I didn’t duck in time at the church a couple weeks ago and I suddenly became a VBS volunteer.
I’m “in charge” of the music.
I’ve got a CD and DVD of 10 kid-friendly praise tunes. The DVD has kids doing hand motions (lame, IMO) to the music and lyrics for those that can read.
I’m supposed to do about 20 minutes of music at the beginning of the evening and 20 at the end. The whole CD is maybe 40 minutes long. Four nights of the same music again and again? Will the kids rebel? Can I just get through this with false enthusiasm & upbeat music?
Any advice welcome.
Please, to our evangelical atheists - your no-doubt snarky comments about me spicing up the evening with the truth of God’s non-existence will be met with eye-rolling. As a converted atheist myself, I know the arguments, have delivered the arguments, and now have reconciled the contradictions to my own satisfaction.
Just remember that most kids are going to think that you’re amazing just because you are a grownup outside of their family who is paying attention to them like they are real people. If you get up there and make a fool out of yourself, they’ll love you. Many, many summers of working at scout camp has taught me this. Good luck!
If you are enthusiastic about the songs the kids will be, too. However, you have to do the lame-o hand motions/dancing along with them or the 12 year olds won’t do them at all, IME. Have fun!
What’s the theme of your VBS? Ours was a beach party this year.
They have a plastic cover and laminated pages. Kids can read them underwater if they need to. You can buy them at most diving schools or large camping stores (a large camping store is one that specializes in really big tents and things like pots for 20 or more people).
I liked vacation Bible school when I was a kid. One song I still like is “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.” The children’s choir often sings it at my church and think it is cute.
Good for you for volunteering. I have gotten faster at ducking.
How many/ how old are the kids? If they are young, you might find it works better to repeat a few songs, letting them practice the words and hand motions, than to go through the whole CD every night.
Don’t let on that you think the hand motions are lame. From what I can tell, at a certain age kids really like that. Also, any level of physical activity can play a valuable role in controlling large groups of squirrely kids. Since you are doing music at the beginning and the end, think about your role in getting the kids ready to focus on a group activity in the beginning and on turning them over back to their parents in a semi-calm state at the end.
Do you have, or have access to, any kind of instruments? If the kids find the music repetitive, introducing tambourines or something the last couple of nights will spice it up. Can you or one of the other volunteers play guitar? Even doing the songs in different order will probably keep kids from realizing it’s the exact same music.
Good luck! Be glad they didn’t assign you to the preschool class [/flashback]
I think I’ve got them all - preschool up to 6th grade. Then the kids divide out into preschool group (isolated) and roving “crews” that move from activity station to activity station. My lovely wife is doing the story-time station.
With the aid of 26 boxes of corn-starch - they’re going to get to walk on “water” there. I wanna try!
As far as hand-motions - I guess I’ll do my best - I’m a big believer in “make a joyful noise” - Sing even if you’re not good at it. I’m supposed to have a teen helper - although mine is notoriously unreliable - so maybe I can foist the hand motions off on her…
Instruments. Hmm. I’ll see what I can pull together. Most of the music is rock-n-roll based - rhythm instruments would work good and maybe a couple inflatable guitars if the dollar store has some…
VBS is going on at our church this week. TheKid is 2nd in command of the music.
Write the lyrics on one of those huge tablets - the flipover kinds. Forget listening to songs on tape. Find the songs with the most movement, maybe 5 of them, and use them at set times.
I know they do one at the beginning, there’s another one after the first lesson/craft, they do a hand clap song to move from activity to activity, another before snack, and another song before leaving. All involve movement of some sort - clapping, stomping, that kind of thing.
We did VBS last week, and the music was as follows. The music guy had a guitar and would play the chords–they had a morning song and a goodbye song, and every day they would practice/learn a new song that related to the story of the day. So the first day was Joseph and his coat, and they learned “Go go go Joseph.” Elijah and the chariot of fire was “Swing low, sweet chariot.” The others were more ordinary camp-song type things, like “Father Abraham” and so on. Every song had motions to go with it, I think.
I don’t think they had a theme, though; they seem to design it all themselves, with a story and matching song, snack, craft, and science project for the day. They’re really good at it and this is our 3rd year–I guess we count as outreach because our church doesn’t do VBS and we are guests.
Anyway, that probably wasn’t much help, but FWIW there you go.
Not to make you even more nervous, but years ago my cousin did get bored of singing “Jesus Loves the Little Children” every day and oh, about Wednesday of the week, switched to the Pabst Blue Ribbon beer song. :eek:
I dunno … maybe I was just weird, but even as a young kid I thought hand motions to songs were stupid and wouldn’t do them. “I’m not deaf! I don’t need sign language! I can hear the words!” I would mutter to myself.
