A tiny four-line drama: a girl, her snack, and a spider that sends her running. The curds and whey are unfamiliar to most modern toddlers, which makes it a natural moment to stop and explain what they are before the spider arrives and gets the giggle.
Spoken in a sing-song; slow down when the spider arrives.
From Mother Goose / Nursery Rhymes (traditional). See the whole collection.
Little Miss Muffet
Sat on a tuffet,
Eating of curds and whey;
There came a big spider,
And sat down beside her,
And frightened Miss Muffet away.
About this poem
First printed in 1805. The favourite origin story says Miss Muffet was Patience Moffet, daughter of a Tudor spider expert who supposedly made her sit among his specimens. It is a neat tale and almost certainly untrue. Nobody linked the rhyme to the Moffets until long after it was written, and there is no evidence for it. A tuffet is a low seat or a grassy hummock. Curds and whey is milk separated into soft cheese, not far off cottage cheese.
Use the pause the spider gives you. Come down beside your child on 'sat down beside her', then run light fingers up to them on 'frightened Miss Muffet away'. No real fright needed. The surprise is the whole fun of it, and it fits nicely at snack time, curds and whey or otherwise.
Public domain. Text from The Real Mother Goose (Blanche Fisher Wright, 1916), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition