Music to my ears

My kids and I love to sing. I have absolutely NO singing chops, I mean none. Don't sit near me in church, I like to belt it out but there is no tune, harmony, melody or any other music term happening...except maybe tone deaf!

That being said, we listen to a lot of music at home. I am pretty committed to my kids not hearing the trash that is on the radio. And I know it's not all trash, but a lot of it is. And if the lyrics aren't trashy than often the way the person singing them dresses, or acts, or speaks is. So for now, I'm avoiding pop music culture with my kids and sticking with what is age appropriate for them. When they are older and music becomes such a big part of their social life, as it did with mine, we will revisit the current pop offerings!

We like to sing some of the old standards...Itsy Bitsy Spider, B-I-N-G-O, The Wheels on the Bus and Zippedy Do Dah. We also love the old sunday school repertoire...The B-I-B-L-E, Jesus Loves the Little Children, I'm in the Lord's Army and Climb up Sunshine Mountain. Of course our lullaby every night is Jesus Loves Me, there is nothing sweeter than hearing your little one sing it back to you (we've just reached that point with JB).

Here are our favorite CDs in no particular order:

1. anything by Go Fish! (Snazzy, Kickin' it Old School, Party Like a Preschooler...to name a few)


2. anything by Laurie Berkner (thank you Kate and Quinn...our favorite song is Moon, Moon, Moon...another sweet lullaby to sing with the kids)


3. Where Oh Where is my Underwear? (got this at the library in a moment of weakness and we actually love it)


4. anything by The Imagination Movers (these must be popular, the ones at the library are always all knicked up)


5. Hey It's Franklin (another random library find that we sing a long too)


6. there is a Disney Silly Song CD we enjoy--that might be the name of it, Silly Songs


7. Seeds Family Worship (oh and Susan, I forgot to give you that CD, just bug me about it, it's in the car)


8. Hide 'em in your Heart (old school Steve Green but I love the idea of singing scripture, Seeds Family Worship is the same idea...just a little more current)


9. almost anything Veggie Tales (now, I can only take this in small doses but the kids do love it. We randomly took an 80's Veggie Tales CD out of the library ONCE...I wanted to scratch my eyes out after the first song)


10. Disney has a new series called Songs and Stories. You can get most major disney stories and each CD has four or five songs and then the story to go with. We love Cinderella, Toy Story 2 and Snow White.

As you can see, we get a lot of our music at the library. It's a great way to try something out, if you like it you can buy the CD or download the tunes on your ipod (wow, that is a pretty current technology reference for such a technologically challenged person). I've also started introducing my kids to some of my favorite music. And so, my kids like Superchick, Reliant K, and Casting Crowns...I suppose I ought to figure out what the Christian music world is currently offering or they are going to look silly singing old DC Talk songs when they get to youth group some day :)