Jump Rope Songs

So much of my childhood was spent jumping rope that the words and rhythms of the songs -- 50 years later -- still come readily to mind.

When I taught elementary school, I was surprised to find out that the children in my school no longer sang songs when they jumped rope. As the songs were always passed down from child to child, teaching them seems silly and almost defeats their purpose as a kid thing. Certainly the words were nothing particularly profound or important. As an adult I would prefer to have the rhythms of great poets come quickly to mind!

Still, I think the rhythms served their purpose. They kept us focused on the exercise. They helped establish the rhythms of language and they encouraged us to make up our own combinations of words and rhyme in a way that adult directed activities would never have done.

Maybe it was an urban thing, and rural children, without the numbers of neighborhood friends from which to draw, found other ways to use their time. Maybe children of today, too, have other rhythms they create in play.

All in together, girls

Very fine weather, girls

I spy teacher

Hanging up the clothes.

Fire!

Fire!

Teacher is a liar!

January

February

March

April

May

June

July 

August

September

October

November

December!

Kids love to move their bodies! And a healthy body helps a child's mind to be healthy, too.

In a day when many children spend way too much time before screens of one kind or another, encouraging more active and interactive play is crucial! 

Jumping rope is good for adult bodies, too. When you jump rope, your cardiovascular system is getting a good workout. 

When was the last time you used all those great jump rope songs?

Double Dutch originated in the inner city neighborhoods of the U.S.

Double Dutch has always been about competition, in a sense, because it's a challenging thing to jump inside the egg beater motions of the ropes. But new moves have been added to the double dutch repertoire over the years. Breakdancing moves are often done within the spin of the ropes. Other gymnastic-type moves have been added, too.

Double Dutch has spread to Europe and to Japan as well. Groups from these countries gather for International competitions where each team performs their choreographed presentation. If you have never watched a double dutch team strut their stuff, you are missing something amazing. 

Take a look at the following video and see if you agree.

Now I don't know about you, but I think that video on double dutch shows that jumping rope is still something that kids teach each other. Most of the teams shown used rap or hip hop as a background to the activity.

I hope, however, that jump rope does not become solely a competitive activity, as a child such as I was -- a bit clutzy but a big lover of words and rhythm -- would quickly be squeezed out of the mix. I guess what I most enjoyed about jump rope as a kid was that it was an activity that could include me and my other less athletic friends. Some of us were better than others in jumping pepper, but all of us could learn to do the basic and work up to the faster jumping. We were just having a good time, after all, and weren't trying to impress or gain trophies.

I suppose because the children can usually find a piece of rope and can control the speed of the ropes themselves, they will find a way to just mess around without too much imposed structure on the activity, after all.