Hymns for Kids teaches children about worship music, concentrating on hymns. Along the way, they learn many key musical concepts as they learn how to "read" a hymn. Appropriate for beginner piano students, as a unit study for homeschoolers, or just for introducing the study of hymns, Hymns for Kids is written with 8 to 12-year olds in mind (though it is appropriate for younger, and older, audiences).
Hymns for Kids has four sections: an overview of hymns; the "technical stuff"; Hymns for Kids hymnal; and, worksheets, puzzles, and answer keys.
Overview
- The reason why we sing and what the Bible has to say about singing
- The history of the hymns: from the time of Moses to the New Testament, through church history and to our own time
- The purpose of hymns: to praise the Lord; and, to encourage, admonish and instruct one another in the faith
- Types of worship songs: psalms, hymns, and modern praise songs
- A review of famous hymns and hymnbooks, and hymn writers like Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, and Fanny Crosby
The "Technical Stuff"
- How many people does it take to write a hymn?
- Voices; four-part harmonies
- Lyrics and refrains
- Tune names
- Meters: common, long, short, etc.
- How to use a hymnbook
The Expanded Second Edition Includes
- Twice the number of "Quick Review" questions scattered throughout the text-over 50
- Expanded text about praise songs
- New section on Psalms:
- History and importance of the book of Psalms in the Bible
- Types of Psalms
- Poetic style
- Psalters
- Unique words found in hymns: Amen and Alleluia
- Special types of hymns
- benedictions
- doxologies
- musical responses (Amen, Gloria Patri, and more)
- Hymns for Kids hymnal
- Representation of what a hymnal looks like
- Indexes
- Worksheets
- Crossword puzzle
- Word Search puzzle
- Answer keys for:
- Quick Review questions
- Hymns for Kids hymnal worksheets
- Puzzles
To get the most out of Hymns for Kids, we recommend using it with our book series of hymn arrangements for beginner piano students, Favorite Hymns for Kids. If you do not need the worksheets that are part of the Favorite Hymns series, or if you have adult students, please consider our other series of hymn arrangement books, Just Hymns.
About the Author: Kurt Snow
Along with his wife, Kim Snow, Kurt Snow has written praise songs, hymns, and songs for children's choirs. Together they operate the website www.PraiseNotes.com, which is dedicated to teaching kids music by teaching Christian hymns. Their compositions, including the sheet music and audio files, can also be found on PraiseNotes.com. He wrote, directed, produced and was the lead actor in the video "Mr. Humdinger Goes Fishing" which aired on PBS. He also wrote "Patrick Biddle's Great Adventure," a book for children 8-12 years-old. He is the production manager and designer for Leben, a church history magazine. He currently serves on the board of a local seminary and as an elder in his church. He works in the advertising industry.
Kim Snow
Kim Snow has been teaching piano students for over 20 years. As a piano teacher, she discovered that music curriculum using hymns was limited and difficult for beginner music students to play. To address this need she began studying hymnology, music theory, and composition, and began writing her own arrangements of hundreds of the most popular hymns of the Christian faith. She integrates many concepts-including the circle of fifths, improvisation and chord stylization-to help the student understand music and how to play the hymns. Her arrangements and other products are available on PraiseNotes.com.
Kim has also been a church musician for over 25 years. She loves teaching online piano lessons across the country via Skype. Her advanced hymn arrangements have been published in the national publication "The Church Pianist" and Lorenz's piano solos for Holy Week, "With Jesus Through the Shadows."
