In Korean, the order is different.  It’s always:

"Scissors (가위 – kai)", "Rock (바위 – bai)" and "Paper (보 – bo)". 

You can see a youtube of the game in Korean below.

Enjoy!

Mama Lisa

Here’s the mp3 recording, the song lyrics in Italian, followed by Giada’s English translation…

MP3 of Principessa Nel Regno Del Ghiaccio

Principessa Nel Regno Del Ghiaccio

(Testo e musica di Giada de Gioia)

 

Bianca come la luna piena

la pista è come uno specchio d’argento

ma tu non sei Biancaneve.

 

Bianca con i riflessi del cielo più blu

e tu ti senti davvero felice

come un orsetto polare.

(Coro)

Sei perfetta, ballerina

sui tuoi pattini d’argento

principessa poi sarai regina

sul podio nel palazzo

nel tuo regno di ghiaccio.

 

Esile,

a volte sembri fragile

in equilibrio instabile tra gioco, ambizione

infinita passione.

 

Lame lucenti come spade

brillanti più del sole

sui pattini da ghiaccio

e tu non vedi l’ora

di gareggiare ancora, ancora ancora.

(Coro)

Sui pattini da ghiaccio

e tu non vedi l’ora

di gareggiare ancora, ancora ancora.

(Coro)

 

English Translation:

 

Princess In The Reign Of Ice                 

 

White like the full moon

The skating-rink is like a silver mirror,

But you are not Snow White.

White, with the reflection of the bluest sky

And you feel really happy like a little polar bear.

 

(Chorus)

You are perfect, dancer, on your silver skates

You are a princess, then you’ll become a queen

On the platform in the palace

In your reign of ice.

 

Thin, sometimes you look fragile

In unsteady balance between game and ambition,

Endless passion.

Blades shining like swords

Brighter than the sun

On your skates you look forward to competing again.

 

(Chorus)

Blades shining like swords

Brighter than the sun

On your skates you look forward to competing again.

 

(Chorus)

Many thanks to Giada de Gioia for sharing this fun song about ice skating with us!

Grazie!

Mama Lisa

Here’s the French poem Le Thé (Tea) by Théodore de Banville with an mp3 recording.  After the poem you’ll find an English translation.

MP3 of Le Thé

Le Thé

Miss Ellen, versez-moi le Thé
Dans la belle tasse chinoise,
Où des poissons d’or cherchent noise
Au monstre rose épouvanté.

Là, sous un ciel rouge irrité,
Une dame fière et sournoise
Montre en ses longs yeux de turquoise
L’extase et la naïveté :
Miss Ellen, versez-moi le Thé.

Tea

Miss Ellen, pour me tea
In the beautiful Chinese cup
Where the goldfish pick a fight
With the terrified rose monster.

There, under a flaming red sky,
A proud and sly lady
Shows in her ​​wide turquoise eyes
Ecstasy and innocence:
Miss Ellen, pour me tea.

*Chimeras are either mythological monsters or fish.

Enjoy!

Mama Lisa

MP3 of The Wind

2nd MP3 of The Wind

The Wind

I saw you toss the kites on high

And blow the birds about the sky;

And all around I heard you pass,

Like ladies’ skirts across the grass–

O wind, a-blowing all day long,

O wind, that sings so loud a song!

I saw the different things you did,

But always you yourself you hid.

I felt you push, I heard you call,

I could not see yourself at all–

O wind, a-blowing all day long,

O wind, that sings so loud a song!

O you that are so strong and cold,

O blower, are you young or old?

Are you a beast of field and tree,

Or just a stronger child than me?

O wind, a-blowing all day long,

O wind, that sings so loud a song!

1st Recording by Ezwa.
2nd Recording by Krull.

Many thanks to Oscar Teliz for pointing out this poem!

-Mama Lisa

Here’s a little poem about clouds by Christina Rossetti.

MP3 of the Poem "Clouds"

Clouds

by Christina Rossetti

White sheep, white sheep,
On a blue hill,
When the wind stops
You all stand still
When the wind blows
You walk away slow.
White sheep, white sheep,
Where do you go?

The following has been passed down through the ages (at least 150 years) by my mothers family, though we can only guess what the words mean now or the correct spelling of the words. I am hoping you may recognize it or be able to decipher it at least. The words were recited and accompanied by hand movements from infancy and on. I will use parenthesis to detail the hand motions that accompany the words.  The spelling of the words are my best estimate based on phonetics only:

 

Salz           (Take baby’s hand, palm open/up and gently run your palm across it, from heel to fingertip)

Schmalz     (Same motion but use the back of your hand this time)

Glievula    (With finger tips, tickle palm of child’s hand)

Glovula     (Same thing- Tickle-tickle?)

 

Nosgasauger       (Gently pinch/tug on tip of child’s nose -still holding child’s hand)

Augasauga          (Same to the ear)

Haudagasauga    (Same with the hair)

Elabauga            (Put your elbow in child’s palm and wiggle it around)

 

Glienabach         (Gently clap your palm to the child’s open palm)

Glosabach!         (Same thing but a little sharper/harder)

 

We as kids tried to interpret it and came up with: Front, Back, tickle-tickle. Nose, Ear, Hair, Elbow. Soft clap, Hard clap!  But Salz means Salt, and Schmalz seems to mean Lard so, I wonder if it in fact had an entirely different meaning?

Good luck, and please feel free to email me whatever you may find out!

Deb

Hi,

I grew up reciting a Yiddish rhyme or song where we pinched the skin on the back of each others hands and bobbed them up and down while saying something like (and I’m just writing what it sounded like):

"Sipicle sipicle amadal, kimsimir and kamadal, hipis hopis razen, a shishela with vazen".

