CD Reviews: Cat.Chat Productions

Before Christmas, I purchased the complete set of Cat.Chat CDs. Now that we've had them for a few months, I feel like I can give some short reviews of them.

Cat.Chat Volume 1: Mary Leads Me Closer to Jesus  - We join Papa, Josh and Hannah on the Nativity of the Blessed Version Mary. Talking about the sacrifices and sorrows of Mary helps Josh and Hannah understand more about how much they should love Jesus. Josh and Hannah's mother died years earlier of an illness. Though I was at first disturbed at the death of an important family member, they do incorporate it into this volume (and others) to remind us of the glories of Heaven and how our earthly sorrows can benefit our relationship with God.

Cat.Chat Volume 2: Jesus in My Heart (the cover shown in the link is incorrect) - In this volume, Papa, Josh, Hannah and their cousins are on a camping trip. Papa uses the opportunity (of course, being the good Catholic school teacher he is) to share how the love of Jesus changed his life. The writers are not afraid to bring big ideas to the table. The cousins' family is suffering the effects of a divorce. Though I think the point could have been made with a smaller problem, the writers are not afraid to show how Jesus can heal our hearts even from the deepest hurts.

Cat.Chat Volume 3: Amazing Angels and Super Saints - This was one of the first Cat.Chat CDs we heard and I have to admit, it's still my personal favorite. Josh and Hannah are hosting an All Saint's Day party. Friends have arrived in costume and everyone shares the stories of their saint or angel. It includes First Son's first favorite saint, St. Francis, and the ever-popular St. Michael the Archangel.

Cat.Chat Volume 4: The Mass Comes Alive - Papa is one of the leaders at a Catholic conference on the Mass. The songs are much too upbeat for Mass, but luckily they're only singing about Mass.  Though the children sometimes are silly on the CD, the writers seem to do a good job emphasizing the importance of the Mass and the glory of the Eucharist.

Cat.Chat Vol. 5: A Christmas to Remember (Amazon link) - Josh and Hannah visit their grandparents during Advent for a family gathering. Everyone shares a Christmas memory. Grandpa's memory is particularly touching - how an anonymous gift touched his life one Christmas during the Great Depression. I think this one is First Son and First Daughter's favorite Cat Chat CD, not least because they like the interaction between Moses and a "sneaky little mouse."

Cat.Chat Volume 6: An Extra Special Easter Vacation - Papa, Josh, Hannah and other family members travel to Israel for Easter. It's a powerful CD for my children as they really think about Jesus walking the Via Dolorosa. It's very weird that they would take Moses with them to the Holy Land, but I suppose it wouldn't really be Cat Chat without him. (Warning: This CD has sounds of traffic that always make me think someone is honking at me if we're listening to it in the car.)

In all the episodes, Moses the Talking Cat opens the CD and wraps things up at the end. He usually includes a few cheesy (pun intended) jokes, which my children adore and repeat, even though they're often not as humorous out of context. The songs are catchy and definitely for children but they are not unbearable for adults. Some of them are even quite good. (I personally like the one on St. Francis the best.) Each CD includes the episode, all of the songs with vocals, then all of the songs without vocals (including the theme song). The kids often ask for a different CD as soon as the episode ends, but I usually don't mind listening to the vocals again myself.

Overall, I recommend the CDs. They are entertaining, solidly Catholic with sound teaching, and the children adore them. Even Second Daughter will ask for Moses and Cat.Chat.

I received nothing in exchange for these objective reviews. I purchased the CDs myself (directly from the Cat.Chat website, where you can also listen to samples of all the CDs). You can also find them on Facebook.

You can find many of these CDs at your local Catholic bookstore or online at St. George Catholic Books and Gifts. If you decide to order from St. George, please consider putting my name in the comments box for a referral (first time customers only). You can read more about their referral program here. (If you don't know my real name, please feel free to email me. If I'm convinced you're not a stalker, I'd be happy to share it with you.)

Though Amazon does not carry all of the CDs, you should be able to find all of them as mp3 downloads. I do receive a small commission if you follow the link to Amazon and make a purchase, even if it's something else.

