What We Do Part 1 (of 47 ...Just Kidding!) Hymn Study

It occurs to me that though I live with myself and my constant planning and doing, not everyone reads my mind and knows what we do! I THINK you must know, but I forget to tell you.

So, Charlotte came to stay and we've learned a lot. Here's what our day looks like:

We start off each day singing hymns of praise. We really love the old hymns and are in our 3rd year of studying them. Typically, we learn one new hymn a month, but realistically, we learn more! We soak them in. We talk about the lyrics and read about them if there is a story to go with them. (Check out the Hymns for A Kid's Heart series.) We usually sing 3 or 4 songs each morning; sometimes just the chorus' because, though I would love to tell you we "remember" the words to every verse, we don't. We also don't always focus our learning on every verse--as the Spirit leads, you know!

We are currently in our 2nd of the 4 books in the Mr. Pipes series--"Mr. Pipes and the British Hymn Writers". It is a wonderful book full of lots of inspiration. Since we are also inspired by history, studying hymns in this way has been one of our great joys! Note to Douglas Bond: Make an audio WITH music!

So how did I initially choose the hymns that we would study? My Daddy gifted me with an old hymn book from the church I grew up in and I went through it with a fine tooth comb! I'm fortunate to have a heritage of hymn singing as my Daddy also used to play them at the piano and I would sing along with him. That said, I tinker with the piano, but we don't typically sing hymns with music accompaniment; just acapella. (So whether or not you play a musical instrument, none is required.) I made the effort to copy the lyrics which are almost all online, into Word and print out our own "hymnals". This gives me a record of what we've actually sung and gives my son a copy of his own to have and sing from. Hymns also make a wonderful contribution to poetry study as many were not written to be sung, necessarily. Too, they make for a great source of Copywork and quiet reflection.

Ambleside Online offers a hymn resource with a 12-year rotation of hymns to learn. So if you don't know any hymns, or where to start, they provide all the links and selections and you'll have no excuse.

Just so you know, I've seen hymnals in the public library, as well as at used book sales so they should not be too hard to come by. I understand that many churches that have converted to contemporary praise, or the use of overhead projectors, have stashes of hymnals in the closet. Just ask and you may receive!

Another thing I should mention about hymn singing: It's very contagious and very uplifting. But a warning...you will find contemporary Christian music a little harder to listen to after indulging in great hymns. Especially, if you read about them, examine them, pray them, and make them part of your family life.

As far as listening goes, we have a couple of favorites (of course!). We love Selah's hymns! We also were recently introduced to Fernando Ortega. I'm sure there are many more, but those two have covered many of the bases for us. Occasionally, there will be a gem on youtube that excites us. Remember this?

Personally, I've found hymns to be a great comfort. Second only to scripture. Hymns are a gift to give our children. Like the memorization of scripture, when you learn hymns, you carry them with you the rest of your life. They become a tradition that becomes a response when a response is needed.

We study hymns. For about 10-15 minutes everyday, we sing together. Every friday we read from Mr. Pipes for 15-30 min. Once a month, we intro and read about our new hymn (20-30 min.). Apart from singing, we had quit the "study" and the reading about them because we had no time. Charlotte changed that with "short lessons".

Short lessons are so simple it's irritating to those of us who are driven and controlling and live with a over-anxious agenda. Short lessons is nothing more than reducing the amount of time spent on each topic; focusing instead on communicating one--only one--idea per subject, per day. It's about finding joy in information and ideas and stopping BEFORE they become tedious, demanding, sufficating and STEAL the joy and love of learning. We tried it. She was right.

We now have time and hymn study makes us happy. What else can I say?! It's probably one of our favorite things about each day. If you are interested in what hymn we are currently learning, check my left sidebar. It's always there!