Now, as an adult, I’m very glad that I’ve got my bass guitar in my hands (I’m part of my church’s worship team) when the leader decides to have everybody do motions to the songs. I don’t have to do them, cuz I’m laying down the groove. Such as it is.
I don’t dance, either. As a bass player, I make other people want to dance.
Be prepared for parody versions of the music you play, espescially from the 7-10 year olds. Don’t even try to squash it, the best tactic is to ignore it and switch to something else.
This summer’s hit at camp:
ORIGINAL:
“Sounds all around us,
sounds are everywhere,
sounds all around us,
filling up the air!”
New version, much improved IMHO.
" Butts all around us,
farting everywhere,
farts all around us,
stinking up the air!"
I sing with the worship team now - that’s how they singled me out for this job.
“Hey, give it to Belrix! He can sing!”
As husband to the woman who teaches this age group in Sunday school - volunteering me for some sort of job was predestined. My lovely lady even nominated me… bless her heart…
After the first night, pull “volunteers” from the audience to “help” do the motions. First and second graders are usually wild to help and hilarious to watch. I have been in charge of VBS for years, only having the last two years off. I do get as many teens involved as possible, and hand out tamborines, maracas, etc. Everybody makes a joyful noise!! I do tend to throw in songs like “Lean on Me” or even “Father Abraham” at top tempo.
You will be fine. Veteran Sunday School teacher and VBS volunteer speaking. VBS is a hoot. It’s completely unlike summer camp, so no, I wouldn’t expect disrespect, parody, or contempt from the kids. For them, it’s an outing, see. It’s different. It’s fun. It’s a welcome break from a long, boring summer, looking down the gunsight of BackToSchool in a couple weeks. The kids will arrive expecting to have a good time, and all you have to do is be yourself and deliver the materials you’ve been given. They’ll do the rest themselves.
Kids LOVE those hand motions. They don’t think they’re lame. You need to learn them, so you don’t look lame.
Ahead of time, ask the Sunday School teachers, who know the kids, who the Natural Born Leaders are (they aren’t necessarily the best singers, just the social lions). There’s bound to be a couple of girls in the 4th through 6th grade who are the social leaders (and frequently they have kid sisters who dutifully trail along in their wake, built-in yes-men). Give the girls copies of the CD and DVD ahead of time, and ask for their help in leading “The Little Kids” (use that phrase, it’s about as subtle a flattery as a bludgeon, but they’re just little girls, they won’t be sophisticated enough to spot it). You’re going to want them to stand up in front with you; suggest to them that they wear coordinating t-shirts or polo tops, and that they recruit as many of their posse as they like. They will LOVE this, and you will end up having to do very little actual work other than starting them off.
If you have young teens or even older teens available, by all means involve them the same way.
The kids will quite definitely NOT rebel at singing the same songs over and over again–you put it to them that they’re learning them, and they’ll take great pleasure in doing so.
If you can, find a way to put the lyrics up on a screen. Even a big hand-written flip chart on an easel with the words printed large with marker will help the Readers in the group to keep up to speed, and will make them feel superior to the Little Kids who can’t read, thus engaging them even more.
Really, the expectations are quite low, which would be why your Better Half volunteered you for this. Even a Dad can get up there and mouth words to a singalong CD.
Just make sure you do know the words, because otherwise you’ll look totally lame. Your singing ability doesn’t matter, just make sure you’re mouthing the correct words. This is where having the lyrics up on a screen comes in handy.
“20 minutes” doesn’t mean “1200 seconds” of singing time, so you don’t have to worry about not having enough activity to fill the time allotted. It means a 20 minute time slot, 5 to 10 minutes of which will be taken up by having the kids come in and sit down and get (reasonably) settled down. Just put the CD/DVD in when the time seems right, and let 'er rip. Don’t worry about the clock; chances are good you’ll get cut off before it’s done anyway by the person in charge of making sure VBS gets out on time.
ETA: Don’t even think about singing harmony; it will only confuse them into silence. The ones who can sing will be expecting to hear the melody from you.
Of course, you could always get some ideas from Ray Steven’s song, “Vacation Bible School”:
I remember the time when my class made
A big ol’ batch of lemonade
To be used by a student preacher at the Sunday sermon
We put in lemons and sugar and water
And, even though I knew I shouldn’t ought’er
I put in some moonshine I got from my Uncle Herman
