Twinkle twinkle little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle twinkle little star,
How I wonder what you are.

When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle twinkle all the night.
Twinkle twinkle little star,
How I wonder what you are.

Twinkle twinkle little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle twinkle little star,
How I wonder what you are.

When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle twinkle all the night.
Twinkle twinkle little star,
How I wonder what you are.

Twinkle twinkle little star,
How I wonder what you are.

View On YouTube!

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
You’re always green and lovely.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
You’re always green and lovely.
So faithful green throughout the year,
In summer and when winter’s here.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
You’re always green and lovely.

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Majestic are your branches.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Majestic are your branches.
The beautiful tree, so tall and strong,
You fill my heart with joy and song.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Majestic are your branches.

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Your lights, they shine so brightly.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Your lights, they shine so brightly.
You glow and twinkle like a star,
A wondrous sight from near or far.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Your lights, they shine so brightly.

View on YouTube!

Short form videos are not just for kids! For this Father’s Day, why not think about creating your own TikTok or IG Reel videos? We have compiled a list of helpful tips and tricks to get you started on the road to loads of creative fun for your family.

Express yourself!

• There are some videos that just by the title alone make them hard to resist watching, choose your words wisely and keep it brief
• Showcase an engaging thumbnail that highlights the best moments of your video, such as emotional or funny facial expressions
• Use the first few seconds to grab your audience’s attention, no need for fade ins or slow music

No need to dive into the deep end.

• Start off with shorter, 15 second clips to begin with, and as your get more comfortable with making videos then move up to making longer clips
• Every video doesn’t have to an original masterpiece, many popular clips are different versions of other popular dances, skits or singing shorts
• If you aren’t entirely comfortable being in front of a camera, involve your family from the start! MGC Playhouse is popular because kids love watching other kids playing, singing and dancing.

Don’t neglect the basics.

• Most people will watch TikTok and IG videos on a mobile device, so make sure your video is filmed in a format with that in mind. Make it easy for viewers so they don’t have to zoom in or flip their device to optimize their viewing experience
• Take care that there is adequate lighting, camera stability and that there are no unwanted distractions in the background while filming
• Make yourself familiar with the rules associated with each platform so that you don’t ruffle any feathers of the social media powers that be

I hope these tips will help you have tons of fun this Father’s Day weekend. Just one last tip to add to the list, and probably the most important one at that. Don’t forget to promote your videos by sharing on other social media like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with #mothergooseclub.

Most people have spent a lot more time indoors this past year than they would have liked. Now that we are all starting to slowly emerge into the sunlight again, this is the perfect time of year to show our planet all the appreciation it deserves. With that in mind, here are five super easy ways to have fun while making a difference this Earth Day.

1. Family trip

It’s been said that passion starts with education. Instead of just filling up that blue bin this week, load up your recyclables into your vehicle and drive on down to your local recycling center. Seeing the large bins that separate each type of material, physically depositing items into the bins with their own hands, and witnessing the entire community contributing to this effort will leave a lasting impression on your children.

2. Have a contest

Over an entire week or for just one day, have everyone in the family compete to see who can collect the most recyclable items. Old newspapers, plastic packaging, cardboard boxes are all fair game. Just make sure the little ones don’t collect things that are still being used. Also be prepared to reward the winner with an appropriate prize. In our house that would be ice cream.

3. One person’s trash

Many items that are commonly thrown away could be repurposed in creative ways. You can use old paper towel tubes and some paint to make a beautiful pencil holder. Cut the tops of some paper milk cartons and use them to plant some herbs for your kitchen. Gather some large cardboard boxes, some scissors and a paint brush to make an awesome secret fort for your kids. Every little bit of reused trash makes a difference.

4. Paper of plastic? Neither

If you are like our family you have lots of cardboard boxes that either take up space in the garage or get folded into stacks for recycling. The next time you go grocery shopping, take some medium sized boxes cut in half with you. Instead of getting grocery bags, place all of your items into the boxes. Not only will they be easy to carry, but they also won’t spill everywhere while you are driving.

5. Farm fresh

An inordinate amount of trash is produced from the packaging of food. Try visiting a local famer’s market once a week. Even purchasing some vegetables and fruits you would normally buy at a store will reduce a significant amount of waste packaging over time. Oh and a great way to transport all of your farmer’s market loot back home? Those boxes you made in #4.

I hope you and your family will try at least one of the ideas in this list. Let’s all strive to tell the world that we learned something, we had fun, and we made a difference. Happy Earth Day everyone! Don’t forget to share your Earth Day activities with us by posting on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with #mothergooseclub.

You’re juggling parenting, teaching, work, health and plenty more these days. In challenging times, re-acquiring some semblance of routine is perhaps the most important first step. So we hope the tips and resources below will help you and your family add to and strengthen your daily routines.

