Skipping - Letter to my Grandchildren

Dear Grandchildren,

Today I was thinking about the things you like to do outside when you're playing with your friends.  Something that my friends and I did a lot of at recess time when spring rolled around was skip rope.  Some flowers in our backyard made me think about skipping rope when I was a bit older than some of you. These flowers called "Bluebells" made me think about some of the skipping songs we sang:

   Can you see the little bell-shaped flowers on each stem?  They are one of the earliest spring flowers to bloom and they fill lots of space against the wall in our back yard with their lovely blue color.  These pretty flowers reminded me of the skipping song I used to play with my sisters and friends when I was in elementary school.  Do kids still play skipping games at school?  Skipping was so much fun but I never was good at Double Dutch.  I don't think the boys ever played these skipping games! 

Here is one of the songs we sang:

Bluebells, cockle shells,

Eevy, ivy over!

(Here we just turned the rope half-way back and forth until we came to the word, "over" when we turned the rope over the top of the person skipping.)

My mother sent me to the store

And this is what she sent me for:

Salt

Vinegar

Pepper!

 The girls who were turning the rope went very fast on the word "Pepper" to see who could skip the longest.  I always tried so hard to jump fast when it was my turn.

Another fun skipping song: 

On a mountain stands a lady,

  Who she is I do not know,  

All she wants is Gold and Silver, 
All she wants is a fine young man,  
So come on dear ________, dear _________, dear__________,
  So come on dear__________,  While I go out to play.

(The girl skipping calls her friend's name where the blank is and she jumps in when the first girl says, "play!")

Here was another fun one:

Teddy bear, Teddy bear, turn around,

Teddy bear, Teddy bear touch the ground,

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, show your shoe,

Teddy bear, teddy bear, that will do.

Teddy bear, teddy bear, brush your hair,

Teddy bear, teddy bear, climb the stairs.

Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn out the light,

Teddy bear, teddy bear, say "Good Night".

 We did the actions to the words and on the words, "Good Night" would jump out without stepping on the rope if we were lucky!

And now I'll say "Good night to you, my dear, dear grandchildren!"