My repetoire of baby songs & rhymes is quite small. I know “Patty Cake”, I know “Where is Thumbkin” and I know “Itsy Bitsy Spider”. After a few Guiness I know some creative verses to really screw my kid up :p.
What are some parental favorite songs that you like? I’m especially looking for ones with hand gestures of course…songs that ridicule the Chicago Bears get extra points… 
Sally the Camel is a big fave at our house.
Twinkle Twinkle naturally (good hand motions there)
Six in the Bed (and the little one said Rollover, Rollover) works too.
You can do the full spout medley with Itsy Bitsy Spider by throwing in I’m a Little Teapot.
Everybody’s favourite around our house was 'Round and Round the Garden."
Not everyone knows it so…
Round and round the garden,
Goes the teddy bear
One step, two step,
Tickle you under there!
YOu start out by running your finger around the kid’s palm in a circle, like a little teddy bear in a garden. One step - start walking the fingers up their arm, two step - and then the big Finale! Tickle them under a chin or arm. I’ve not seen a kid yet who doesn’t demand it to be done again and again.
Get yourself a copy of Carl Withers’ A ROCKET IN MY POCKET: Rhymes and Chants of Young Americans, Holt, 1948. That’s a good starting place.
August House Publishers of Little Rock does a variety of more contemporary books on children’s rhymes.
For something more literary, get the OXFORD BOOK OF CHILDREN’S VERSE IN AMERICA, a volume I’ve given as a gift to all my friends who were expectant parents.
Songwise, try Jerry Garcia and David Grisman’s disc NOT FOR KIDS ONLY, wonderful Appalachian folk songs with tasty guitar/mandolin backup. And anything by the Holy Modal Rounders or the New Lost City Ramblers. MY kids grew up on “We’ve Got Franklin D. Roosevelt Back Again” and “Down the Old Plank Road.” And they’re NORMAL, damn it.
I just found this site which has lyrics to oodles of kid’s songs.
Wow, great places to start!.I’m an only child, so don’t have memories of parents doing this with younger siblings.
Off to the library or Borders for me.
This little pig went to market is one of my kid’s fav.
5 little ducks went out one day, over the fill and farway, mother duck said quack, quack, quack, quack, but only 4 little ducks came back.
4 little … 3 came back
3 little … 2 came back
2 little … 1 came back
1 little … but no little ducks came wadling back.
Mother duck went out one day … all of the 5 little ducks came back.
Find 5 things and hide one behind your back each time. Very educational WRT counting.
Oh man Caught, that song kills me every time we watch the Raffi video with it on it.
[quote]
The White Seal’s Lullaby
Written By: Rudyard Kipling
Oh! hush thee, my baby,
The night is behind us,
And black are the waters
That sparkled so green.
The moon, o’er the combers,
Looks downward to find us
At rest in the hollows
That rustle between.
Where billow meets billow,
Then soft by thy pillow;
Ah, weary wee flipperling,
Curl at thy ease!
The storm shall not wake thee,
Nor shark overtake thee,
Asleep in the arms
Of the slow-swinging seas.
We are big fans of singing “Hush little baby.” I don’t have the slightest idea what the real verses are, we make it up as we go along.
"If that diamond ring won’t shine,
Daddy’s gonna buy you a valentine.
If that valentine’s not red,
Daddy’s gonna buy you a Chia head.
If that Chia head won’t grow,
Daddy’s gonna buy you a stooge named Moe."
You get the picture. It is amazing some of the rhymes you come up with when you are pacing the floor at 3 a.m. with your child.
Also, with our 5 year old, it’s a good vocabulary/rhyming lesson when she helps make up verses.
“5 little monkeys jumping on the bed” is a great one if you let your kids jump on the bed to it.
Sally? It’s “Alice the Camel!!” hehe
One of my favourite little rhymes (poem?) whatever it is, is Fuzzy Wuzzy:
I have no idea where its from, but I know its not mine 
I also like Hey diddle diddle and There was an old lady (who swallowed a fly)
I’m almost 21, with no kids, but I recite them to my SO on a fairly regular basis, just cuz I like them