Baby massage has become quite popular. Even if parents do not know the massage techniques, they still enjoy touching their baby gently because they know that their babies like it. Baby massage is an intimate time between mommy/daddy and baby - baby lies down comfortably at a position where they can make eye contact with mommy/daddy (whoever's giving the massage), and they long for every touch. Although it feels vulnerable when we lie down with the tummy facing the sky, but babies know that mommy/daddy is not going to harm them - this is one of the the first steps of trust-building between parents and baby. (This can also explains why some babies do not feel comfortable lying down in a class or any other strange environment; they do not feel as secured as they are at home.)
If massage is not a pre-naptime routine for the baby, parents may move onto a series of gentle streching exercises so that babies can enjoy the fun moving their limbs and joints.
Click here to learn more about the benefits of infant massage and how it help babies grow (source from Infant Massage USA) .
Some parents choose to play gentle music during massage and more up-beated music during exercises. Even better, some parents would sing a song or speak a rhyme when they play with their babies - this is when the Mother Goose Rhymes can come into play. Since it's a collection of English rhymes from quite long time ago, there exists some old English. (e.g. Bow wow wow, who's dog art thou...) Although the content is suitable for children, I feel that it is not the best resource for speech training for older children. So I guess these rhymes are meant to be read by adults to children.
Please click here for the complete collection of Mother Goose Rhymes in alphabetical order
Even if you consider yourself as not so musical, it is quite easy to speak the rhymes to a steady beat. Since I've shared with you earlier on how babies like steady beat, it's musical and fun while parents accompany massage and exercises with songs and rhymes.
If you're not familiar with Mother Goose rhymes, I can share with you 10 of my personal favorites:
1) Baa baa black sheep
2) Dickory, dickory dare
3) Diddle diddle dumpling
4) Hey diddle diddle
5) Jack and Jill
6) Jack be nimble
7) Little boy blue
8) Oh dear! What can the matter be?
9) Ride a cock-horse
10) Wee willie winkie
There's another Mother Goose website I'd recommend. The page design is not great (and it has non-stop music accompanying it, which makes the homepage quite annoying) , but if you browse around you can find some downloadable games (with Mother Goose rhymes themes) and printable resources, which are suitable for older children. Click here if you'd like to explore it.
On Youtube, there is a series (9 in total) of Mother Goose Cartoons which includes the melodies of many tunes. Here is the first video of the nine.
