London Bridge and Your Child

There are so many nursery rhymes that children listen to and interact with these days. Some of them aren’t very old, while others have been around for years. All of these rhymes are meant for the kids to have fun and learn while they are. We’re going to look at the London Bridge nursery rhyme.

Origin of London Bridge

If you look at the London Bridge lyrics, you’ll see that it’s pretty simple. There aren’t too many complicated words and it’s easy to sing. While it isn’t known when the exact date of publication was, we do know that it was first written down in the 18th century. Chances are that it was sung long before that. It has been sung in both the United States and around Europe, so it probably actually originated from somewhere in Europe. In terms of meaning, no one really knows exactly what that is. While it could be a song about the difficulty building the bridge for the River Thames, there are quite a few other theories. Those are talked about below.

The first theory has to do with a viking attack. If this were the case, it would most likely be referring to the time when the viking named Olaf II of Norway destroyed the London Bridge in 1014.

Another theory has to do with the sacrifice of children. This theory is sad and no one wants to think about it. With that said, the theory suggests that the children were buried at the base of the bridge and they could’ve been buried alive. The reason for this is because it was believed that a bride would collapse if there wasn’t the body of a human sacrifice buried at the base.

The final theory is that the bridge was collapsing from normal age and past damages. The bridge had to have continuous expensive repairs until they decided to replace the entire bridge.

Skills Learned from London Bridge

The biggest skill that children learn from this nursery rhyme is teamwork and how to play with others. The reason is because the game is played by several people. They will also be able to learn how to focus on one task since 2 people have to be the bridge and the others have to go under it and not get caught.

Topics Learned from London Bridge

The main topic the song teaches is about bridges crumbling and falling over time. They’ll learn that everything will eventually degrade. Other than that, there isn’t much that it teaches.

Teachers and Parents Using London Bridge

Teachers and parents can use this song when trying to teach how important it is to work together. They could also use it when teaching about buildings and infrastructure since it’s about a bridge falling down. As you can see, this nursery rhyme is pretty interesting and teaches kids some fantastic skills. It’s also great that teachers and parents can incorporate it into several different situations!