We love listening to music and audio books, so it came as no surprise that our boys absolutely love these Happy Kids Songs. For this review, we received the Happy Kids Songs Workbook: Hands-on Activities to build Character, Social & Emotional Skills as well as three albums: Friends and Sharing (Set 1), Happiness and Attitude (Set 7) and Manners and Character (Set 6).
Happy Kids Songs are the work of singer, songwriter and child psychologist, Dr. Don MacMannis, also known as Dr.Mac. He is the music director and songwriter for Jay Jay the Jet Plane, a cartoon series that our boys used to watch. Together, with his musical partner, Brian Mann, they have created eight award-winning albums that provide entertaining and educational music and lyrics for children.
Each of the three Song Sets that we received, contain 5 songs with each song covering a different topic.
The Friends and Sharing Set covers: Shyness, Reaching Out, How to Blend In, Not being Bossy and Dealing with Goodbyes.
The Manners and Characters Set covers: Lying, The Golden Rule, Respect for Others, Accepting Differences and Rudeness and Manners.
The Happiness and Attitude Set covers: Being Thankful, Positive Thinking, Paths to Happiness, Handling Frustration and Time Together/Time Apart.
Some of these happy songs are sung by an adult, but many of them are sung by children as they are geared toward the younger child age group.
To enhance learning about these important skills, the Happy Kids Song Workbook is a awesome. This 125 page book not only contains the lyrics so the kids can follow and sing along, it also contains colouring and activity pages and over a hundred lessons that will help reinforce the concepts of the songs.
How did we go?
At first, we spent the time listening to the songs and talking about the words and what we learnt from the song and how we could use the content of the song to improve our character. After listening to all the 15 songs we received, we then listened to them again, this time completing the workbook as we went.
The boys loved listening to these songs in the car and while going to bed at night. After listening to the songs a couple of times, they were able to sing along and tell us what the songs were about. Dr Mac and Friends really know how to reach and capture a child’s attention and inspire them to feel good and get along with others.
We loved how each album contained a special theme. We could listen and talk about each particular theme, making sure our boys understand the life lessons that were being taught by these songs. I love this creative way of teaching children character skills. The tunes are catching, making them stick in your head. The boys have been heard playing lego in their rooms, singing the words to the songs.
The workbook was great in helping the boys sing along to the songs and reinforce the content they were listening to in the songs. We completed some of the activities in the second section (at the back of the book). I found these activities to provide very good hands-on experiences which our boys really enjoyed.
One activity for Sailing on the Seven C’s was Question and Answer cards. On the front of the cards, the seven C’s were written and on the back were phrases (see above) which the boys had to answer. They took turns at drawing a card out of a hat and answering / finishing the phrase.
This Fingerprint activity was for the “Same and Different Too” song. In this song, the concepts were about how we are all the same in some ways but in other ways we are different. Even though their hands are the same shape, each of our boys learnt that they have different patterns in their fingerprints.
Overall, we have really enjoyed listening to these songs. I found that it was more beneficial to sit with our boys and talk with them about the words of the songs adding our Biblical viewpoint when it was needed. The songs would be great to listen to alongside a Biblical program that concentrates on character building.
You can listen to a sample of the songs at Happy Kids Songs. Two of our boys favourite songs were “Shake it Our and Dance” and “Who Knows What’s a Kudo?” from the Happiness and Attitude Album.
Details At a Glance!!
Name: Happy Kids Songs
Website: Happy Kids Songs
Product: Happy Kids Songs Workbook: Hands-on Activities to build Character, Social & Emotional Skills and Friends and Sharing (Set 1), Happiness and Attitude (Set 7) and Manners and Character (Set 6).
Price:
- The Happy Kids Songs Workbook is currently $12.56 on sale
- The Happy Kids Songs are 99c each or $4.95 for an album of 5 songs
Ages: For ages 3-8, but children ages 0-9 will enjoy them.