The Discover the Magic of Self Esteem CD is an audio CD of 36 minutes that includes eleven songs, each with a vocal presentation of the song followed by an instrumental accompaniment of the song. The lyrics for all eleven songs are included in the CD case cover, words are alone without musical notation. Composed and sung beautifully by Marcia McCarry with her husband, Dean Anderson.

Song sheets and coloring sheets are available for purchase, but are not included with the CD. The songs include Self Esteem, Love, Courage, Honesty, Perseverance, Forgiveness, Ability, Kindness, Friendship, Gratitude, and Loyalty. The Discover the Magic of Self Esteem CD is available on a CD, as an MP3 download, and as a PDF lyric sheet download. Created to inspire children toward a more positive self-image, it may be used for pure enjoyment, as a memorization activity in a home school, or for singing practice. Children who enjoy music will find the rhyming format easy to remember and may enjoy listening to the songs throughout play time or as soft background music during schoolwork. It is good material to support the self-esteem in children, and is ideal for elementary aged students.

Young children enjoy encouragement, as they should, and this CD presents some beautiful songs that are enjoyable to listen to, whether or not you sing along. Most of the songs are beautifully written and you can definitely glimpse the heart of Marcia McCarry when singing along or listening to the Kindness song. We loved the inclusion of both a mother and father, brother and sister, and friend or animals in the Kindness song as it presented a Christian family beautifully with all of its various family members. Lots of positive encouragement is included in the songs as they speak of winning smiles, loving hearts, and kindness in an overall presentation of self-esteem building songs that rhyme with a beautiful singing style. We loved having the songs presented with and without vocals, allowing families to sing along on their own, if they so desire. The two offerings of each song are in the same key, which tended to be high for our family and for the children. Although the presentation is beautiful, without a strong level of musical ability to adjust notes, many families will not be able to fully enjoy singing along with the music or songs because many notes go too high. The words and message are generally good, but if a child is unable to sing along, the message will be lost.

Some of the songs make references that parents will need to qualify, things like "happiness seems to be born from within" and "your magical treasures grow deep inside" should be based in a child's heavenly design and creation by God, additional explanation should be given by parents. Only one song actually references God, and that was to thank Him for each new day, otherwise He is painfully absent. The songs themselves can be geared toward godliness as they do offer generally positive self esteem, but the CD is definitely not a stand alone curriculum for self esteem, and it does not claim to be. Perhaps as musical support of basic concepts regarding self esteem it will be a good addition to a biblically based curriculum on Christian character qualities, but careful use is required for this to be considered appropriate use as Christian materials.

Discover the Magic of Self Esteem is a beautiful musical CD to be enjoyed on that basis alone, the additional benefit of positive self esteem material and the possibility of your child memorizing simple rhymes regarding their tremendous value as an individual makes this a wonderful addition to any music library. Thorough parents will discuss each song and educate their children more completely regarding each quality represented by each song, but the music is beautifully sung and well presented for various uses. It is not represented as a complete self esteem curriculum, but it may definitely offer excellent support for singing families and children who memorize more completely with song as it encourages children to understand their value and positive behavior toward others. Families often listen to songs beyond their own singing abilities and Discover the Magic of Self Esteem may be out of the voice range of many listeners, but it is within the educational range of most parents to be used to encourage positive self esteem in their children. Offering enjoyable music during seat work, songs sopranos and high tenors can sing along with, and opportunities for parents to discuss great character traits with their children, Discover the Magic of Self Esteem will offer enjoyable listening for our family and many others.

-Product review by: Donna Campos, Senior Product Reviewer, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, July 2008.