Hymns, Hymns - Everywhere Hymns!

We just wrapped up our last term of Year 1 with my oldest. Because we began Ambleside in January, we school on a calendar year, rather than the traditional fall-through-spring year. At any rate, we are finished with this term and taking a short break before we begin Year 2 on Monday. I can't wait to introduce my daughter to Understood Betsy, and to start reading The Little Duke with her. It is going to be a great term!

I am taking advantage of this free time to do a major preparation blitz. Here is one of those "Know Thyself" things - I tend to get very excited and energized, obsess over give my full attention to a project for a while, then get sidetracked lose my motivation. I have learned that the more prep I get done when I'm running flat out, the more smoothly things go even when I lose energy.

All this is leading up to a blitz of posts over the next few days. I do apologize if you get sick of seeing blog notifications! I'll start by posting the printouts and links for our hymns. It is always a lot of fun putting these little sheets together, choosing which pictures illustrate the heart of the hymns (as I see it, of course). Ambleside has a great line-up of hymns over the next few months. Click the link to download a printable .pdf file with lyrics and composer information.


November: Anywhere With Jesus

I know, I know. November is over. However, I am taking our hymn sheets for the year and binding them together to create a personal hymnal for my oldest. In case you are collecting them in any way, I thought I would post them all. (Plus, if I ever lose my files, they will be safely archived online.)

The kids and I have been rocking out to Amy Grant's jazzed-up version. Every time we play it, we have a mass dance party!

December: Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow, also known as the Doxology

This is one of my favorite praise pieces ever. We already know this one - we regularly sing it for our blessing over the meal - so we are spending our December advent singing Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel. I cry every.single.time we listen to it. This is my favorite version, currently.

January: My Song is Love Unknown


February: This is My Father's World

March: Ah, Holy Jesus

I love the image for this hymn. Isn't that painting beautiful?


April: Count Your Blessings

Have you read Ann Voskamp's book One Thousand Blessings? It beautifully illustrates how the practice of counting your blessings can change your heart and ultimately the way you see the world. I have been reading through it ever so slowly for the last year. This is life-changing stuff! Go visit Ann on her blog A Holy Experience.


May: All Creatures of Our God and King

So there you go… hymn printouts for the rest of the official school year.  I am looking forward to a great year of art, music, literature, and Grand Conversations! As 2013 begins, what are you most looking forward to?

Hymn Study - For the Beauty of the Earth

October has arrived, and with it a new hymn for us to enjoy. This month the Ambleside Online hymn rotation has us listening to For the Beauty of the Earth. For once, I have actually heard this hymn before - well, at least part of it. The 1994 movie version of Little Women - which I dearly love - uses the refrain during Meg's wedding scene.

"Lord of all, to thee we raise

This our hymn of grateful praise"

As usual, we turned to YouTube for a free version of the hymn to listen to. I was going to choose a traditional choir performance, but then I found this arrangement by BarlowGirl. These girls are incredibly talented. Even better, this is one of the few videos that shows the lyrics onscreen, which is always nice when you are trying to learn the words.
 

For those of you who like having a copy of the lyrics in hand, you can download a song sheet to print out. My youngest daughter likes me to sing hymns to her before bed, so it is nice to have a physical copy instead of being tied to the computer. This time I did not highlight any of the verses, so you can use the song sheet with any version of the hymn you like. (I also included the YouTube link at the bottom, in case you want to check out the video we are watching.)


This is a lovely hymn, and I am so glad we get to listen to it all month. I hope you enjoy it, too.

Happy listening!

Hymn Study - For All the Saints

One of the beautiful "extras" that our family loves about a Charlotte Mason education is the music studies. The girls and I enjoy classical composers, hymns, and folk songs. This year, we have chosen to replace folk songs with patriotic songs, and all the kids love their Wee Sing America CD.

The first hymn that we are learning this year is For All the Saints Who From Their Labors Rest. Like the rest, this hymn is new to me. I didn't grow up in a church, and our current church isn't big on traditional hymns!

Hymn "study" at our house is pretty low key. The kids and I found a YouTube performance of the song that we like. I copied the lyrics from HymnTime and created a song sheet to help us learn the lyrics. I will laminate this and put it on the wall so we can look at it during our song time (and whenever else we choose to). Like most hymns, the performance we are listening to includes only a few verses. To help us keep the lyrics straight, I put the verses that are included in the YouTube video in bold type. You are welcome to download this song sheet for personal use.

We will listen to the song a few times a week, and the kids can join in if they choose (typically they don't). My littlest pumpkin likes me to sing to her before bed, so I often sing the hymn we are learning. We sing one hymn a month, and also listen to the others we have previously learned. Eventually I plan on creating a YouTube playlist that I can play in the background, but that has not happened yet.

That's about all there is to it! The idea is to expose them to beautiful ideas, language, and music. When a picture, song or idea speaks to their heart they will take it and make it their own.

Happy listening!