The theories about The Farmer in the Dell are abound because there are a couple ways that this song could have become the way that it is today. The nursery rhymes that we sing have been through a lot of development over time, and they do not magically become the way they are right now with all the lyrics intact. They usually take some time to get that way, and the history of the rhyme is interesting to read.
The Meaning
This is basically how you build a family, and that is how you show kids how you build families. The man in the story gets a wife and a child. They get a nurse to help take care of the baby, and then they get a cow, dog, and cat. The cat chases the mouse, and there is this little ecosystem in the story. Of course, some cultures have a maid, and sometimes the people in the story leave like the nurse because they are no longer needed.
The Theories
Some people think that the Danish word for workspace was turned into dell. Dell is the workspace for the barn, and that is something that people might have been talking about instead of the wooded valleys that is the dell in the story. You could have a farm in both places, but there is no way for us to really know because we just have no idea what it could have been about it.
The Farmer
The farmer could have built his family in more than one way because he could have taken a wife and adopted a child or had a natural child. Sometimes it looks like they are adopting, and sometimes it looks like they are just having a natural child. Each of the tales from another the world are a little different, and you can form your own theory based on how you read it.
Where is the Man?
The den is where the man is in the rhyme in the UK, and he is in other places in other versions of the tale. Sometimes the man is in a place that is very flat like a plain, and sometimes you see him in his house. The people all can imagine the family doing different things based on what they see, and they will not always have a cow because not all cultures are going to have cows around. They might have goats for milk or sheep.
The best thing that kids in the class can do is look up different theories and versions of the rhyme and see what they say. They will find out how other cultures from around the world live, and they will get a lot more enlightened because of this. That means that a lot of people who are going to teach this song can show their kids history as well as the music that they love.