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Leg play

Hey Diddle Diddle

Good for:
Baby, Toddler
Tune:
The tune in J. W. Elliott’s National Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Songs (London, 1870)
Hear how the tune goes, on a music box

Hey, diddle, diddle! The cat and the fiddle, The cow jumped over the moon; The little dog laughed To see such sport, And the dish ran away with the spoon.

How to play

  1. Before you start: lie your baby on their back on a play mat or a blanket on the floor, with you kneeling or sitting at their feet, face to face.
  2. “Hey, diddle, diddle! The cat and the fiddle,” Play a pretend fiddle under your chin, sawing the bow back and forth. Or stroke a finger across their tummy like a bow.
  3. “The cow jumped over the moon;” Hold your baby’s lower legs gently and lift them up, over and down in a slow arc, as if their feet are jumping over the moon. Or cycle their legs.
  4. “The little dog laughed to see such sport,” Laugh out loud, and give their tummy a little tickle.
  5. “And the dish ran away with the spoon.” Run your fingers up their tummy and away over their shoulder, then wave goodbye.

Where it comes from

The first version like this one that we know of was printed in Mother Goose’s Melody, a collection published in London in about 1765. Some writers think the rhyme may be older, but nobody has found clear evidence.

People have spent a long time looking for a hidden meaning: Queen Elizabeth I and her court, the stars, even ancient Egypt. None of these ideas has any real evidence behind it. Iona and Peter Opie, who wrote The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, found little to support them, and thought it was most likely nonsense, made to be fun to say. J. R. R. Tolkien had fun with all the theories too: in The Lord of the Rings, Frodo sings a long, silly song that pretends to tell the real story behind it.

These words come from The Real Mother Goose (1916). The tune in the player is the one most people know. It was printed in 1870, in J. W. Elliott’s National Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Songs. In Elliott’s book the dish runs after the spoon, so we’ve split one note to fit “ran away with”. Some people sing “to see such fun” instead of “such sport”. Either works.

Old words

  • diddle: a nonsense word, fun to say. Old songs use sounds like it, as people today might sing “la la la”.
  • fiddle: a violin.
  • sport: fun, or something funny to watch.

Tips

  • Move your baby’s legs slowly and gently, and only as far as they go easily. Never pull them.
  • Toddlers can do the jumping themselves. Hold their hands to steady them, but don’t lift or swing them by their arms.
  • Pause before “over the moon”. Older babies soon learn what’s coming, and the waiting is half the fun.

Where these words come from

Public domain. A traditional English nonsense rhyme. The first version like this one was printed in Mother Goose’s Melody (London, about 1765). Text from The Real Mother Goose, illustrated by Blanche Fisher Wright (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1916), as transcribed by Project Gutenberg (eBook #10607). Original source

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