CD Review: One Hundred Sheep

One Hundred Sheep: Skip Counting Songs from the Gospels, music and lyrics by Roger Nichols

I bought this CD for First Daughter's baptism anniversary present. I wanted something fun related to the faith and was intrigued by the idea of teaching skip counting with music. It's something we've touched on here on the Range, mainly when I count by twos and the kids laugh as if I were playing a trick. First Son can count by tens and fives (sometimes) but I admit it's not something I concentrate on very much. Personally, I still feel like my six, seven, eight and nine multiplication facts are not as strong as the others and I wondered if this CD could help the kids feel more confident than I do. (I want point out my multiplication skills are totally adequate, I just have confidence issues about them.)

So, the morning after she received it, we put the CD in while driving to town and listened...and we've been enjoying it ever since. The songs are children's songs, but Kansas Dad assures me they are not annoying. (I think I've become immune to inane children's music. The only songs I have trouble enjoying are those from the LarryBoy soundtracks because I was in my first trimester with First Daughter when we started listening to a LarryBoy CD non-stop and I still feel a little queasy every time the theme song plays.) Keep in mind, though, that some of the words and phrases can be a little silly.

The songs are drawn from lots of different Gospel stories: Jesus' birth and life, miracles, parables, Zacchaeus's conversion and so on.

My favorite song is Thirty-Three Wonder-filled Years, counting by threes as we sing about Jesus' life.

The child grew in wisdom, in stature, and in favor
with God and with man
such a wonderful behavior.
Now a man and fully given over to the Spirit,
He went abroad to speak of God
to any who would hear it.

For the sixes, the song follows Martha into the kitchen, where she's counting the dirty dishes and Mary sits at Jesus' feet.

Martha, Martha why
are you so upset?
There will always be things to clean
but how often do you get
to be with Me and this is what your sister sees.

In The Fisher of Men Catches a Fisherman, Jesus tells Peter to throw his net over the side of the boat and the catch is counted by sevens. The call of Peter shows clearly in the song:

Throw once more on the other side
and laughing at the thought,
but thinking deep inside himself
it was he who had been caught
by the Master Fisherman
with the friendly plot.

The counting in each song is in the refrain, so it's repeated multiple times. Does it work? Well, it has for my kids! First Son is easily counting by twos and threes now and recognizing even numbers in books as counting by twos. First Daughter is working well on her fives and tens. We're still doing addition and subtraction and won't be teaching multiplication for a while yet, but I think remembering this song (and singing along again) will be a valuable part of our multiplication tables.

One of the things I most appreciate about the CD is that the notes include all the lyrics. Sometimes it's hard to be exactly sure what's being sung on some CDs and the lyrics always help. They also include references for all the stories, which is helpful if you want to quickly look up a parable to read with the kids. Because it follows the Gospels closely, this CD is appropriate for all Christians, not just Catholics.

Please note: I purchased this CD myself and have not received anything for this review.

In Case You Want to Try Some Veggies

We've been watching Veggie Tales: Saint Nicholas: A Story of Joyful Giving and it's fine. Nothing too amazing, but not too bad. Here on the Range, we are firm fans of Veggies. First Son himself has pre-bought a few of the recent videos. We simply must own them all. I've resigned myself to the fact.

Not every family is a Veggie family, of course. I'm sure there are some families that just want to own one or two Veggie videos. If so, you might be wondering which are worthwhile. Here's a list of our picks:

Lyle the Kindly Viking is Kansas Dad's favorite. It's a fun little story of sharing. The first half, Omelet, is hilarious if you know Shakespeare's play Hamlet at all. The Lyle story is designed around the music of Gilbert & Sullivan and is a delight. Even the silly song is full of references that will bring joy to any adult watching.

Gideon Tuba Warrior is my favorite. The story of George Mueller, a man who trusted God for everything is amazing. The silly song is hilarious. Gideon's story is told with a marching band, slushies and flashlights. Believe me, it works. Kurt Heinecke is amazing.

Sumo Of The Opera may be First Son's favorite, though he would never pick just one. This story is particularly good at helping First Son deal with his frustration when he can't get something perfect the first time. Even he will spout, "Perseverance is when you keep on keeping on." The telling of the story of St. Patrick is truly one of the finest moments in VeggieTales. You can watch it for yourself here.

Madame Blueberry is a classic. Every family can learn a little about real contentment and happiness from Madame Blueberry's trip to the Stuff-Mart. We even love listening to the song until the credits end.

We can't forget LarryBoy, of course, everyone's favorite plunger-headed hero. The best of the bunch is LarryBoy and the Bad Apple. In it, LarryBoy actually saves the day and everyone learns about temptation as well as some tactics for fighting it.

