Happy Kids Review

We LOVE music in our home.  Harmony, the resident nine-year-old is almost literally ALWAYS singing.  With our plan to include character and virtue studies in our 2014-15 school year the three Happy Kids Songs digital album downloads are a natural fit.  The decades of experience brought to this project with Dr. Mac and Brian Mann is instantly evident.  The songs are amazing!



Each album is true to its title in the most literal sense.  Happiness & Attitude, Friends & Sharing, and Manners & Character are all fun to listen to and teach exactly what the title says.  The entire family enjoys listening to them over an over again.  For me they have a kind of fun, Broadway musical feel to them that makes listening to the songs with the kids even more enjoyable.  Each song is written in its own unique style making each one fun and interesting all on its own.  The songs touch on tough topics that kids face frequently as a normal part of growing up.  The sweet thing is there is always a solution given which models kind and upstanding behavior.  Listening to the songs provides a wonderful platform for discussing possible challenges our children may face before they actually happen.  The music also creates a peaceful atmosphere to discuss a challenge our child may be dealing with in the present.  Listening to the music is a fun way to introduce our children to making decisions and problem solving with respect for others and ourselves.


The Happy Kids Songs Workbook in softcover has already taken its rightful place on our bookshelf that holds all the materials we will be using in our homeschool this year.  The workbook provides complimentary materials for all eight of the albums available.  I love that the words to all the songs are printed in the workbook.  It's helpful to look at while learning to sing the songs with the kids.  I would love to have the actual sheet music just to aid in learning to sing the songs, but the words in and of themselves are helpful.  There are reproducible activity sheets, allowing you to make copies for each child in your homeschool, or even a co-op, to go along with each individual song as well as multiple learning activities to compliment each album.

Downloading the songs is relatively simple, especially if you are familiar with doing this sort of thing.  For me it was a bit of a learning curve.  My first lesson was that all burnable CD's are NOT created equal.  You simply MUST have the appropriate burnable CD for the playing medium you plan to use.  It also is possible to listen to the songs directly from you computer without having to play them individually.  It took me a little more effort to figure out how to create a playlist, but once I did that listening to the songs was a snap.  The kids can have them playing in the background while they do their math on my laptop.  We love to have them playing in the background while we work on projects, especially learning activities from the Happy Kids Songs Workbook.

The Happy Kids Songs Workbook is available to purchase for $12.56, and you can choose how you purchase the songs.  If you would like to just get a few individual songs they can be downloaded for $.99 a piece.  Alternatively, you can purchase each five-song CD for download for $4.95 which includes FREE downloads of the corresponding lyrics, coloring, and activity pages.  Samples of the songs are available on the website so you can listen before you decide on your purchase.

The songs and materials are geared for ages three through eight years old.  However, children outside of that age range are likely to enjoy them as well.  Mine are three, four, and nine, and it was an absolute perfect fit.  With our age gap it is so nice when we find products like this that appeal to such a wide age span.

All three of the kids enjoyed making the name mobile from page 91 of the workbook.  It corresponds with the song Bye, Bye Bully which is NOT a song from one of the albums in our review, but the lesson was applicable enough.  It helps children reflect on what it's like to be a new kid in the neighborhood and helps them think about positive things they can do to make someone new feel welcome.  We discussed this together, and then we made the mobile together.  The little ones, with a little help from me, got to cut, glue, and use glitter.  Bonus!  Harmony was able to create hers 100% on her own.

Happy Kids Songs and the Happy Kids Songs Workbook has a secure place on our curriculum bookshelf.  We will be learning about character and virtues for years to come.  Having this as a resource will provide the element of fun that we are always looking to incorporate in our adventures in learning.

To learn more about Happy Kids Songs you can check them out on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.  Also, be sure to check out the other Crew Reviews to see how other homeschool families are using Happy Kids Songs in their homes.

Responsibility

How much more talk of this bad economy can we endure? It seems like all we hear is negative, and the word "economy" has been used more this year than I can ever recall hearing in my lifetime. There is A LOT of focus on the negative. My personal focus has been being drawn to the positive.

If you live in the United States in a homeless shelter you are still better of than countless people in less fortunate areas of the world. Even at our worst we still have it better than many. The question is, though, do we even realize it? Or, are we just too spoiled?

When it boils down to it our minimal requirements to survive are food and clothing, and doesn't God promise to provide them for us? Would we know how to be happy if those basic needs were met, and we had nothing else? How would we spend our time? Has it ever dawned on you that Jesus was a homeless man when he walked the earth? His disciples and those he ministered to cared for him. He did not have a home. Others provided him food and shelter as he spread the gospel and served his fellow man.

I have found myself thinking on these things a lot lately, as I feel so very blessed. The conclusion I have come to is that with blessing comes responsibility. If God has blessed us above and beyond what we need, food and clothing, it is our responsibility to share what we have with others. We should not hoard our surplus for the future. God promises to provide. We should share what we have.

Here in Michigan our economy and jobless rate is worse off than anywhere else in the country. We are surrounded with those that need. It seems like thousands lose their jobs ever day, and the prospects for those that are unemployed are very bleak. The playing ground has changed, and old ways of dealing with things are ineffective. One must really be aggressive in order to make anything happen, and even then the situation is not promising.

I have found myself conversing with God in regard to how he has blessed me and my family. My husband is a transmission mechanic. Praise God, his business is not suffering with the economy. It is staying steady due to the economy. People are fixing their cars and driving them longer. This is a blessing to us. He will be going back into business for himself, Lord willing, this September. Our decisions, prayers, and focus all point in this direction, and we are quite confident that this is where we are being led. However, we are open to His guidance should this not be His will. There is peace here, and I am finding that responsibility comes with that. My prayer has become, "What would you have me do to serve others, Lord?" I find myself looking for opportunities to give back to my community. There is so much we can do. Here is a list of ideas:

Volunteer at a local soup kitchen or homeless shelter.
Plant a garden, and donate the surplus to a local food bank.
Volunteer at a local food bank sorting food.
Mentor a young person.
Adopt a grandparent at a local nursing home or senior center.
Prepare resumes for free to those that are out of work.
Donate food and clothing to local charities.
Instead of a yard sale, donate your items to Purple Heart or another local charity.
Volunteer for Meals on Wheels.
Host a Bible study in your home for young people.
Provide transportation to and from church for those that have no way to get there otherwise.

The above is just a very short list of possible ideas to make a difference. It is my hope that it has gotten your creative juices flowing, and you can come up with something that works with your skills and the special needs of your community. If you have food and clothing, praise the Lord, and bless those that you can around you.