What is the purpose of nursery rhymes & nursery songs?

[PoodlesRUs]

It might sound daft but what is the purpose? A lot of traditional stories and children's stories tend to have a dual purpose. E.g. entertainment but also moral instruction or imparting knowledge or cultural traditions. However, some of the songs and rhymes from nursery don't seem to fit in with that. Do they serve any kind of linguistic or educational purpose then? Are they purely for fun?

The song that set off the train off thought was one I came across today that hadn't crossed my mind for years and years:

I hear thunder, I hear thunder,
Hark don't you, hark don't you?
Pitter patter raindrops, pitter patter raindrops,
I'm wet through, so are you.

Repetition and singing is good for speech and language development. Some of them can help with number awareness development too, e.g. five currant buns in the bakers shop.

Habituation and repetition aid learning
Its fun
its a bonding activity , you have a pleasant habit and it feels safe
Soothing
Encourage speech and babbling

Cause and effect, rhyming aids language development aswell as understanding of different things. Twinkle, twinkle little star being the same tune as A,b,c,d, young kids learn so much through catchy tunes 🤣x

I love reading and singing to my babies

Speech and language development, early maths and literacy, rhyme and rhythm, poetry... they're great.

Comforting rituals help with self assurance.
Story language helps speech and language development.
Repetition aids learning patterns.
All of the above help cognitive development.

I think the loss of nursery rhymes is a tragedy of modern parenting

Whoa. I never noticed the link between Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and ABCD!

Lots of the old nursary rhymes originate from real events.

https://www.classical-music.com/features/works/darkest-nursery-rhymes

I hear thunder might just be about making thunder less scary.

Agree with all the answers so far.

Re the "I hear thunder" one - it is a nice set of easy words set to the tune that is universally used to sing a round. So early music teaching there.

Plus, a comfort blanket to sing for anyone a bit nervous of thunder.

Now sing Ba ba Black sheep.
Fundamentally the same base tune (with a few extra twiddles)!

See also Little Bo Peep and Jack and Jill.

@Zone2NorthLondon it's interesting that you mentioned bonding. When I read the rhyme earlier it took me a brief moment to remember the tune. As soon I started singing it I had this vague sensory 'memory' of being in a group at nursery. I couldn't make out details but there was definitely a feeling/memory of being in a group as I sang it aloud.

I hear thunder uses the same tune as Frere Jaques, which I assume is a traditional French song, perhaps imparting cultural traditions (not sure, no one ever seems to sing more than one verse so I’m not sure if there’s a story there or not!)

It’s a good bonding activity

If you've ever heard of Master the curriculum (for maths) we use this in schol. Some of the songs on there are sang to the tune of so many nursery rhymes. I think singing with my own little ones definitely improved their speech and it was our favourite thing to do together when they where very small.

repetition and rhyming a really important part of learning and brain development, all kids should learn rhyming skills
do a deep dive on this subject it’s really important