Eenie meenie miney mo rhyme6/17/2023 ![]() The girls (these singing games are mostly performed by girls) stand face to face and clap against each other’s and their own hands in a set pattern in time with the beat of the song – as my daughter demonstrated as best she could, having only an inexpert adult – myself – to clap with. This is a song or chant for a clapping game. “Games”, she said, “You know…” It was not until I gave her an example – from the Opie’s book “The Singing Game” – that she came up with the following: ![]() I asked my eight-year-old daughter what she and her friends sang or played together at school in the playground, but this was evidently not a sufficiently sensible or interesting question. The success of their first book – “The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren” (1959) – or perhaps just the pleasure of watching children play – set the Opies off on a lifetime’s career of observing, collecting and writing about children’s play. Their subject is the world of children’s play – songs, games and rhymes found in street and playground, passed from child to child, a lost world, half remembered, mostly forgotten, and hardly noticed by much too busy and serious adults. For anyone brought up in an English-speaking playground, the books of Iona and Peter Opie are not to be missed.
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