Josh and the Big Wall and Rack, Shack and Benny are also wonderful. They are classic VeggieTales.

We enjoyed both Veggie movies, especially First Son. Honestly, the Pirate Movie soundtrack is one of the best Veggie products. (I'm not alone on this. Recently, the Big Idea Store had all CDs and DVDs half price and this CD sold out first. I know. I tried to buy extras to give as gifts.)

Another great CD is A Very Veggie Christmas. Kansas Dad and I have enjoyed this one for years, long before we had children. We've always planned to host a Christmas party and serve every Polish dish named in this song. Someday we'll get around to it. Maybe when the kids are older and ready to help make some of the recipes.

There are so many other wonderful Veggie movies, but I have to draw the line somewhere. Please feel free to comment if your family likes something else the best.

If you are interested in buying any Veggie DVDs or CDs, watch the advertisements for local Christian stores. Ours often has at least one in every "doorbuster" sale for $5.

While it's true Kansas Dad and I have eventually tired of watching most of the videos, we are continually thankful our kids have chosen Veggies as their characters of choice. Most of the other ones out there (and we're familiar with most of them) are quite grating on adult ears. The Veggies are always including little jokes and asides purely for the parents in the room.

Music and Book Review: Peter and the Wolf

Have you heard Peter and the Wolf? Prokofiev is not one of our composers for music appreciation this year, but I requested the CD when the book made it to the top of our preview list. I thought First Son might be more interested in them together than in either one separately. We've been listening (and reading) intently for weeks now. (I have only recently discovered the joy that is audio books for our drives in and out of town. The children are generally quiet as they listen at least the first three or four times. It works best if I limit our selections to ones that can be completed at least once in a round trip, though.) I wasn't familiar with the story before, but I enjoyed the performance on this CD. (Kansas Dad was a bit distracted by its implausibility, I think.) Just as important are the tracks after the story which explain a bit about the composition and the composer.

Peter and the Wolf is the book we read. I thought the illustrations were fine, but not really necessary to enjoy the music.

Anyone have other suggestions for audio books or similar CDs for young children?

Music Review: Here Comes Science

Here Comes Science from They Might Be Giants has been much enjoyed by some friends of ours, whose sons love science in all its forms. Our kids aren't quite as advanced as their boys, but we're always looking for ways to have fun with science so we checked it out from our library.

There are some great songs introducing scientific concepts and terms like the elements and the periodic table, but there are a few songs we did not enjoy.

Science Is Real is the first song and the most problematic:

I like the stories
About angels, unicorns and elves
Now I like those stories
As much as anybody else
But when I'm seeking knowledge
Either simple or abstract
The facts are with science
...
The proof is with science
The truth is with science

The song doesn't specifically mention religion or faith with the stories, but we felt it was too easy to say the stories of our faith are not sources of Knowledge or Truth. Whenever we played the CD, we skipped this song entirely. You can find the complete lyrics here.

Electric Car. Kansas Dad thinks this one just doesn't seem to fit in with the main theme of basic science (the elements, planets, etc.). We don't have anything against electric cars necessarily, but I have to wonder what they're going to tell my kids while they're riding around in the car...probably environmental indoctrination of some sort or another.

My Brother The Ape. While the theory of evolution isn't excluded by our Catholic faith, at some point, people became human, in the image of God, and set above the animals and other creatures of God's Creation. This song blurs the line between people and animals a bit too much for our taste.

There were, however, some songs we really enjoyed.

I Am A Paleontologist because that's what First Son want's to be. It's also catchy. (Though I hope First Son is much more than just a paleontologist, if he ends up pursuing that dream.)

Roy G. Biv First Son and First Daughter's absolute favorite (and how they request the album). It's very catchy. In fact, I dare you to listen without getting it stuck in your head. There's no way you'll ever forget the colors of the spectrum once you've listened to this song a few times.

And I just like What Is A Shooting Star?. It's performed as a round and it's fun and informative.

We've enjoyed many of the songs on this CD. If we wanted to own it, though, we would import the CD to the computer (or just buy the MP3 files), then burn a CD without the three songs I mentioned in the first half of this post. I think many of the songs (like Meet The Elements, Why Does The Sun Shine?, and Photosynthesis among others) could be wonderful supplements to a science program, especially for older children.