Hymns for children

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lisauze

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I am looking for child friendly hymns for children. Any ideas would be great. I don’t really want any hymns with large words or negative topics. Thanks
 
Here are some I’ve done with my kids:

Holy, Holy, Holy
How Can I Keep from Singing?
Be Thou My Vision
Abide With Me
The Lourdes Hymn (Immaculate Mary)
Hail Holy Queen Enthroned Above

Lots of traditional Christmas carols, too. 🙂
Many Latin prayers are often set to music that is easy to learn. The seasonal Marian antiphons can be a place to start:

Alma Redemptoris Mater (Advent - Feb 2)
Ave Regina Caelorum (Feb 2 - Easter Vigil)
Regina Caeli (Easter season)
Salve Regina (Pentecost until First Sunday of Advent)

Even though they’re in Latin, the kids pick them up quickly because we sing them at the end of our evening prayers.
 
Not negative per se I just don’t want hymns about Christ hanging on the Cross and bloody wounds or large words. Like the song Last will and Testament or Anima Christi, Sent From his Fathers Throne. I’m trying to keep it simple for four and five year olds.
 
The King of Love My Shepherd Is
Sing of Mary
I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say
 
The Hippopotamus Song
The Butterfly Song
Big Steps, Little Feet
Celebrate God

Cat.Chat is a Catholic audio program for children. They have 6 CDs that are a mix of script and songs (Mary Leads Me Closer to Jesus, Jesus in My Heart, Amazing Angels and Super Saints, The Mass Comes Alive, A Christmas to Remember, and An Extra Special Easter Vacation) plus at least two CDs that are just songs - The Ultimate One and a CD that has songs from the episodes.

Depending on what you’re planning, Cat.Chat also has Vacation Bible School programs that you can purchase as a package - Cool Kingdom Party, A Wilderness Journey Through the Sacraments, A Radical Ride On the Wings of Prayer, and Marvelous Mystery.

You can access these at www.catchat.ca

Our daughter LOVED Cat.Chat as a kid. They now have some DVDs too, which I have not seen.
 
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Christ hanging on the Cross is part of our faith, as is His suffering and death. Children have heard about it for 2000 years, no need to sugar-coat it now.
 
I love how people say “children have heard about it for 2000 years” but “children didn’t go to Mass until the age of reason”

Little children can learn to sing of the joy of Jesus and also learn about Jesus’ sacrifice.

Just becase you don’t want them belting out solemn topics dosn’t mean you’re candy coating thigns.
 
This Danny Schnieble CD is often blaring in our van. Bonus points if the kids snuck tin whistles into the back seat. (No I don’t homeschool, I just buy things from homeschool catalogs…a lot.)


Some favorites:
Songs of Praise The Angels Sang
Little Baby Jesus
Angel of God
O Blessed St. Joseph
Salve Regina
St. Patrick’s Breastplate
All Things Bright and Beautiful
Twelve Apostles
Christ Will Come Again
By All Your Saints Still Striving
Tantum Ergo
 
Xanthippe_Voorhees said:
I love how people say “children have heard about it for 2000 years” but “children didn’t go to Mass until the age of reason”

Little children can learn to sing of the joy of Jesus and also learn about Jesus’ sacrifice.

Just because you don’t want them belting out solemn topics doesn’t mean you’re candy coating things.
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Exactly. Children under the age of 6 have no capacity for understanding those details anyway. It is developmentally appropriate to teach them about the Good Shepherd and his love for us first. It is only within the context of that relationship that they can later understand sin and sacrifice, anyway. (As sombody whose three-year-old just correctly used the word “intrinsic”, I totally disagree on the big words, but that’s another matter.)

As an aside, to anyone who is interested in the topic, I recommend reading “The Religious Potential of the Child” for an excellent treatment of this topic.
 
babochka said:
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Xanthippe_Voorhees:
I love how people say “children have heard about it for 2000 years” but “children didn’t go to Mass until the age of reason”

Little children can learn to sing of the joy of Jesus and also learn about Jesus’ sacrifice.

Just because you don’t want them belting out solemn topics doesn’t mean you’re candy coating things.
Click to expand...
Exactly. Children under the age of 6 have no capacity for understanding those details anyway. It is developmentally appropriate to teach them about the Good Shepherd and his love for us first. It is only within the context of that relationship that they can later understand sin and sacrifice, anyway. (As sombody whose three-year-old just correctly used the word “intrinsic”, I totally disagree on the big words, but that’s another matter.)

As an aside, to anyone who is interested in the topic, I recommend reading “The Religious Potential of the Child” for an excellent treatment of this topic.
Click to expand...
I agree with teaching children big words, but I am guessing the OP asked they not be singing them because they can be hard to memorize and clumzy to say. Unfortunatly, there is no lack of bad church music with terrible word choice just to sound “educated”.
 
If I had had kids, the one thing I would love to have done is hold a small child on my lap while someone with a quality voice sang Ave Maria. I would try to impart to the little one the beauty of the music, even though it would be over his/her head.

Oh and please strike “Amazing Grace” from the list, unless you get rid of the “saved a wretch like me” lyric.
Don’t need that kind of self definition for a small child. Maybe change the lyric to “saved and set me free.”
That would work.
 
Check out the Donut Man, he writes and performs children’s hymns. Oh, and he’s a Catholic convert 🙂

 
If your diocese participates in Totus Tuus, you might contact the coordinator and see if they have any suggestions. This group does the catholic equivalent of Vacation Bible school for elementary education in various diocese in the US. My college-age kids that teach the little ones have a week of training when they learn (or re-learn), all the kiddie songs to use in their program.
 
If ye love me!!! It uses some old English but it is such a beautiful hymn!
 
I’m not trying to step on toes which apparently I did. I just want to help you all understand a little better. When we spoke to the children about Christ’s death on the Cross I had half the class crying not understanding why anyone would want to hurt Jesus since he was such a good person. I’m talking bawling almost couldn’t calm them down. I’m trying to avoid melt downs like that these children can be sensitive to pain and suffering and I kind of hope they don’t lose that. The other half unfortunately aren’t so sensitive, they want to know if we are zombies since we drink blood and eat flesh so I’ve got a nice mix of children and parents to contend with. Which is why I am trying to avoid blood and wounds and I’m sorry if people don’t understand that rational
 
It’s okay. When I was a kid I practically cried every year when we did the Children’s Stations of the Cross and also when the teachers would show us this filmstrip of Christ’s Passion and Death every Easter that had really sad bells chiming to tell the teacher to advance the filmtrip frame.

It’s too bad most of those kids will lose that childlike sympathy for poor Jesus when they get older.
 
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