This summer my kids went to a preschool VBS while I taught at a Performing Arts Camp. And because I had to listen to the songs for my 3 classes eleventybillion times AND had to stay for the rehearsals, my kids learned all the songs, too. Plus, since it was the “big kids” class, my kids were enthralled by all of it.

Even though Peforming Arts Camp has been done for months, they still ask to listen to the CD. And as they do the dishes, play with puzzles or ride in the car, the words to those songs find their way out of my kids’ hearts and mouths. My favorite song from the musical and the song that most often pops out of my kids is one written by my friend Yancy (and originally recorded by Avalon) called, I Don’t Want To Go.

They chorus says, “I don’t want to go somewhere if I know that you’re not there. ‘Cause I know that me without you is a lie. I don’t want to walk that road, be a million miles from home. My heart needs to be where you are.”

Read those lyrics again and imagine your daughter singing that to Jesus with all her heart. Isn’t that what we’re trying to do? Lead our children to declare that for themselves?

This is why I choose to play Christian music for my kids. This is why we only listen to worshipful, Word-filled songs at our house. And even though we do listen to a lot of Sarah Groves, Nichole Nordeman and David Crowder, we mostly listen to kids’ music. Yeah, kids’ music can get kinda old. Yeah, sometimes I wish we didn’t listen to the same 15 albums over and over again. But the return is so worth me being out of the loop of modern music!

There’s something about music that gets inside your head and in your blood. And if that music is coupled with God’s Word? With worship to Him? It can also get into your heart and spirit. It can also change you and comfort you and strengthen you.

When my daughter was born, I did like all parents do–and sang to her. And not the beautiful lullabies you think of. Nope, it was all the crazy songs I learned as a kid. All the silly camp songs, the funny nursery rhyme songs and yes, all the Christian songs I learned at church. It wasn’t any of the new CDs my husband and I liked or the music from concerts we had been to when were dating. It was the songs I learned as a child.

I want the same thing for my own children. When they are alone, need to stand up for what’s right, being tempted or need comfort, I believe the songs they learned will come to mind. I believe God’s Holy Spirit will remind them of those words and those songs to be a salve to their spirit.

I want my son to walk through his college campus and sing, “I don’t want to go somewhere if you’re not there…I don’t want to walk that road, be a million miles from home.”

I want my daughter to sing, “Make me a servant, humble and meek. Lord, let me lift up those who are weak.” (-Psalty) on the playground at school.

I want my son to sing, “Wherever I go, whatever I do, God’s with me!” (-I Count On You) when he’s away from home for the first time.

I want my children to sing, “I can do all things, all things, all things. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!” (-Donut Man) when they are feeling insecure.

I want them to sing, “Take heart! I have overcome the world!” (-Power of Encouragement) when they are overwhelmed or stressed.

So, today? Sing. Sing. Sing! Sing with your children. Find music that will lift up Jesus, that will plant God’s Word in their hearts and encourage them in their walk with the Lord.

I will be glad and rejoice in you;
I will sing the praises of your name, O Most High.
Psalm 9:2

Our favorite Bible-based CDs:
Yancy {rockin’ cd’s for elementary and preschool!}
Seeds Family Worship {scripture put to music the whole family will enjoy!}
Amber Sky Records {subscription based site with music written for kids’ church}
Go Fish {3 dads doing fun and crazy semi-a cappella music}
The Rizers {high energy scripture}
Hillsong Kids {live worship concert cd’s for kids}
Donut Man {Bible story songs, scripture songs & more fun preschool music}
Psalty {stories and songs!}
Colin Buchanan {aussie praise}

See all our music posts!

Do you sing with your kids?

photo source: Michal Marcol

***Impress Your Kids has some new digs at ohAmanda.com! Come visit us there for all the Impress Your Kids archives and all our new posts–including our Easter newsblast with fabulous tips for celebrating a meaningful Easter with your kids!***

Happy Ultimate Blog Party!

If you are here for the first time: WELCOME to Impress Your Kids! We’re just a couple of mamas who love our kids and love Jesus more. We use all of our creative prowess (and collectively, it’s quite a lot) to impress God’s Word and His Love on our children’s hearts and lives.

