Stand up and act it out with the child. If these motions seem contrived or awkward for you, come up with your own. The point is to amuse and delight your own child, and you will know best what works for the two of you. Using movement or hand patterns, as in Eensy Weensy Spider , also give the child a chance to imitate you, work physically with you, and practice their motor skills. You may find your child imitating your gestures very early on, especially if you make a ritual out of using the same gestures with the same words for certain rhymes.
All children take great delight in the rhythms and melodies of tunes.
The emphasis on the melody and rhythm also helps the child learn the rhyme, increasing their vocabulary, and verbal skills. Even very young children will also imitate the songs, and have favorites they ask for. I have heard children as young as a year and a half trying to sing their favorite nursery rhymes. Back to the Top Early Schoolage Children this age often know many of the rhymes by heart, and are comforted by the familiarity, but aren't aware of some the additional levels of information in the rhymes. It is good to particularly focus on counting rhymes and alphabet rhymes, and use them as an avenue to begin the learning process for these basic skills.