Jumpstarting Your Children’s Choir After the Christmas Break
Your children’s choir sang like angels for their Christmas program – now it’s time to restart your choir and prepare for special services and presentations in the spring. Here are some reminders about the benefits of children’s choir to motivate you to prepare for a fantastic spring with your young singers!
Singing in a choir is fun for children and will boost their confidence.
Singing in the choir allows children to create music together in a joyful and supportive environment. Singing with their friends nurtures a sense of togetherness. As children rehearse and grow in their musicianship, they gain a sense of accomplishment that boosts their self-esteem. Performing during worship helps them build confidence further, teaching them to overcome nervousness and take pride in their abilities. When children express stage fright, I explain that this is normal. I challenge them to channel that nervousness into performance energy – to “make their butterflies fly in formation”!
Leaders can increase the fun by choosing some songs that include movement and sign language. Children also enjoy fun energizers, warm-ups, singing games, tongue twisters, and vocal explorations. A great resource is Sing Together, Children: Developing Young Singers through Vocal Exploration, Warm-ups, Rounds, Songs, and Singing Games by Madeline Bridges.
Church is a great place for children to make friends.
Friendships for children are more important than ever! Children’s mental health professionals have documented the transition of childhood from being primarily play based to predominantly phone based. Most experts agree that this evolution is hurting our children as anxiety, depression, and loneliness have spiked in ways that cannot be ignored. The issue is not just smartphones, but all internet-connected personal electronics that fill children’s time. Social network platforms seek to capture and maintain the attention of children through an assortment of manipulative strategies. As children are pulled away from the real world to the virtual world, their social and neurological development is harmed.
Children’s choir is a wonderful space for real-world friendships and a place to express joy, find belonging and peace, and develop faith. Participation in faith-based communities nurtures positive mental health outcomes for children. Singing in choir is particularly linked to mental and physical health improvements.
A fun and timely children’s musical titled Unplugged, by Dennis and Nan Allen, challenges children as well as adults to disconnect from the virtual world that distracts us from genuine relationships and encourages a focus on Christ and one another.
The teachings of Christian faith can be learned through children’s music.
We all know that Psalm 119 is the longest in the Psalter, but do you know which is the second longest? It’s Psalm 78, known as one of the great history psalms. Verses 1–7 emphasize the importance of passing our faith to our children. Through children’s choir, singers develop a stronger connection to the Bible. Through the songs they sing, they memorize Scripture. Songs featuring lyrics rooted in Scripture or conveying biblical truths will do much to lay a foundation for their developing faith. These words will remain with them throughout their lives, influencing and shaping their beliefs.
Learning lyrics will help children with memory and pronunciation.
Singing combines lyrics, melody, rhythm, and harmony. The synthesis of these four components activates the higher learning centers of the brain. This process builds neural pathways which strengthen a child’s overall ability to retain and recall information.
Singing also involves careful attention to diction and articulation, helping children develop clearer pronunciation. Repeating lyrics with precise enunciation during rehearsals teaches them how to form words accurately, which can improve speech and language skills over time.
Rhyming words teach children to predict and anticipate words. Rhyming words also help children learn to write and spell, inspire beauty and imagination, add joy and fun to singing, and aid greatly in memorization.
Choir is a great way to develop listening skills and to practice teamwork and cooperation.
In today’s fast-paced, digitally driven world, listening can become a lost art among both children and adults. Short attention spans and overstimulation may cause children to struggle when trying to focus their attention.
Singing in harmony requires careful attention as children listen to unify their volume, pitch, and rhythm. Other musical activities, such as games where children listen to identify correct rhythms, melodies, and instruments, will also help develop listening skills. Children must learn to watch and follow their leader’s instructions and coordinate their singing with others in the choir. By working together, children learn how to support one another, share responsibility, and build a sense of community. These higher-learning skills extend far beyond the choir setting.
Choir is a positive, supervised activity for children.
Successful children’s music ministries enlist and train leadership to provide positive and well-supervised choirs under the guidance of skilled directors and helpers. Children’s choirs provide the resources and structured rehearsals that encourage discipline, focus, creativity, and musical and spiritual growth. Parents can feel confident that their children are spending their time in a meaningful program that will benefit their children for a lifetime.