And remember – you’re doing great! We’ve been so inspired by the stories from parents and teachers – the ups, downs and everything in-between. Keep connecting with us using #mothergooseclub on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Morning: Healthy Habits

Starting the morning off right can set the tone for the rest of the day. And developing healthy habits early in life can bring lifelong benefits, so it’s never too early to start. And now better than ever!

Mother Goose Club videos use song and dance to model these types of positive behaviors. Tidy up the bedroom with Eep, Baa Baa and Mary in “Mulberry Bush”, and then get those pearly whites right in “Brush Your Teeth” with Teddy. And remember to practice good manners, please!

Midday: Reading & Writing Practice

Keep the momentum going with some reading and writing practice. Our collection of free printables for preschoolers are based on our nursery rhyme videos, so pair them with a Mother Goose Club sing-along for some interactive learning. Or use them to supplement your existing homeschooling lessons.

Afternoon: Get Active

Time to stretch and get those wiggles out! If you’re hunkering down indoors, our catalog offers plenty of videos that inspire movement and play-based learning. So gather the family and get active with the below:

• ABC Dance With Me
• Rockin’ Robot
• Dinosaur Stomp
• Dress Up Theater
  
• How to Make Your Own Play Dough

Nighttime: Wind Down

Wind down with some family-time – explore our craft ideas and stream Mother Goose Club tunes in the background. Or keep it even lighter with a movie and some popcorn – we love this list of 25 kids movies with an activity to go-along.

And once the kiddos are tuckered out and tucked in, remember to take some guilt-free me-time!

More Resources

Another successful day! It wasn’t perfect, but as long as you’re communicating, connecting and chipping away at learning goals, progress is being made. For more brain boosting and lesson planning throughout the day, we also recommend checking out Khan Academy, Wide Open School and YouTube Learning – all offering free tools to help parents and educators adapt and thrive in their new virtual environments.

Also browse this curated list of live events for preschoolers and work them into your daily routines. The events include virtual storytimes, virtual drawing lessons, music classes and more. We’ll see you there!

Take a trip through space and learn about our solar system in the “Eight Planets” video, and then put you newfound knowledge to the test with the activity below! Working in tandem, these resources offer a valuable introduction to science education and will help develop vocabulary, inspire curiosity and more!

Part 1 – The Coloring Book:

Download and print out the “Eight Planets” coloring book. The book features the song’s simple lyrics and fun black-and-white illustrations. Use the video as a helpful reference along the way!

Part 2 – The Craft:

All the materials you need are below. Most everything can be found around the house or at your local store. Get creative, improvise and let us know what works for you!

• Cardboard box
• Paint and paint brush
• Tennis ball
• Star-themed stickers
• Glue

• Lay your cardboard box flat and start painting! We mixed together some dark and light blues to capture the space background.

• Don’t forget to paint your tennis ball too – ours is green and blue to represent Earth! We cut off about a quarter of the ball to make the gluing easier – a parent should assist there. Alternatively, feel free to keep it even simpler by painting or drawing Earth and the other planets.
• For your finishing touches, start applying the star-themed stickers.

• You’re all done – fold and staple together your finished coloring book, and find a spot around the house to show off your great work!

Share With Us!

We hope this activity inspired some joyful learning in your household! Share your creations with us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter using #mothergooseclub!

Ride and rhyme along with fireman Eep in our new video, “Fire Engine, Fire Engine“, and then try crafting your own fire truck following the simple instructions below!

The finished result is a fun playtime toy, but also doubles as a stylish tissue box – so it’ll come in handy for putting out those emergency runny noses!

Materials:

All the materials you need are below. Most everything can be found around the house or at your local store. Get creative, improvise and let us know what works for you!

• Colored felt or construction paper
• Tissue box
• Glue
• Scissors

Step 1 – Start Cutting:

Referencing ours above, start cutting out your fire truck’s accessories: the wheels, lights, etc. It doesn’t have to be perfect! Encourage the kids to get creative here by mixing up the colors and designs!

Step 2 – Glue It All Together:

Time to glue everything together! Start by surrounding your tissue box in red. We used a glue gun for our felt, but you can alternatively go simpler with construction paper and regular glue!

Step 3 – Let It Dry:

You’re all done! Let it all dry, and then find the perfect spot for your new fire truck. We placed ours next to fireman Eep!

Share With Us!

We hope you enjoyed this craft! What other Mother Goose Club-themed crafts do you want to see? Share your thoughts and creations on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter using #mothergooseclub!

Whether you’re a veteran green-thumb or just trying to learn, tending to a garden is a wonderful way to get you and your kids out enjoying the summer weather and learning about our beautiful earth! There are lots of mental, physical and emotional benefits from gardening, so we’ve gathered up some tips and resources to get you and your family started.

Bring the Classroom Outside!

