The simple truth is, kids who laugh are kids who learn. It has been shown that happy children have a much greater chance of success in life than those who are unhappy or are in bleak situation. One of many ways to keep the little ones smiling at home and in the classroom is by implementing a steady regiment of laughter. I tend to do this with silly rhymes and poetry.

Rhyming sequences have a profound effect on people of all ages, not just kids. You often here rhyming sequences being referred to as "catchy"; that's how you describe the feeling of rhythm that is implied in a rhyme. As human beings, we tend to like order and rhythm; it balances out our life. This is no more true than it is with children. Songs, poems, and rhymes are a huge part of most classrooms today because they are such powerful teaching tools. Children will retain facts and knowledge with out even being aware that they are learning. Grade school kids have even been taught the full periodic table when put to rhyme or song.

When I write poems for children I try to use the english language in a way that they may have never heard before, yet will be able to grasp the meaning. What I hope to achieve is to bring a wider sense of the english language and how it can be used in a fun way. Speech today is stunted by excessive use of slang, jargon, and buzz words that have no real meaning in the english language. Kids are making up words to describe events or emotions, instead of knowing the real dialogue to make their story interesting.

What I love to do best in writing a poem is encompass a nonsense story or moral within a framework of tightly woven, yet mentally stimulating rhyming lines that challenge the child's awareness of sentence structure. I like to keep them on their toes.

This combination, I find, amuses children to no end. They smile or laugh, and then read it again and again until it rolls of their tongues effortlessly, laughing all the while.

Hmm... sounds like learning to me.

Adam Merrifield is an author and photgrapher of all things child-like. He maintains http://www.wigglywumble.com, a poetry site for kids, and http://www.merrifield-photography.com, a baby photography site.

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