Most adults are familiar with the One Potato Two Potato song. It’s a fun rhyme that most kids enjoy during childhood. That nostalgia is one of the reasons why parents like to sing it to their children. But while parents are familiar with the rhyme from their own youth, they’re often unaware of just how important it can be to a child’s development. There’s good reason why One Potato Two Potato tends to make such an impression on growing children. After all, not every rhyme from people’s youth will stick with them into adulthood. The continued popularity of One Potato Two Potato hints that there’s more to the rhyme than people might suspect.
The most significant of the benefits is hinted at by the title. One Potato Two Potato is a fantastic way to introduce a child to numbers and counting. People often forget that counting and numbers need to be given a lot of attention by children. Counting and numbers are such an important part of modern culture that they’re often taken for granted. Even most high school students probably won’t be able to remember a time in their life when they couldn’t count. But their parents will be able to attest to the fact that it took a lot of work on their part to teach.
Numbers and counting are, in their own way, as difficult for a young child as walking was for a toddler. It’s not something which comes easily. But walking is an inevitability due to the boundless curiosity of a child. Kids know that there’s a lot of things in the world that they want to experience and have fun with. The real trick to teaching numbers comes from providing the same motivations. So it’s helpful to present as something fun to explore.
When children have fun with One Potato Two Potato, they’re encountering benefits they’re not even aware of. They’re learning that counting can be fun and an important part of the world. They want to be able to join in and shape the rhyme as well. Then they’ll end up learning some important math skills. Aside from the obvious, they’re also learning the vocabulary involved with basic math. This is another element that parents often forget is even necessary. It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that vocabulary plays an important part of learning basic math skills. Words aren’t just a way of describing the perceived world. Someone’s vocabulary also directs his or her thinking in a variety of different ways.
The rhyme’s benefits become even more apparent as a child begins to use the new vocabulary. Of course, it won’t be perfect at first. Like with any other lesson, a child will need help to learn when those words are being used correctly. As the child receives encouragement, the new vocabulary will become an exciting new tool. It won’t be long before the benefits really begin to show themselves in even more ways.