Gardening provides opportunities to introduce and engage first-hand with subjects like biology, geology, ecology and more.

For instance, weather directly affects what happens inside a garden, so try pointing out some of those connections to kids:

• Plants need water to grow, and you’ll be able to see how green and lively your garden will get after a few rain showers.
• Alternatively, a hot stretch can leave your soil a bit too dry. Balance is important!
• Frost is bad news for plants, so make sure to harvest before it gets too cold in winter.

Working within a garden makes biology concepts much more accessible. Keep the conversation going with some of these talking points:

• Plants need three things to grow: water, sunlight and air. They drink water from the ground with their roots, and they absorb sunlight and air in their leaves. Leaves are like sponges that soak up light and air.
• Sometimes we find holes in the leaves on our plants because bugs eat them! Caterpillars, for example, eat, eat and eat so they can rest in their cocoons and turn into beautiful butterflies!
• Some fruits and vegetables grow on vines, like tomatoes and grapes. Others grow on branches, like apples and avocados. And others grow in the ground, like potatoes and peanuts!
• It’s a good thing if you spot some worms crawling around. Worms eat soil and make food that’s yummy for plants!

Gardening also provides physical benefits. Digging holes and moving pots around requires some labor and strength. At the same time, planting seeds requires some meticulous attention to detail – good for fine motor skills!

Perhaps most importantly, it gives kids a good excuse to get a little dirty!

Gardening With Mother Goose Club

Mother Goose Club has plenty of resources that can help teach and inspire your young gardener! Check out the crafts and videos below.

• Bird Feeder Craft
• Spring Garden Craft
• The Planting Song Craft
• The Planting Song Video
• Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary Video

Share your gardening tips and experiences with us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter using #mothergooseclub!

Happy gardening!

Pack Your Favorite Plush

Packing a comforting, homey toy is a must when traveling with kiddos. Mother Goose Club plush dolls can be the perfect, snuggly bedtime and travel companions. While providing some needed comfort and entertainment, plush can also positively impact a child’s early development. So have Mary and her friends tag along on the next getaway!

Color With Us

Long drive or flight? A simple, attention-grabbing activity can be a life saver. So before your trip, check out our 80+ free coloring pages, (all based on our familiar nursery rhyme songs and characters!) and try downloading and printing out a few. You won’t have to worry about going over those screen-time limits, and you can engage your child’s imagination and sensory creativity.

Read With Us

You’ve seen our nursery rhyme videos, but have you checked out our board books? Also based on your child’s favorite songs and characters, Mother Goose Club board books engage children with beautifully illustrated pages that are designed to educate and entertain. At the same time, they’re highly durable – for the inevitable car spill or baggage turbulence!

Stream Our Songs

Well, you knew it was going to happen. An impromptu sing-along session at some point during the trip is inevitable. Luckily, Mother Goose Club songs are available to stream across all major platforms. Start with our Best of Kids Summer Songs playlist on Spotify!

Download Our App

The Mother Goose Club App, available on Google Play and the App Store, is another terrific on-the-go travel companion. Find all of your favorite Mother Goose Club nursery rhyme videos as well as exclusive books and games. Whether you’re taking a long road trip, or just snuggling up on the couch, your child can enjoy Mother Goose Club anytime, anywhere!

Share With Us!

We hope these Mother Goose Club resources come in handy! Share your travel tips and tricks with us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter using #mothergooseclub. Safe travels!

We recently joined our friends Mozart for Munchkins for a concert and meet-and-greet with Baa Baa Sheep, played by Ivy! Mozart for Munchkins’ concerts always deliver a terrific blend of music education, interactivity and, most importantly, family fun. And this one was no exception! It was the perfect setting for Mother Goose Club to hold its first live show collaboration.

The concert began with a few classical pieces performed by Hilary and Sara, the co-founders of Mozart for Munchkins. Each piece was introduced with relatable childhood topics, such as animals, weather patterns and colors. Families were invited to participate with props, such as light scarfs to flutter, maracas to shake and bubbles to blow and chase, in order to keep the kids engaged and active!

With the crowd warmed up, it was time for Baa Baa Sheep to take the stage! Baa Baa started with a performance of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, encouraging all the kids to dance with “twinkling hands” while they sang along. Sara provided a Mozart interlude while Baa Baa danced on stage and encouraged the kids to mimic her movements. Next was a boisterous take on “The Wheels on the Bus”, during which the kids were given balls to play with while singing along.

Mozart for Munchkins concludes each concert with an instrument petting zoo, allowing the kids to get up close and personal with the instruments. During this time, the kids also got to meet and interact with Baa Baa, exchanging hugs and photos, and participating in our board book giveaway. Baa Baa even spent the last few minutes of the event partaking in the instrument petting zoo herself, trying her hand at the violin and ukulele!

