Mother Goose is leading

the children into reading

Mother Goose, comfortably settled in an easy chair bathed in diffused daylight from the front window, chose another big book from her stack.

"Remember how I told you I like things that rhyme?" she asked her young friends.

The older toddlers from among the 10 seated in a circle around her on the hardwood floor nodded emphatically.

The bespectacled, long-skirted and flower-hatted visitor held up a colorful page full of pictures and words. At the top were big letters reading "bow, wow."

"See, the words look the same," she said. "That's how I can tell they rhyme."

Then, with nearly all eyes riveted on her or the book, she launched into the familiar nursery rhyme:

"Old Mother Hubbard/Went to the cupboard/To get her poor dog a bone."

For the next half-hour, Mother Goose had them in the palm of her hand.

On Tuesday, as part of community activities scheduled during the Week of the Young Child, Laurie Lapan took the engaging part of Mother Goose.

In this session, she led children in marching with the Grand Old Duke of York, trying out their own rhymes and jumping over a candlestick at Shannon Hurst's Kalispell child-care facility, There's No Place Like Home.

Mother Goose also visited a handful of other day cares, but was forced to use a rather mundane mode of transportation to reach them.

"I would have ridden here on my goose," she told the children before packing up and heading out to her car, "but he flew south for the winter and told me he didn't want to come back until it stopped raining in Kalispell."

Lapan, an early childhood education advocate who teaches at the Canyon Center of Northwest Montana Head Start in Hungry Horse, will conclude the week today as a speaker for the Regional Early Childhood Conference for registered child-care providers. It is organized by the Flathead Chapter of the Montana Association for the Education of Young Children, and sponsored by The Nurturing Center.

Lapan also was on the committee planning weeklong events to the theme of Building Better Futures for All Children.

But one-on-one time with children, planting the seeds of excitement for and personal involvement in reading, is her passion.

"In some ways, over the last 20 or 30 years, we've avoided nursery rhymes because … they're not politically correct," Lapan said. What some people consider questionable characters and events don't fit into their view of an appropriate education, she said. "But you can pick and choose what agrees with your beliefs."

Lapan is a big supporter of nursery rhymes.

She has seen their power in helping children master the language at an early age, both as they listen to others read the rhymes and as they play with the words themselves. Even nonsense rhyming words provide a pathway to literacy, she added.

"In a natural, fun way, kids are playing with words," Lapan said. "It's making their little heads work when they are involved with rhyme."

The children at Hurst's home were fully involved when it came to "Ding dong, bell/Kitty's in the well …" They were captivated as Mother Goose lifted a tiny kitten stuffed toy in a shiny silver bucket, then pressed its tummy for an even tinier "meow."

But she didn't stop there. She reached into her bag for a baby shoe.

"Ding, dong, doo/Kitty's on a …"

"Shoe!" the children called back.

Out came a sock. "Ding, dong, dock/Kitty's on a …" "Sock!"

The routine continued with a miniature train, a bee, a lock and a book. Each new prop brought a more enthusiastic shout, with several jumping to their feet for the answers.

Some of the children took a turn on her lap as they heard "To market, to market, to buy a fat pig …," and the group followed with some of their own ending rhymes.

They filled in the rhymes on "Sing a song of sixpence."

They marched up to the top of the hill with the Grand Old Duke of York's 10,000 men, and followed as he marched them down again.

Two young girls scooted closer as Mother Goose led them through a storybook chock full with the Queen of Hearts, Jack and Jill, Little Jack Horner and more nursery characters.

"I have on my spring hat today," she tipped her brim to show its bright flowers. "I put some of my friends on my hat. Can you find them?"

The sparkly star stood out, and quickly led to a rendition of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."

A tiny green spider led them to Little Miss Muffett who was frightened away by her eight-legged visitor, and to an energetic round of "Itsy Bitsy Spider."

Finally, Mother Goose pulled out a long, red candle and held it low for the children to hop over it while inserting their own names into, "Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over the candlestick."

Lapan wanted to leave the children on a happy note.

"You know, we have Happy Mother's Day, and we have Happy Father's Day, and we have Merry Christmas," she said. "But we have a whole Week of the Young Child, so I want to wish you a happy Week of the Young Child!"

Each of the children then reached into her surprise bag and pulled out a pint-sized mask to transform them into various storybook animals, then climbed up to the table for a snack.

It had been a fun afternoon, exactly what Lapan was aiming for.

And it's the kind of thing parents can do at home - have some lap time while rhyming, sing lullabies to and with their children for a calming experience.

"These are social things," she said. "It's all about relationships, making the child feel loved."

Songs bring out the rhythm of our language, she said. Visual and motor activities get the child in the middle of that rhythm. And everyone can do this.

"Nursery rhymes are cheap. They don't cost like CDs and movies," Lapan said. "You can get them second-hand, you can have them memorized."

Rhyming can get toddlers ready for school, give them an idea of what language is all about.

But more than that, she said, "one-on-one time is so important."

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com