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!