Sharing Shoes

Jen, the best tip you'll ever get for writing kids poetry:  syllables mean jack. 

Always count the beats.  Tap on the desk every time you put emphasis on a syllable, because you'll find that a lot don't warrant a tap.  In English, we sort of hush a lot of words/syllables so there are a lot that just don't matter to rhythm.  Start with counting beats and if you want to get really specific, from the beat counting start attaching regular numbers of syllables per DUM (that's how you measure metric feet, in number of syllables per hard stress).  Doing it the other way around is far, far too much work.