One thing to remember is if things are going out the window, don’t clamp down on the kids and force them to do it. They’re there to have some fun. Do something they want to do for the remainder of the time, and rethink what to do for the next day to avoid the same trouble. You can do whatever you want that’s reasonable to save the day. Ask them what music stuff they liked the most on the first day.
Do they sing normally during Sunday School?
If yes, they have favorite songs already - ask their sunday school teachers or ask them. They will sing those every day for a week without complaint. In fact, if you do them for the first two days, and not on the third, you’ll get complaints.
I think it would be weird to watch a DVD (unless that’s something they’re used to doing every Sunday). So leave it at home, and just sing and do the hand motions yourself. Find some high school kid/college kid/adult who plays a guitar and rope them into playing along with you.
Throw yourself into the hand motions - the little kids will like it. Any who are in 4th-6th grade will be in various stages of liking the hand motions, hating the hand motions, being embarrased about being human and having hands, and liking them again because they’re kitschy and childish (and they are grown up now). You can’t control that. But if you’re not enthusiastic, no one will be. If you are, some of them will. And it wears them out a bit. And the teachers will appreciate that.
I’d pick volunteers every day to help out for that day. Not all girls, not all boys, not all little kids, and not all older. But you know those kids better than we do.
I have to disagree with this. Part of my job duties at church include occasionally leading our Sunday School “opening exercises”, which is a 15-minute slot between church and Sunday School. We take up an offering, sing Happy Birthday, do a prayer–and sing. The woman who normally does it has a fine Kate Smith mezzo, so she just gets up and belts it out. But I’m rather quieter, and I’m not as comfortable in front of the kids, so I find that a CD in the boombox is a lifesaver. The kids sing along with that, instead of relying on my very faint soprano.
Also, the CD and DVD that he’s talking about are not just random CDs and DVDs: they came with the VBS package, and include songs that are geared towards the week’s curriculum. The kids are supposed to be learning these songs because their teachers are going to be incorporating their themes in their lesson plans.
So he can’t just “wing it” with songs and guitarists of his own choosing–he’s stuck with these songs. And the CD and the DVD make it easier for him. All he has to do is start them up and then stand there and provide a modicum of leadership, especially in teaching the kids the hand motions. There will be enough noise coming out of the sound system that he actually doesn’t need to sing at all; simply mouthing the words encouragingly at the front couple of rows of little faces will be sufficient to get the kids to participate instead of just all sitting there staring at him.
ETA: The DVD especially will be a valuable visual distraction for the wigglers in the back–give 'em TV to look at, and they’re less likely to spend the 20 minutes of Song Time scribbling in the hymnals and wrassling.
End of the first evening - perhaps I should’ve conveyed how imminent the event was.
Discoveries:
Little kids want to jump on the stage - littler ones want to jump on the stage and press buttons on the organ. We’ve got the stage covered in props for the week’s activities so I spent a good portion of time shooing them off.
I can sing pretty well - I’ve got a tenor that can match the kids for a good part of the range so I can keep up with the stepford kids voices on the sing-along DVD. We did a total of 4 of the ten songs - the first song time was a disaster with groups of kids getting organized. I repeated the first song at the evening’s end - The VBS theme song Got the Power (rock and roll-ish), then a gospel version of Amazing Grace, then slowing them a bit with God of Wonder and finally an up-tempo Never Let Go. I became a cheerleader getting them all to sing, dropping the mic in favor of singing loudly, jumping, & pumping my arms in the air with them in encouragement. The teens were a help - crew leaders singing and dancing along with the kids. The had the movements down fast - better than I.
Oh No - You never let Go
Through the Calm and through the storm.
Lots of volume - definitely a joyful - if not exactly tuneful - noise. Loud is good, I found. I think the spirit was somewhere between worship & pep rally - not too bad. Need a bit more control tomorrow.
A good evening all in all.
Does every single song have to have explicit religious content? Because if you can sing songs with a positive message that aren’t religious per se, but are consistent with what you believe, you have a lot more choices.
FTR, I’m an atheist. We’re not all snarky! Some of us are not only content to live and let live, but actually respect other people’s views. And I have some fun memories of VBS as a kid.
Atheist here, but being neither snarky nor evangelical-
From my own experience with VBS (and I do have some), be sure every kid knows exactly what she or he is supposed to do, especially if they’re little kids. DON’T SHOW ANYTHING THAT LOOKS LIKE FAVORITISM OR MAKE LAST MINUTE CHANGES AS I’VE SEEN THIS CAUSE REALLY NASTY SQUALLING FITS (e.g. “I wanted to carry the Bible!” {followed by sound of large Bible whapping older sister on the head}).
There are several websites that show how to make simple but creative masks out of paper plates, which might be nice (half-masks that don’t cover the mouth in case there’s singing).
