Meeting today on Zoom and hearing all of the children’s songs was a wonderful reminder of how great a tool music can be. One thing I noticed, that I’m sure we will likely discuss in class, is the common use of repetition. Almost every single song that was presented had some sort of repeating phrase or melody. This is likely used a lot in children’s music because of their short attention span. It has also been proven that repetition helps memorization. This is obviously a good idea because if you’re trying to teach kids theology or religious ideas, repetition is going to help. Song is also a great way in general to engage memorization, because it uses a different hemisphere of the brain to make more and better connections in the brain ways. Kids songs are “dumbed down” a little for obvious reasons, and I could make a whole new blog post about if this is acceptable to do or not. Sometimes you have to start at the simple things, because that is the foundation. Children’s songs are a great way to accomplish memorization and understanding of certain religious concepts that would otherwise be hard for kids to grasp.