The event was a delightful blend of Mozart for Munchkins’ mission to bring classical music to life for kids, and Mother Goose Club’s mission to bring joyful learning to families!

To stay up-to-date on our future live collaborations with Mozart for Munchkins and others, follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and join our mailing list. And to learn more about Mozart for Munchkins, check out their website and the featured blogs below!

• How to Bring Music to Life, by co-founder Sara Leila Sherman
• The Gifts of Music, by co-founder Hilary Castle Green
• A Classical Concert for Kids (FINALLY!)

Rachel

Rachel is a Mother Goose Club producer and former teacher based in Las Vegas, Nevada. She enjoys hosting celebrations for all ages centered around crafts and activities. Rachel is excited to share her favorite things with you, and hopes to inspire your family to get creative!

I seriously love these broccoli cheddar egg bites. They’re so flavorful (I think it’s all about the lemon zest), the recipe is simple and it yields so many yummy bites – they’re great fresh out the oven for brunch (great for showers, Mother’s Day or Father’s Day) or reheated on weekday mornings for easy, no-mess energy when you’re on the go. I’ve been making these free form on a baking sheet, but you can do muffin tins too (see how in the recipe I originally found that started this whole love affair).

• 4 cups broccoli
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup bread, torn in small pieces
• 1/4 cup onion, grated
• 1/4 cup mayo
• 1 cup sharp shredded cheddar cheese
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Preheat your oven to 350, steam 4 cups of broccoli (I like to do this in my glass measuring cup in the microwave while I’m doing other things with the stove) and chop those florets up real good.

Beat your eggs and then add the torn bread, grated onion, cheese, mayo, lemon zest, salt, pepper and broccoli.

Line a large baking sheet with tin foil and coat with olive oil. Line heaping tablespoon bites on the sheet and bake at 350 for about 25 minutes until slightly golden on top. Remove the bites from the tin foil immediately.

When they’re warm, they’ll come up fairly easily – wait too long and the foil can stick to the bottom (which is one of the most delicious parts).

Each year, right around this time (maybe I get a little stir crazy in winter), I usually find myself looking for a creative outlet. Crafts are a great solution and there’s never a bad time to infuse your time and space with creativity and color.

If you’re feeling the creative itch, but aren’t sure exactly what you’ll make yet, consider my five favorite (family friendly) craft materials and see what inspires you! With just these items, you can make almost anything and get a ton of use out of them year round. A lot of Mother Goose Club’s crafts use similar materials, so you can get some inspiration from their blog posts as well!

1. Non-toxic acrylic paints and brushes

I got this (now, beautifully messy) set of paints at Michael’s along with these brushes on Christmas Eve on sale. I splurged for an extra bottle of white paint, which I highly recommend, so you can use it as a base, or lighten all the other colors as desired without worrying about running out.

I love incorporating painting into almost every gathering where we’ve got kids coming over (ornaments for the holidays, making Valentine’s etc.) – it often sends shyness right out the window since kids are naturally confident painters (and mess makers!) and it keeps them engaged for hours. The grown-ups are usually down too, and who can blame them – the colors, the textures (who needs those brushes when you have fingers?). What’s not to love?!

2. Glue gun

This one, I got from Michael’s for three bucks is doing the trick for me for now. Requires a grown-up when crafting with kiddos, but hot glue is my go-to for how fast and strong it is. If I’m hosting a crafternoon, we can’t be waiting long for things to dry, and it even comes in handy around the house.

3. Butcher paper

Newspaper or wrapping paper works too – I’m pretty sure this is just some postal paper from Target I used as Christmas wrapping paper last year (you know, brown paper packages tied up with strings…). I love that it’s a craft within a craft – honestly, you can have the most exciting thing to paint set out, and kids might just prefer the table. The result can be art in and of itself, so embrace it! Try changing up the surfaces you cover. Putting paper on walls offers great pre-handwriting practice (I recommend the bathroom, since the surfaces are easiest to clean).

4. Undefined materials

Get kids started manipulating, building and creating with undefined materials like craft sticks, clay (I like Model Magic) or fruit! Kids get comfortable and imaginative fast (some can get too comfortable – keep an eye out for kids trying to eat the painted fruit)! These materials engage kids in conversation, imaginative play, problem solving and good old fashioned fun.

5. Glitter

If you’re like me and couldn’t find a reasonable glitter set on your last craft run, go for a no-fail clear/white glitter to highlight the color of whatever it is you’re making. You can’t go wrong. This here’s a non-toxic sparkling glitter from Target.

I know celebrities like James Vanderbeek and even Ellen have spoken out against glitter, but listen. It may have magical flying properties. But, seriously, it’s the cherry on top of so many of my most favorite crafts because of the joy and wonder it brings. Consider getting a hand vacuum. You’ll be fine.