I started to recommend In that Great Gettin’ Up Morning (Fare Thee Well) as an old classic but so lively and upbeat and joyous not even white kids could make it joyless, but Youtube proves me wrong (CHILDREN: IT WAS NOT MEANT TO SOUND LIKE IT WAS WRITTEN BY HILDEGARD VON BINGEN!).
Hmmm… I’ve sung along with a CD before for similar groups. But a DVD would be distracting to me much less the kids. And I’m surprised they didn’t send sheet music, too. Especially if one of the songs is “God of Wonder.” There’s sheet music for that everywhere.
Another atheist chiming in - but I’m an atheist who’s also a veteran Sunday School/VBS teacher! It sounds like you have things well in hand. The only advice I’d add is that if the kids want to move around, let them, especially at the end of the evening. Don’t get too hung up on the idea of control. At the end of a VBS session, especially when it’s an evening program rather than a daytime one, kids need to be able to move around and get the wiggles out!
Congratulations, and thanks (just a general member-of-society thanks) for caring enough to volunteer your time!
I have to say, as an atheist but not a mean one, that I’m really, really happy I was not sent to bible camp as a kid (or to church at all, except with other people’s families.) Because, if the people posting here are right, I would not have done well. I hate hand motions with songs and have always thought they were lame, I hate singing in general in public, and I would have had no expectation of “having fun” at an event that’s about the Bible (not because the Bible is evil or anything atheist-y like that, but because it’s a boring book about boring things.) I also thought almost all adults who tried to deal with me as a kid had no idea what they were doing and were so lame I felt intensely embarrassed for them. It’s hard for me to believe that the kids actually like this stuff and aren’t just being forced to basically spend a week at church by their parents. Maybe more experienced people can re-inform me.
As one who has gone to numerous church camps (and I mean church camps I was at for an entire week miles away from parents)… DEAR GOD IF I HAVE TO LISTEN TO SHINE JESUS SHINE ONE MORE TIME. Ahem
Repetition is fine, honestly every year I was up there four songs were ALWAYS popular since when I was in 5th grade up 'til my last time four years ago at “niners” (ninth grade kids only, as opposed to groups), at which point I was an apathetic agnostic but still enjoyed a lot of the songs.
- Shine Jesus Shine
- One Tin Soldier (Which I still listen to, albeit the Me First and the Gimme Gimmes version)
- Go Where I Send Thee. For added fun have the boys sing the odd numbered “commands” (you add one each time) and the girls have the evens… and they have to SHOUT it as loud as possible. It’s FUN!
If you can find someone who knows the songs or can pick up rhythms/chords really quickly, having a live guitar player and a few other adults leading the songs usually is more fun than a CD, but use whatever you feel is right. And remember: you’re not copping out by asking other adults to lead as well, you’re still ORGANIZING it, you just felt that while organizing this was the best way to get the kids involved.
Other fun songs that occasionally make favorites lists:
Lord of the Dance (sung to everyone’s favorite tune… Appalachian Springs/Simple Gifts!) I’m sure there’s a video of the atrocious hand motions for this somewhere.
Pass it On
Or maybe my “Presbyterian USA” upbringing was just weird and our denomination has no taste in music or involving children.
I too hate the hand motions, but getting involved with the people next to you is really fun. However, I disagree with the Bible being boring. Pick any random Old Testament book and theres a good chance you’ll get one with an acceptable plot for next summer’s blockbuster. (Except Song of Solomon, which would probably be next summer’s porno). Seriously, if the first story my parents ever taught me was Elijah summoning bears to attack annoying children I’d be a devout Christian right now because ignorant or not, the potential ability of being able to call down divine bears to maul people to death is just too good to pass up.
Really, meenie? :dubious:
[snerk]
Yup. 
That’s them all right.
Well, you done good–the important thing was, you kept 'em busy, you didn’t have a Fidgeting Meltdown which is where you totally lose control of the group and they end up wrassling wholesale in the aisles while you shout vainly for order.
Yes.
And not only do the songs have to have explicit Christian religious content (it’s a Vacation Bible School, after all), but they have to be the exact songs that came on the CD and the DVD that he was given. They’re part of this year’s VBS curriculum, and he must teach those songs for the next three nights and no others.
Or at least, not without the prior permission of whatever Dragon Lady is in charge of his church’s VBS this year.
Yeah - what she said - we are a evangelical Christian church after all, religious content is required. The unitarians are over there.
Didn’t mean to insult all the atheists on the board - sorry if I did. I was just trying o head off those ones - you know - the ones who don’t abide by “live and let live” but instead want to actively argue how faith is synonymous with stupidity (and you have to admit - there’s at least a few on this board.)