Do have any idea what that might be or what we were saying?

Thanks,
Jeff

If anyone can help Jeff, please comment below.

Thanks!

Mama Lisa

When you have a rhyming reduplication, the duplicated element rhymes with the original element in the phrase.  A good example is "lovey-dovey".

I started thinking about rhyming reduplications recently after my friend Anne wrote a list of them on Facebook.  Below is what she wrote (definitions added):

"Helter-skelter (disorderly haste)
Harum-scarum (reckless)
Pell-mell (in a jumbled manner)
Raggle-taggle (motley)
Hobson-jobson (altering a foreign word to fit your language)
Hurly-burly (commotion)
….and my favorite, higgledy-piggledy (in a confused manner)."

Anne’s friends added more:

Roley-poley (pudgy)
Hugger-mugger (disorderly confusion)
Willy-nilly (in a haphazard manner)
Heebie-jeebies (a feeling of anxiety over something)
Hither-and-thither (to move at random)
Hokus-pokus (a "magical" incantation used by magicians)
Itsy-bitsy (very little)
Handy-dandy (a game where you guess in which closed hand a person is hiding an object)

There are other phrases that are simply called reduplications because they don’t rhyme.  Here are a few:

Topsey-turvy (utter disorder)
Zigzag (making sharp, angular turns left and right, left and right)
Riff-raff (disreputable people)

Reduplications sound so great!  It’s not surprising that three of them from above can be found in nursery rhymes:

Higgledy Piggledy My Black Hen

Roley Poley Pudding and Pie

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Reduplications are great to teach kids.  Children love how they sound and they encourage rhyming.

Feel free to mention other reduplications in the comments below (we welcome them in any language).

-Mama Lisa

My Italian grandmother used to sing to me a song that went something like.

Peter peter pastela.
canavane canela
canela cususi
felule
mascule
di dube
a te.

She was Neapolitan. I  have been looking for the actual words and meaning to this song for years! I would greatly appreciate any help you could give me. Thanks.

If anyone can help with this song, please let us know in the comments below.

Thanks!

Mama Lisa

Jeff Gilpin sent this lullaby with the following note, "Here is a song I wrote after visiting my wife’s sister in Ayase which is outside of Tokyo, Japan. I think it is very kid friendly and I hope you like it add it to your list of children songs. It is called Ayase Lullaby. Here are the lyrics with the chords [in brackets]."

MP3 of Ayase Lullaby

Here’s what Jeff wrote about the photos: "Here is a picture (top of page) of an old house that is in Ayase. I believe we took it because it seemed out of place with all the other modern buildings.  The other picture (above) I captured from a Google Map image of Ayase. Just a normal street shot of one of the small streets typical of Japan’s more urban areas."

Many thanks to Jeff Gilpin for sharing his song with the recording and photos!

Mama Lisa

Hello, I was hoping you’d be able to help with a song my grandmother sang to us when we were kids. It seems nobody can remember the whole thing but it starts like this:

"There was a young man who lived on the common from what I have heard his mother was a woman if all tales be true from what I am told he was born quite an infant but the years made him old. His face was the most peculiar you’ve seen it never was washed so it never was clean and to see this man smile you’d get such a grin for his mouth ran crossed his face twixt his nose and his chin." 

Unfortunately this is all anyone can remember other than some parts but we don’t have the whole thing as our grandmother use to sing it. I have been looking for this song for ten years since she died.  It would be greatly appreciated if you could write back with any information on this song. Thank you.

If anyone can help with this song, please let us know in the comments below.

Thanks!

Mama Lisa

I believe this is a Russian folk song I learned at school many years ago.  I am unable to remember the last verse, but I do remember the tune.  I would appreciate any help to fill in the blanks  I believe it ends with, "Darling little Miishka!" or something similar.

Great Website!!

Kim 

If you can help, please let us know in the comments below.

Thanks!

Mama Lisa

See the beauty that is Earth.

MP3 of Hope is the thing with feathers

"Hope" is the thing with feathers
By Emily Dickinson

"Hope" is the thing with feathers-
That perches in the soul-
And sings the tune without the words-
And never stops-at all-

And sweetest-in the Gale-is heard-
And sore must be the storm-
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm-

I’ve heard it in the chillest land-
And on the strangest Sea-
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb-of Me.

Read by Halle Kill

I stumbled onto your site while looking for an answer to an age-old family question. When I was a little girl, my grandma and grandpa, both of whom were Portuguese, used to recite a rhyme to me in Portuguese while bouncing me in their knee. It started with (and pardon  the phonetic spelling!):

“Ah de ah de ah” and ended with “oomina choo-cha!” and they would lift me high in the air.

My grandparents have since passed away. My entire family remembers the tune of the rhyme but not the words. We thought it was something about a horse? It would mean the world to me to be able to sing that with my own little girl. Do you have any thoughts as to what the rhyme might be so we can properly learn it?

Thank you for your time!

Jen

1. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

2. Incey Wincey Spider

3. Round And Round The Garden

4. Baa Baa Black Sheep

5. The Grand Old Duke Of York

6. If You’re Happy And You Know It

7. Humpty Dumpty

8. This Little Piggy

9. Ring A Ring A Roses

10. I’m A Little Teapot

Enjoy!

Mama Lisa

Note: The survey was done in 2009.

Check out the short video below… Astronaut, Chris Hadfield wrings out a washcloth on the International Space Station. 

It’s so cool!  Show it to your kids and watch it.  It will make you feel like a kid again.

Here’s a link to our current books and apps.