Customer Reviews

Hymns for a Kid's Heart, Vol. 1

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a supberb means to teach my grandson about God's Word through hymns. The selection of hymns is very good. As a musician, I am highly pleased with the quality of the singing and of the arrangements. I hope to share this with many of my friends and family this Christmas. I highly recommend it.

The CD is excellent quality for all ages with timeless tunes of inspirational songs we can recall forever. The stories contained in the book are delightful to share with the younger generation as well as read at bedtime for any age. The music is uplifting and will stay within your heart all day. Simply marvelous. So many uses. A must for young and young at heart. God bless the authors and musicians who have brought this to our ears and eyes.

We love this book/CD!!! I agree with the other reviewer who was disappointed in the inclusion of "America the Beautiful" because it's not in the same camp as the others chosen. But I couldn't have chosen any better options than the other 11 hymns: "Holy, Holy, Holy," "A Mighty Fortress," "This is my Father's World," "O, For a Thousand Tongues to Sing," "How Firm a Foundation," "Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart," "Take My Life and Let it Be," etc....

I like the book's organization, the short devotionals and and background stories have been on our kids' levels, and the CD is nice. Our children (two 4-year olds and a 5-year-old) LOVE it and request it every morning. My 5-year-old can now sing all 4 verses of "Holy, Holy, Holy" and the first 1 1/2 verses of "My Father's World."

If you are interested in teaching your children to sing hymns, this is a great resource to have at home. We spend about a month on each hymn.

This book was recommended to us and rightfully so ~ we love it. Short and to the point, the biographical sketches keep children's interest and the CD full of beautiful childrens voices singing those sacred words ~ our kids LOVE it. It is asked for, over and over and over ~ especially days we have church at home!

We're using this book with our curriculum, and my daughter just loves it! The only problem is the 4th track is listed as, "The Old Rugged Cross" but is actually "Oh for a Thousand Tongues". "The Old Rugged Cross" isn't on this cd at all! I haven't listened to the rest to see if there are anymore errors. I also cannot get in touch with anyone's email address to try to get a new copy. If other songs are messed up, I won't be able to use this book very effectively.

I started using this with my daughter, one per week. I discovered that some of the songs in the book are missing on the CD, and are replaced with other songs not included in the book.

Not very professional!

Other than that, it is a nice book.

Children and I use this as a Music Curriculum of sorts & sometimes just listen to the CD to hear great hymns. Very Good for a gift, a must have in any home library.

Thank you for Hymns for a Kids Heart. It is beautiful in every way. The singing on the CD is so well doneit is a fine example of quality childrens singing as well as literature. I am planning to incorporate the book into the Childrens Choir program at FPC this fall. I will include the cost of the book in the childrens activity fee. The teachers will then use that book as their Bible study portion of the rehearsal. The following week, the particular hymn they studied will be a part of the worship service! I think it will be a great way to give the children insight into God and into the people who put our faith into music. Thanks again."

My wife and I were eager to teach our children hymns, and this collection seemed like the perfect start. The CD is a pretty good recording of the hymns in the book. The book has a good selection, and the stories that go with it are a helpful context. So that's all the good news. The rest is the bad news.

I'll start with the pickier points. I wasn't really a huge fan of the one-page "reflections" on each story, or the pithy prayers beneath each hymn. There's some dated clip art that accompanies the book (like musical notes in the shape of hearts dotting the pages). Some of the stories are not really very accurate, at all. The Martin Luther story, for instance, is heavily anti-Catholic (which isn't a big problem for me personally), and highly mythologizes the context in which Luther sung and wrote. The fonts for the hymns include some awkward styling for the punctuation marks--that's picky, but that's a personal pet peeve of mine.

Two big issues. First, the hymnal doesn't have harmony, only melody. There are treble and base lines, but they're not four-part harmony, just accompaniment. That's a real problem for me. One of the great things about hymns isn't just the lyrics, but the rich four-part harmony, where all kinds of voices, low and high, male and female, can unite in their best range for the glory of God. You won't find that here.

Second, the inclusion of America the Beautiful was troublesome. I'm not theologically comfortable with a call for God to "shed his grace" on a territory; I don't know that we're supposed to ask for God to "mend . . . every flaw" of our government; a call for "all success" and "every gain divine" comes a little too close to a prosperity gospel; and so on. That might be a picky selection for some, but I want songs that pertain to Christian theology, not the whims and fancies of a temporary earthly political sovereign. Should my children become missionaries in a foreign land, I want to focus their minds on songs that transcend nations.

All in all, three stars: it's a good start for most of the hymns and a decent CD; but it has a few definite flaws I wish I knew about before purchasing.

"What a wonderful new book. I love it! The idea is great. I heard y'all on Focus last year speaking about your other hymns project and thought it was great. I was even more excited to see one for kids. The CD has been playing non-stop in our car for the past 4 days. What a blessing to have children that are requesting Holy, Holy, Holy over and over! Your stories on the writers of each hymn are wonderful and will be a nice homeschool music history course!"