husband and Nanny Goat – his spouse who knows that her beauty and charm are worth paying for.

Watch the Billy Goat nursery rhyme on Youtube

Billy Goat has to face a dilemma - either to get Nanny Goat dolled up and let her look like a million dollars, or to lose her if he fails to meet her expectations. Billy Goat, though, is no fool to sell all the property he is possessed of in order to pamper his spouse’s whims.

Billy Goat

Mother Cow - Nursery Rhyme for Kids

Hello, dear friends!
Today we’d like to share with you another lovely cartoon created by Dmitriy Nesterov – “Mother Cow”. If you want, so to say, to kill two birds with one stone: to entertain your kids and introduce them to some aspects of living on a farm, - it is just what you need.

Watch the cow nursery rhyme on Youtube

Your children will like Mother Cow’s family – pretty calves and her vigorous husband – Bull.

Airplane Nursery Rhyme for Kids

Dear friends!

Meet Little Airplane – a short nursery rhyme, which I wrote specially for small kids who enjoy playing with their toys and talking to them. We, adults, do not often pay attention to little things that make our children happy. We just try to buy them something to amuse, or enlarge their scope, or to urge their creative abilities. But we sometimes forget that kids do not merely play – they create their own world they live in, learn to make friends and invent their special scenarios for their toy pals. Isn’t it nice to distract from our daily routines and sit closer to your little darlings, just observing them play, or even to take part in their games?.. I hope you’ll enjoy our lovely cartoon character Little Plane, elaborately created by Dmitriy Nesterov.

Watch on Youtube

I believe that my verse will prove to be useful for ESL teachers, who are teaching English to youngsters. It introduces speech patterns with questions and statements in the Present Continuous (“Where are you flying?”, “Are you flying east or west?”) and the Future Simple tense (“”Little Plane, where will you land?”, “It’ll be probably in May”, “I will kiss the sky goodbye” and the like. Kids can be offered to role-play the rhyme in order to practice different intonation patterns.

Little Airplane

- Where are you flying,
My little airplane?

Sheep Nursery Rhyme for Kids

Dear friends,

Let me introduce to you my verse called White Sheep. It is a lovely story of a sheep that is going to set sail to Australia to visit its close relatives. I wrote it in the form of a dialogue, and those whose mother tongue is English will probably feel an allusion to the well-known Ba, ba, Black Sheep, have you any wool? Actually, I do hope that you and your children will take no lesser pleasure in listening to it and viewing a funny cartoon created by Dmitriy Nesterov.

Watch on Youtube

This rhyme can also be used by ESL teachers when teaching English to beginners. The rhyme introduces speech patterns with the Future Simple Tense (e.g. “When will you set sail to Australia?”, “It will be my first trip” and the like), as well as some structures which can serve as a model to put questions in the Present Simple Tense: “Do you have a little ship?”, “Is the ocean shallow or deep?”, “Who lives in Australia?” You can also use the rhyme to illustrate family relationship: auntie, cousin, twin sister. Students can role-play the dialogue practicing different intonation patterns: those of rising tone in general questions and salutation formulas, and those of falling tone – in special questions and statements. Good luck in your teaching!

Age rhyme for kids from 1 to 12

Dear teachers, educators and parents!

If you have set a goal to teach your kids to count, you may look for some rhymes which contain numbers. It would be interesting to find some verses which will help you to kill two birds with one stone – that is, to entertain your children and make them repeat numbers.

Everybody remembers the poem about numbers found in the Nursery rhymes:

One, two, buckle my shoe;
Three, four, knock at the door;
Five, six, pick up sticks;
Seven, eight, lay them straight;
Nine, ten, a big fat hen;
Eleven, twelve, dig and delve;
Thirteen, fourteen, maids are courting;
Fifteen, sixteen, maids in the kitchen;
Seventeen, eighteen, maids are waiting;
Nineteen, twenty, my plate is empty.

That was a classical version. Below you will find a rhyme composed by me. It deals with the age of kids starting from 1 to 12. In a jocular way it will help your youngsters to learn to count.

If You Want to Be an Astronaut

Dear Moms and Dads!

Long time ago we used to be children ourselves. We discovered this tremendous world, full of secrets and riddles. Girls dreamt of becoming princesses, magical fairies or, at least, world-known singers or actresses. Boys dreamt of being brave warriors, great captains, mysterious pirates, or astronauts. I doubt if anyone wanted to become an ordinary book-keeper or an engineer…

Now that I am a happy mother of a three-year old boy, I’m beginning to discover this world again, contemplating it from the boy’s viewpoint. You know, never before have I guessed how exciting this process would be!

So, observing my baby boy trying to climb up all the stumps, benches and trees, I was inspired to write this amusing poem advising little kids on how to become astronauts. I devote it to my son Serge, hoping that you’ll have a pleasant and funny pastime while reading it together with your kids!

Image credit: Freepik

If you want to be an astronaut,
You’d better start at three,
Do you best to reach the Moon
By climbing up the tree.

If you are adroit and quick,
My boy, you’ll reach the sky.
If you are kind of airsick,
Kiss the Moon good-bye.

If you fail to be an astronaut,
Hey, pal, don’t get upset.
If you never catch the star,
It is not so bad.

A proverb runs: When there’s a will,
There’s sure to be a way.
If you turn four, you will be still
Quite young to seek great fame.

You may take up another job,
Both interesting and cool.
You needn’t fly, you needn’t climb,
You’ll have to find a pool.

Once you have found a big pool,
You are a lucky one:
You should put on your swimming trunks,
And half the battle is done.

Now you will be a scuba diver.

If you take to scuba diving,
Beware of a ray.
‘Cause it can badly sting you,
If you are in its way.

Check out if the puddle
Is deep, piranha-free,
With octopi to cuddle;
In case it’s not, then flee

And try again: climb up a tree
To make an astronaut.

Lazybones (Poem about Laziness)

Dear friends,

You are sure to be diligent in your work and performing daily routines, but however enthusiastic and hard-working you may be, occasionally you want to put aside a list of must-do-it-right-now things, stop hurrying and worrying about being punctual and industrious, and just snuggle down on the couch wishing “to leave until tomorrow what you can do today”.

Or, on the contrary, you feel distressed every time you have to get up in the morning and go to work or school? Is it your case that Her Majesty Idleness was born some minutes before your arrival into this world?

Can these five proverbs really drive you mad when looked through, because they have a vague allusion to your alter ego – procrastination?

• A lazy sheep thinks its wool heavy.
• He who hesitates is lost.
• The cat would eat fish and would not wet paws.
• An idle brain is the devil’s workshop.
• Procrastination is the thief of time.

Whatever group of people you might belong to, I hope you will find pleasure in reading my piece of poetry, which is a versified translation of the poem “Len”, composed by the Polish poet and writer Jan Brzechwa.

The Lazybones, sluggish and slack,
Has been lying on his back.
All day long he has been busy
Doing his best to take it easy.

As a result,
School has been skipped,
Homework’s delayed,
The shirt’s unzipped,

The poem has been left unlearnt,
The shoes – unlaced, the essay – blurred;
Thus, languid, tired and inert,
He could pronounce but a word.

He stays disgruntled
And dismayed:
It’s hard like hell
To procrastinate.