Ghanaani Libnaniyee Lilu Laad (Lebanese Nursery Rhymes) Volume 6

Dear Parents, We all know the importance of reading to children, for as the proverb says: "Learning at a younger age is like engraving in stone." A child's memory is like a sponge; it absorbs everything that we teach the child, or like a smart camera, it captures all the images that it sees. We also know that when we train the memory to memorize at a younger age, it retains these images and words, and it plants them in the child's mind and imagination in a way that he will not forget them even after he grows to maturity especially if the reading and listening passages are in the form of songs that rhyme which also facilitate the process of memorization, repetition, and retention. All this is in addition to the priceless time of pure enjoyment which you as parents can spend with your children without being occupied with secondary mundane problems related to business and life. This is the reason why I wrote these songs. My hope is that you yourselves will enjoy them and read them aloud to your children many times and help them to memorize them and understand them and also explain to them the embedded cultural background pertaining to life in general and village life in particular. Furthermore, in order to facilitate the process of reading and comprehension, I also transliterated every song so that those who understand Arabic, but cannot read it, can still use and enjoy this book. Best wishes for enjoyable times with your precious children. George Nicolas El-Hage, Ph.D.