"My Eternal Family" keeps haunting me. Part of me understands the reason why I pushed it back, but part of me wants to get the more challenging song under my belt. What we have are two verses with a chorus, sung at the end of each verse.
The song lends itself easily to visual aids and to signs. I plan to use sign language when teaching this song, because of the cadence of the music, the hand motions can immitate that rhythmic feel and help with learning and remembering the song.
I have been toying with the idea of teaching the chorus first to both junior and senior primaries. My reasoning here is that the kids always seem a bit weaker at the end of the song than the beginning. For example all my Sunbeams can sing the first line of I lived in Heaven, but by the end of the song only some of them are still singing. When I get the chorus in solid, i'll go back and teach the two verses, then it will seem like the song is shorter because they already know the chorus.
Believe it or not i'm already thinking i'll have the older boys sing the verses in the program and the whole primary sing just the chorus. I like the sound of the boys voices here and I think it would be quite powerful performed this way. I might have the older children hum while they sing. Of course all this is subject to change, I have months to think about this.
I think it would be cheating the little children not to teach them this song. Don't miss understand me I really don't care for this song either, but my JR primary were really getting into this song. I was told by two of the teachers they were singing it in in class right after they learned it. Even my Sunbeams who haven't tried to sing a word yet were all try to sing it. I may not like this song, but it is already obvious to me the little kids love it.
ReplyDeletePS: I liked the idea of teaching the chorus first. That had not occurred to me. I think it helped them learn the song faster (especially the really little ones) Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI will teach the song to all the children I just got really worried that now that all my readers are in SR. primary I was going to be able to teach the song to the JR. primary effectively. I switched it's place with the Reverence is Love song purely for my benefit. First we are still shaky with How Firm a Foundation (at least in the JR. primary) and I wanted to do an easier, shorter song to see how the younger kids responded without the older kids to carry them. Now that it's done though, I can say that i'm glad I switched songs. I have to spend more time teaching the song with the JR. primary now and it's good to plan in advance how much time I need and how many weeks to teach them songs.
ReplyDeleteWow...I'm so surprised. I LOVE this song and it is all our primary kids talk about...'the builder song'. Maybe it is just because it was the first song I taught when I got this new calling.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, thanks for all your tips and ideas. I would learn a lot if I could just come and observe you one Sunday! :)