I write my first children's poem, and the critics approve

I have a friend whose children are home-schooled. The children are very young (4 and 5), yet very smart, and their mother turns out to have a gift for teaching. She teaches them both art (she's an artist) and poetry, so I decided to write a poem for them. 

But it wasn't easy! Not only had I never written a poem for children, I had to walk a thin line between not talking down to them (their dad said that they skipped the whole "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" stage), yet not giving them something that was too complex for even their well-developed little minds.

I wanted the poem to rhyme, but I also didn't want to give myself a lot of work, so I wrote a series of quatrains in which every other line rhymes. I didn't bother to include a title. I gave the poem a seasonal theme (Mother Nature's beauty during the cold months), and I turned it into a conversation between two woodland creatures--a squirrel and a fox. I named them Sister Squirrel and Brother Fox, since the siblings are sister and brother.

I then sent a message via their dad, asking that the little critics go easy on me! In the last week of December, the smart siblings studied my poem, and--I hear--they liked it. I've been asked by a few people if I would consider writing more children's poems, but the idea doesn't appeal to me. (I also know to never say "never.")

Children love rhyme and rhythm (who doesn't?), and it helps them take pleasure in learning. I remember all the Little Golden Books I read when I was a child. They were all nursery rhyme books back then, but I enjoyed reading and reciting the poems. I wish that my elementary school teachers had taught poetry, but I don't remember their doing so (on the other hand, I don't remember much at all about those days). It's never to soon to introduce children to poetry and art and music.