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Happy Kids Songs sent members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew three downloadable song sets (15 songs total):
Friends & Sharing (Set 1),
Happiness & Attitude (Set 5), and
Manners & Character (Set 6). Members also received the accompanying
Happy Kids Songs Workbook: Hands-on Activities to Build Character, Social & Emotional Skills.
About Happy Kids Songs and Dr. Mac
If you are looking for quality music with a positive message that can constructively impact your young children, you might want to consider
Happy Kids Songs by singer, songwriter, and child psychologist, Dr. Don MacMannis, also known as Dr. Mac. You may already be familiar with some of his work; he's the music director and songwriter for
Jay Jay the Jet Plane, a cartoon series on PBS. My oldest son, who is now 15, used to watch it all of the time!
With
Happy Kids Songs, Dr. Mac, along with his musical partner, Brian Mann, has created eight award-winning, full production albums that are
geared toward children ages 3-8. Each album has five songs that provide entertaining music and lyrics which teach children about important character, social, and emotional skills.
Songs boast a variety of music styles and instruments and feature both adult and child singers. Some songs are upbeat, and some are a little slower. I wouldn't say the songs sound exactly like what a typical kid is listening to these days, but the music is appropriate for young children, and the singers are pleasant to listen to. Regardless of your taste in music, the albums are professionally done.
You can download each album for
$4.95 or purchase songs separately for
99¢. We burned our songs to a CD after downloading. As a bonus, you can download lyrics and activity pages that compliment each song. These extras are absolutely free!
Friends and Sharing Songs
"Sailing on the Seven Cs"
This song is about what it takes to be a good friend: Caring, Consideration, Commitment, Communication, Concern, Curiosity, and Cooperation.
"Concern just means the same as caring,
Not much blame and lots of sharing.
Curiosity means finding out,
What your friend is all about."
"Everybody Wants to Find a Friend"
This song is about reaching out and letting others know you want to be with them.
"Just say hello. Let 'another body' know
That you want to play with them again."
"Sharing Friends"
This song is about including others when you're playing.
"So let's all play, come be our guest,
'Cause sharing friends is the way to go."
"Happy as Happy Can Be"
This song is about being happy together.
"These are some things that go together,
Like a family,
Things that go together,
Like friends, like you and me."
"Together"
This song is about saying goodbye but looking forward to being together again.
"You'll always be my friend,
Until the very end.
We'll always be together
Forever, again and again."
Click the link to listen to samples of
Friends and Sharing songs.
Below, you can watch a video of the song "Together."
Happiness and Attitude Songs
"Shake It Out and Dance"
This song is about changing your mindset from
I can't to
I can.
"If you move to the groove, then it's easy to prove,
That you've got a way to change, 'I can't' to 'I can.'"
"Who Knows What's a Kudo?"
This song is about giving compliments and saying thank you.
"Now who knows what's a kudo? We know, we do-
Tellin' someone something nice, something that's true
Something nice they do, something nice and new."
"I Don't Understand"
This song is about asking for an explanation when you don't understand something.
"I don't know why birds can fly,
But if they can, then why can't I?
Give an answer, give it a try,
Won't you tell me?"
"Be Good to Yourself"
This song is about seeing the best in everyone including yourself.
"Then see the best in everyone,
With everything you do.
Then don't forget that everyone means "you" -- you, too,"
"Better Together"
This song is about how great it is to spend time with a friend.
"It's better, much better
It's better when there's two."
Click the link to listen to samples of
Happiness and Attitude songs.
Manners and Character Songs
"H-o-n-e-s-t-y"
This song is about the importance of telling the truth.
"If you lie a lot, people will stop trusting you.
Even when you tell the truth, they're not gonna believe you."
"The Magic Word"
This song is about saying please when asking for things.
"'Please,' I say, 'please.'
It's the magic word."
"Quirks"
This song is about understanding that everybody's got quirks.
"Yeah, my Momma's always thinkin',
And my Daddy has a knee that jerks,
Grandma's always winkin',
And Grandpa whistles when he works . . ."
"The Golden Rule"
This song is about treating others the way you want to be treated.
"Knowin' life the way we do,
Me and you'll be goin' by that Golden Rule."
"Six Little Kids"
This song is about recognizing and respecting other people's points of view.
"Six little kids, six points of view,
Which ones are wrong and Which one's true?"
Click the link to listen to samples of
Manners and Character songs.
Happy Kids Songs Workbook
I mentioned earlier that there are complimentary activity pages that you can download for free.
And there are. However, if you'd rather not deal with the hassle of downloading and printing a ton of pages (workbook has over 120 pages), you can purchase an already assembled workbook for
$12.56.
The workbook is divided into two sections. The first provides a lyric page and activity page for each of the 40 songs. These pages include activities such as coloring pages, mazes, word searches, dot-to-dots, drawing, fill-in-the-blanks, and more.
The second section has over 80 activity and hands-on project ideas that teachers and parents can do together with their children. Some of the projects do require common, household supplies. The workbook pages and activities are a great way to reinforce concepts taught in the songs.
Below are a few examples from my daughter's workbook:
Our Opinion
First off, I want to say that I think Happy Kids Songs is a quality product for young children. Songs and workbook pages are educational and fun, and they definitely teach character traits that I want my kids to possess.
Having said that though, this particular product wasn't a perfect fit for us. It would have been a wonderful compliment to some of the Bible/character materials I used years ago when all of my children were little. My 9-year-old daughter is the only one who listened to the songs, and she feels that she is already too old for the them. It's not the content she feels too old for but the way in which it's presented. Our family mostly listens to "grown up" Christian music, and she says she prefers to listen to our local Christian radio station.
I think Happy Kids Songs would be great for families who have mostly young children who could enjoy listening to these songs together. I am sure there are lots of Crew families with little children who reviewed Happy Kids Songs, so click on the banner below to see what they thought.
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