Short poems and songs help language learning as they increase text predictability, i.e. it is easier to guess what word will finish the next line if it should rhyme with the last word in the previous line.
Ever since Maximilian and Zoë were born, we had a tradition to sing at least four lullabies when the children were getting ready for bed: two songs in Swedish and two – in Russian. We would sing every single night!
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In addition to the poems from the books that we regularly read, like Gruffalo, I have learnt a few rhymes that are accompanied with finger movements:1) (bending the fingers from the thumb to the little finger)
Этот пальчик – дедушка, Этот пальчик – бабушка, Этот пальчик – папочка, Этот пальчик – мамочка, Этот пальчик – Зоенька/Максичек, Ну, а это я! Это вся моя семья! (The last line is pronounced while patting oneself on the chest. Both Max and Zoe love this rhyme. I use it often to cut their fingernails). English: This finger is the grand-father, This finger is the grand-mother, This finger is the father, This finger is the mother, This finger is Zoe/Max, And this is I! This is my whole family!All our manicure sessions are accompanied by this short poem, which makes this otherwise unwelcome procedure a bit more tolerable for Max and Zoe.
Еnglish: The thumb was visited by The index finger, and the middle finger, and the ring finger, and the last finger, The little finger knocked on the porch himself. The friends, fingers, are all together, They cannot do without each other.
A. Barto’s short poems for children are loved by all generations of Russians. Here’s Zoë reciting some of Barto’s poems with my help. SongsFrom the first day Max and Zoe arrived home they were exposed to popular Russian children’s songs. I often sing to them; I also created playlists on YouTube which consisted of popular songs from children’s cartoons. I would play them as a background, and would sing a few myself. When Max and Zoe were 18 months old, their favourite songs were:
I also translated the English/Swedish songs about the spider into Russian, as the kids simply love this song and the movements that accompany it:
I also translated a little song about a monkey which could not stop eating bananas:
I must say that I am in love with Swedish children’s songs: they are simple, the melody is memorable, and it is a lot of fun to sing them and do all the fun movements with the arms and legs. Unfortunately, they are not as easily translated into Russian as I wish they were. I keep trying!
15th August 2013
I have finally translated the Swedish song about a snail into Russian (see the opposite column)! It is Max’s favourite song, so I am very pleased:
I know, it looks primitive, but keeping the message close to the original while looking for a good rhyme for the melody sometimes is not an easy task, even when rather simple songs are involved. At the age of 3 years the children sang along most songs in Russian from popular Soviet cartoons. They could say what character sang a certain song: “Енот поёт песенку!” (Rus. “The Racoon is singing the song!”). For the New Year’s celebration 2014-2015 we learnt both most popular songs in Russian about the Christmas/New Year tree: “В лесу родилась ёлочка“, “Маленькой ёлочке“. Our children sing all the time! The caregivers in the preschool report the same: Max and Zoe love singing and they sing non-stop! |
Gunilla, my wise, patient and resourceful mother-in-law, taught a version of the following popular Swedish rhyme to Max and Zoe when they just turned 1 year. Zoe started copying her movements that accompany the rhyme the same day as she first heard it. Max followed shortly.
Baka, baka liten kaka, English:
Bake, bake little cake;Roll, roll the little buns, Coil, curl the small pretzel, Flour it and mark it And… shove in the oven!
SongsMartin has always been very good at singing songs in Swedish to our children. Max and Zoe’s favourite songs in Swedish are:
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We have a fantastic book Barnkammar boken which also contains a CD. This CD is great as it has a recording of the songs and rhymes from the book. We play it often in the car, and the kids simply love it! It also works like magic when someone is cranky in the car: all the whining stops with the first chords.
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