We believe that our kids (and your kids!) are open vessels, ready to hear and accept God’s Words. We believe God gave us a mandate to make sure our kids love and follow him. We also believe God gave us all the tools we need to see our kids grow up to love and follow Him

We have lots of tools in our toolbox: crafts, activities, games, books, songs, parties, adventures and more. This week we’re going to show off a little for you. We’re going to show you how EASY it is to Impress Your Kids. We’ll be posting a special daily activity based on one of our favorite tools: Seeds Family Worship CDs.

Each day we’ll do an activity based on one of the songs from the CDs. We’ve been blasting emails back and forth and it is going to be so fun! And hey–there is something in it for you!

Seeds Family Worship has given us some CDs to give away to you! All you have to do is leave a comment. That’s right. Any old comment will do (an impressive one would be niiice, though).

If you’d like an extra entry:

1. Come back every day during the Ultimate Blog Party to read the rest of our It’s Easy To Impress Your Kids posts. Leave one comment on each post and you’ll have lots of extra entries.

2. If you like one of our activities, try it out on your OWN kids–then blog about it. Link it up on the MckLinky below and it will be worth 5 whole entries. {Plus, you could get some extra traffic from all those UBP folks who will be visiting!)

Here’s our first activity based on the scripture, Matthew 7: 7-8 and found on the CD Seeds of Courage:

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”

A prayer box can be an easy way to help a child learn to pray more than rote, memorized prayers – and when combined with the scripture from Matthew 7: 7-8, it can help a child understand prayer in a new way!

You can make a prayer box any ol’ way you want to… I wanted to include a door on our box so Elias, my 4 year old son, would have some help in remembering the verse.  Here’s how I did it…

1. Take an old shoe box.
2. Prep the shoe box with a cut out door and the scripture from Matthew 7: 7-8 glued inside the bottom of the shoe box.
3. Seal the box shut if you’d like – boxes don’t last long around here unless they are sealed tight.  Otherwise, they are stuffed to the brim with toys, sat in, and stomped on until they are destroyed.  My hubby happened to have some brown duct tape laying around, which I thought went well with the wooden-door look I was going for, so I just wrapped it around and around the box until the lid was sealed on the box and the sides were completely covered.
4. Decoupage a piece of paper to the top for the shoebox (yes, over the cut-out door.  Or you could do it the easy way and not cut out the door until you have decoupaged your paper on.  Your choice.).  You could use plain paper or pretty scrapbook paper – I happened to have a woodgrain background picture on my computer that I printed out on regular copy paper and pasted onto my shoebox.  Have your little helper cut out the words “Ask, seek, knock,” or if they would like to write the words by hand, that would give their box a nice personal touch.  Seal all rough, not-pretty edges with more cool brown duct tape.

After our box was done, we played “Ask, Seek, Knock,” from the Seeds of Courage CD and sang along together (we’ve been listening to the Seeds Family Worship CDs for a couple of years now, and I can attest that these songs do so well in impressing the Word of God on your children’s hearts – and on your own!).

Then we talked about the verse - how it is a promise from God, and all we have to do is ask God, seek after Him with all our heart, and knock on His door, and He will answer our prayers!  We took several slips of paper and wrote down things to pray about – then we slipped them in our prayer box, knocked on the “door,” and started asking God to bless our friends and family.

Elias was so excited about his prayer box that we prayed for everything in the box again before bedtime, and it is now sitting on his dresser along with the children’s devotional book we read from each night.  He asked to sleep with it, too, but I had to draw the line somewhere…

See how easy that was?

{2nd day activity: THE MOUTH}

{3rd day activity: Eternal Life}

{4th day activity: Do Not Fear}

{5th day activity: Convinced}

:: :: ::

Well, we hope you like what you see! We are excited about partnering with you to impress your kids! Please, stay connected by subscribing in your feedreader or by email. Check our our facebook page. Follow us on twitter. And come chat in our forum!

***Impress Your Kids has some new digs at ohAmanda.com! Come visit us there for all the Impress Your Kids archives and all our new posts–including our Easter newsblast with fabulous tips for celebrating a meaningful Easter with your kids!***