Has the news got you down? Not feeling that great? Maybe a dose of pure fun will help, as it did with this reader: “Things have been extremely difficult around here…. The adventures of the Mendez family provided a wonderful distraction. And the ending filled me with hope, for some inexplicable reason. I love the warmth and togetherness of the family.”
Add the Mendez family to your list of friends!
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Ana's people on the planet Thomo are devotedly child-centered. Their early problems surviving on a harsh, new planet were mentioned in Distant Cousin and several of the later volumes. Children, lots of children, saved them.
If you'd expect them to have lullabies, nursery rhymes, and games for children, you would be correct. We are working on obtaining some examples, but it is far from a simple matter. Not only is their language, Luvit, unknown on Earth, their writing system is illegible to us. The words could be rendered in the International Phonetic Alphabet, but how many of us can read that (or write it)? Nevertheless, before long we hope to have at least a sample or two of children's rhymes, proverbs, or other common refrains heard on Thomo. [Editor's Note: We have now obtained some "dichos," or proverbs, from Luvit, Ana Darcy's native language, here: post.]
Closer to home, Ana's family has been raised speaking Spanish as well as English. (Her children also speak Luvit and Hindi, and have a basic familiarity with several other languages as well, as explained in Distant Cousin: Reincarnation. There is a discussion elsewhere on Ana's blog about raising bilingual, biliterate children--see below.)
All Spanish-speaking countries have many, many traditional children's rhymes, games, songs, and verses, of course. Below are some examples of the ones that Ana learned from her mother in law and grandmother in law in southern New Mexico. Most would be familiar to Spanish speakers from other countries, with minor variations. Ana's children know these by heart!
If you've ever seen the moon reflected in the waves of a lake, you should like the imagery of this little verse.
Allá está la luna,
Comiendo su tuna
Tirando las cáscaras
en la laguna.
(There is the moon, eating its tuna, throwing the husks into the lake. The husks, you see, would be the crescent-shaped reflections on the water!)
Here is a counting game with toes, similar to "This little piggy went to market...."
Éste compró un huevo.
Éste trajo la sal.
Éste encendió el fuego.
Éste lo guisó.
¡Y éste pícaro gordo se lo comió!
(This one bought an egg. This one brought the salt. This one lit the fire. This one cooked it. And this fat bully ate it!)
Here's a song for sleepy children:
Los pollitos dicen:
"Pio, pio, pio,"
Cuando tienen hambre,
Cuando tienen frio.
La gallina busca
el maíz y el trigo,
les da la comida
y les presta abrigo.
Bajo sus dos alas,
acurrucaditos,
hasta el otro día
duermen los pollitos.
(The chicks say pio, pio, pio when they're hungry and when they're cold. The hen finds corn and wheat to feed them and lends them an overcoat. Under her wings, snuggled together, the chicks sleep until another day.) This is the melody:
A traditional nonsense verse with a rollicking rhythm:
Pin, marín,
De Don Pingüe,
Cúcara, mácara,
Títere fue.
Here's a singing game, with children sitting in a circle. A girl sings, counting the syllables and pointing at children in turn. When she gets to the last syllable, that child must get up and dance with her.
Arroz con leche,
me quiero casar
con un mexicano
que sea cantar.
El hijo del rey
me manda un papel,
me manda decir
me case con él.
Con éste no,
con éste sí,
con éste mero
me caso yo.
(Milk with rice, I want to marry a Mexican who knows how to sing/The son of the king sent me a note ordering me to say I would marry him/with this one no, with this one yes, with this very one I will marry.)
Finally, perhaps the most popular and most used rhyme, for when a child is hurt and needs comforting. (If a teacher performs this, generally with a stroking motion or a gentle pat, it's likely that every child within earshot will locate some tiny scratch and form a line so they too can be healed.)
Sana, sana,
Colita de rana.
Sí no sanas hoy
Sanarás mañana.
(Heal, heal, tail of a frog. If you're not well today, you'll be well tomorrow.)
Mexican-American Dichos (Proverbs) Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3
Mexican dolls: handmade folk art
Mexican-American-Extraterrestrial Family Language Games
Meet Ana Darcy!
Mexican dolls: handmade folk art
Mexican-American-Extraterrestrial Family Language Games
Meet Ana Darcy!
