I’ve always liked poetry, even as a child. That’s why I decided to make a lens called Classic Funny Poems for Kids. I included poems like The Jumblies, Matilda Told Such Dreadful Lies and A Naughty Little Comet.

From my own experience I believe that even toddlers can appreciate a poem like The Jumblies with its repetitive chorus of:

Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

This is especially true if you do actions like pat your head with your hands and then hold up your hands as you recite the third line. Very soon children will join in with the actions and eventually with the words.

I think reciting poetry, with enthusiasm, to children encourages them to appreciate it and it expands their vocabulary and understanding. The rhythm and the rhymes help the process.

This web page has proved surprisingly popular, appearing on the first page of Google results for ‘funny children’s poetry’ and ‘classic funny poetry.’ It’s also my number one lens on Squidoo, currently ranked in the top 200 out of more than 600,000 lenses. Not bad for something I did for my own amusement and which I thought would attract a tiny number of visitors.