Growing up in the moldy-oldy Episcopal church didn’t teach me a lot of these songs. If it wasn’t in the 100-year old hymnal, it didn’t exist for my childhoold church. Follow that by years of apathy, agnosticism, passive & evangelical atheism, deism, & pseudo-Unitarianism and my knowledge of all these Christian kid standards didn’t get any better. It would’ve been great if I could hijack my wife - she’s great with all these kid songs (& tons of girl-snout camp songs) but she’s over giving the kids leprosy & boils this week.
Right now I’m sticking with my DVD songs, don’t have to augment yet. I remember Father Abraham, though - might be a good filler.
You never know, our old dilapidated song books at my camp didn’t have songs that universally explicitly mentioned God, but were considered to “have his message.” Two I can think of offhand were Free Fallin’ (Tom Petty) and Cat’s in the Cradle (Harry Chapin).
Then again we used overheads and had people play the chords for every single song of ours on guitar or do a piano accompaniment, I’ve always felt it was cheating to do OTHERWISE, probably because I’m a music snob.
My experience of VBS curriculums is that the songs are expressly written for the package, and generally aren’t familiar Sunday School songs.
Most of them don’t stand the test of time, either, being the equivalent of bubble gum jingles.
So, anyway, it’s not that you don’t know these songs–it’s that these are brand-new purpose-built songs that you couldn’t possibly be expected to know.
If you have an extra five minutes to fill, don’t toss in a half-remembered ordinary Sunday School song, because (a) you will screw it up and lose credibility, and control, and because (b) it will destroy the mood of “we’re doing fun new stuff for VBS” by dragging out an oldy-moldy like “Father Abraham” (and then you don’t sing it right, to boot). If you have an extra five minutes, ask the kids which of the songs on the CD/DVD they want to do again, and then do it.
There’s this one hymn by I. Ron Butterfly that comes to mind…
Genesis Chapter 2, I assume?
As long as it’s not by L. Ron Butterfly, we might be able to get away with it
I’m not sure how all the kids’ parents view rock and roll. We don’t get much beyond “Contemporary Christian” in worship service which stays pretty close to the SSS[sup]*[/sup] Homogonized K-Love sound.
The VBS music material has a rock-pop feel to it - I can picture Hannah Montanna singing some of these.
*SSS: Sounds So Same
We’d usually stick with the THEME SONG (and be prepared to sing it on the following Sunday morning). But the song leader was free to take or leave the other songs, and definitely use songs the kids already knew and liked. They did all have to be religious.
meenie7, I was never crazy about the hand motions. But I know that not all kids hate them. If you lead the songs without the motions - they’ll do them anyway. If you say “this song doesn’t have motions,” more than a few kids will make up their own. Some because they really like doing hand motions - some because they really like being silly and this is an accepted outlet for silliness.
For the kids who go, their friends are there. In the churches I’ve been involved with, most of the kids in any given age group have spent an hour (or more) a week together from before they could crawl. They’ve got friends - or at least people they know very well. Hanging out with them is fun.
As for the Bible lessons, if a kid is there it generally means that either the parents, the kid, or both think that the Bible (and the religion) is important. I would disagree on the boring part, but even if it is, kids suffer through a lot of boredom because it’s good for them - this is just one (small amount more). Plus, a good teacher will make it as non-boring as possible - just like a teacher of a non-religious (but often thought boring) subject would.
Leaffan, I assume you mean that one that begins “In a God o’David-a”? 
. No, probably wouldn’t go over well. (But then, there are horrible parody/Christianized lyrics to “Louie, Louie” that I’ve sung way, way, way too many times.)
We just finished our VBS a couple of weeks ago–we didn’t do Power Lab, but I heard the songs on Power Lab were great, especially that rocked out “Amazing Grace.” Our music gal is wonderful–she also sings in the choir and that’s kind of how we got her, too!
We’ve found that if we divide up the CD songs between the grades and then supplement with the old favorites (like “Father Abraham”–which is a terrible earworm for me–or “I’m in the Lord’s Army”) everybody’s happy. You’ve got to keep little boys moving or bad things happen.
And you’ve gotta have hand motions, but that’s where your youth helpers come in so handy. Being younger, they learn things like complicated hand motions in no time, We had each grade do a song or two with the hand motions…but we substituted ASL signs because we have a volunteer who is an interpreter for the deaf.
And the songs need to be things that the kids like–this is VBS, not church, so don’t worry about whether the songs are “sacred” enough. It’s VBS, it’s supposed to be fun. I know where you’re coming from–we’re a Catholic church. Catholic churches didn’t use to do VBS…that was what the Baptists did. So none of us grew up with the fun VBS songs, but it would so spoil the fun/goofy mood of VBS if you tried to put in a big ole slow hymn.
Do you do a closing program on the last night?