One of the boy's Christmas gifts from us this year was the CD Songs for Saplings. The CD contains Scripture set to song for each letter of the alphabet, plus a few extras at the end for various holidays and such. The songs are written and sung by Dana Dirksen, who began setting Scripture to music in order to help her own children memorize verses.
This CD is wonderful. I had looked for a CD of Scripture set to music a few months ago, bought one from a local Christian bookstore, listened to it once - and haven't picked it up again. It was awful. The music was bad, the Scripture references weren't included in the songs, and I just couldn't bring myself to listen to it again. This seems to be the trend in Christian material - the quality doesn't matter, just make something about God and you're set!
Songs for Saplings, on the other hand, actually is good. Jacob loves the CD and asks for it to be turned on several times a day - and if I'm going to have to listen to something that often (and have it stuck in my head even when it's not playing), it better not sound like some sort of horrible 80's rap that just happens to include the word "Jesus" and "Bible" in there a few times. This is definitely not that. The songs are cute, the music is great - and as an added bonus, I'm finally memorizing Scripture, something I've never been very good at.
This is an excellent tool for teaching young children biblical truths. I highly recommend it. The CDs are on sale right now, so it's as good a time as any to pick one up - or two or three, as they would make excellent baby shower gifts. (Just a note for those who live in Canada, you have to order through their international page.) They also have three "Questions with Answers" CDs, which I haven't ordered yet but likely will at some point. The series is aimed at children beginning at three years old and includes various questions and their answers in song format (you can listen to samples on their website). But for those with babies or toddlers, I can't recommend Songs for Saplings enough!
ooh. cool! One of my best friends runs the new baby ministry at church and is always looking for good Christian-music for babies CDs to put in the gift baskets. I'll pass along the word!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds so cute. How neat!
ReplyDeleteThose sound great! I am going to look for them. I want to teach Daniel scripture in a way that will be easy for him at an early age. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI just looked up the CD on iTunes and they have it! I am definitely interested in buying it. Thanks for the recommendation!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for sharing this with us. I'll definately put it on my to get list. It's important to me to have things like this to use. It would be great to use with my godchildren until I have little ones of my own.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for this recommendation! SOunds like something Luke would LOVE!
ReplyDeleteAwesome! Thanks for the recommendation.
ReplyDeleteThat's great!
ReplyDeleteDear Hippie Housewife. Let us know if you'd like the rest of the Songs for Saplings CDs. There are three more in the series. We'll send them off to you to review, our gift. Thanks for the kind words.
ReplyDeletejames dirksen