Standin’ Tall Series from Brite Music

I was really looking forward to this review because I had this set when I was a child (back in the 80’s, so that tells you how old I am!). I even got my old books and cassettes (which no longer work) from my mom. Nowadays, the set includes CD’s instead of cassettes, which are less likely to go bad.
The Standin’ Tall series is a set of character building book/CD sets from Brite Music that teach children important values using stories and catchy songs, which (as I can tell you from experience!) will stay in their heads for years!
The stories and songs have not changed after all these years, which I found comforting in a way. Other things from my childhood that are still around have been “updated” and aren’t quite the same. The music is obviously from the 80’s, but the songs are still fun and memorable and songs you can use during every day life. For example, I sing the “Wash your hair” song when I’m washing my daughter’s hair so she doesn’t hate it quite so much.
Each story also has an option for the child to read some of the dialogue in the stories, so they can be even more engaged. The parts for the child to read are marked by little stars.
So here is a brief rundown of the series and the values it teaches:
1. Obedience-The characters board a train to “The Land of Obey”, a beautiful place where you can stay only as long as you follow the rules. You meet the characters Mr. Did (who always follows the rules) and Mr. Didn’t (who never follows the rules) and learn the consequences of disobedience.
2. Honesty-Here you learn about how honor is the greatest treasure to have and how it pays off when everyone knows you always tell the truth, even if it means accepting consequences of a mistake you made.
3. Forgiveness-here you learn that forgiveness is important when someone has wronged you–not only for their sake but your own. If you are unforgiving that is not a happy ending. Bad feelings are like a sore that won’t heal–it just gets worse.
4. Work-The main character finds a genie bottle, but instead of granting wishes, this genie teaches about the importance of work and about so many things we take for granted are given to us because of the work that various people do. You get to learn about how much work is involved in getting milk from the cow to your table.
5. Courage-the main character fantasizes about doing heroic things like fighting dragons and learns that there are other things to face that require courage. In his dream he gets to collect 3 jewels for the “badge of courage” for passing the tests of courage–overcoming fears, saying no and standing up for your convections.
6. Happiness-In this fairy-tale setting, the spoiled princess always has every whim catered to and still she is not happy. She finally finds joys in giving to others.
7. Gratitude-In this story, the characters are animals. Most of the animals, like Mr. Badger and Mr. Bear, are polite to one another. But Mr. Rabbit is grumpy and doesn’t want anything from anybody. He finally learns to show gratitude when the others help him out of the cold.
8. Love-Here we learn about what love means. This covers friends, families, responsibility (like for a pet), caring for the earth and God as the greatest love of all.
9. Service-In this story you learn about serving others. Whether it’s helping a sick friend, visiting an elderly person or volunteering, there are many ways to serve others.
10. Cleanliness-In this story, the main character learns all about being clean in mind and in body. You learn about the “Scrubbits” which are items you use for getting clean (soap, toothbrush, wash cloth). You learn about germs, brushing your teeth, wearing clean clothes and only allowing clean things in your head.
11. Self-Esteem-The main character doesn’t have any friends and meets a parrot who tries to get him to learn that he is his own friend. Through visiting the different animals he learns that everyone has good qualities, everyone is different (and that’s okay!) and about getting past mistakes. He learns he has to like himself first, in order for others to like him.
12. Dependability-In this futuristic setting, Captain Dependable, the always dependable super-hero, is exposed to “procrastinate” by the villain Professor Un and no longer feels like doing anything. So his ship gets out of order until he gets the effect reversed.
This series is targeted at children 5 and up, but I feel that even younger children (my daughter is almost 3) can benefit from the more simple concepts, like cleanliness, obedience and honesty. She loves the cleanliness one, and as I mentioned before, we sing the “wash your hair” song during bath time. She also likes to sing the “bubble toes” song from the same story. I’m sure these will be a great set for her to have, just as it was for me!
By the way, Brite Music offers other great sets as well. The Safety Kids series (which I had as kid too) teaches kids how to be safe from (1)predators/abuse (2)drugs and (3) information misuse (this last one I did not have).
Whether you are looking for supplements to a homeschool curriculum, or your child goes to public school, I’m sure you’ll find something you’ll love!