John Taylor (13)

A lot of skipping rhymes, but very few that I had heard before. I jumped rope in Santa Monica, California when skipping was still in its heyday in the early 60s and there were rhymes that 2nd and 3rd graders did, and rhymes that the older kids would let you do when you got into 4th and 5th grade, a whole gradation of them; rhymes you jumped to, rhymes you clapped patterns to, and rhymes you just chanted. Then, I moved to Wisconsin and jumped to the big girl rhymes there; 7th and 8th grade show more girls still skipped rope in the late 60s. My daughter growing up in Toronto in the 80s had her own set of rhymes. But there are only two rhymes in the book I've ever heard (and we always said eensy ainsy over, not eevy ivy; and our teddy bear spelled GOOD NIGHT, so neither was exactly the same), so I have to assume these are all from England. The book also includes a section on French Skipping, the elastic loop rope tricks that we called Chinese Jump Rope, with diagrams to learn some of the steps, as well as music for the skipping rhymes. show less

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