Hymn Copywork

Hymn copywork is an easy way to ~

• learn hymn words

• practice neat handwriting

• meditate on new word’s meanings

• express personal faith

• practice short sweet writing lessons daily

• memorize a weekly recitation
• encourage personal response to hymns

Keeping short lessons in mind, try Charlotte Mason’s approach to teaching neat handwriting ~

1. Once your child knows how to form all his letters ( use a laminated handwriting chart for simple, easy lessons), let him transcribe/copy a line/ short section of the hymn each day
2. Copy a verse each week until he has copied the hymn in full.
3. Young children may manage just one line each day and complete a verse in the week
4. Encourage your child to memorize the verse he copied ~ read it aloud daily and recite it at the end of the week.
5. Discuss and look up new words, write meanings in their personal dictionary or hymn page (we use Jimmie’s Collage hymn pages).
6. Encourage a personal response to the hymn.
7. Play the hymn while the child writes out the verse.
8. Write a personal response to the writing prompt for each hymn at the bottom of the page.

Our Hymn Schedule for 2012 covers 1 hymn for each month.

Here’s your free downloads ~

• Hymns 2012 Copywork dotted lines~ dotted lined pages for young writers –
• Hymns 2012 Copywork~ lined pages with personal response or discussion questions.

Blessings, Nadene

• Subscribe Click to receive all my new posts packed with practical tips, projects, plans, pages & art ideas by email
• Facebook Follow Practical Pages on Facebook

Hymn Study for 2012

This past year I gently added Hymn Study to our weekly schedule.

I  loved  these wonderful spiritual songs.

My young children sang along too,

but I hope for much more …

I trust the Lord

that as they learn hymns

their spirits be ignited by Faith-filled words,

their faith strengthened by words of Truth,

their minds renewed with Scripture-based words,

and that their own words will echo these words of Hope.

To this end I scheduled a Hymn for each month

and typed a small Hymn booklet for each year.

As with my Fine Arts plans, I used Ambleside Online’s Hymn schedule as a basic guideline, and matched their hymns to my CD hymn collection for our schedule.

Free downloads ~

• Hymn Schedule 2012 ~ with 12 hymns including the words (adapted for our CD recordings), lyric and music biography pictures, a Scripture that inspired the hymn.
• Hymn Booklet Vol 1 Vol 2 ~ small, narrow booklet with 2011 and 2012’s scheduled hymns.  Print out the pages and then concertina-fold them and glue them together to form 2 little booklets.  (I wish we learnt these hymns’ words off by heart so that we don’t even need to read the words …)

How do you teach your children hymns?

Blessings,

How is our Hymn Study going?

Image by doug88888 via Flickr

Here’s a little feedback on our Hymn Study the past six months:

As Charlotte Mason suggested, we learn a new hymn each month and we sing it about 3 days each week.

On introduction, I play a CD of the hymn and tell the children a bit about the author of the lyrics and the person who created the melody from my book 101 Hymn Stories by Kenneth W. Osbeck.

Because some hymn words are unusual, old-fashioned and difficult, the kids use their dictionaries to look up the meanings.  We like to use Jimmie’s Hymn Study notes and she has loads of other tips and links  on her Hymn Study Squidoo Lens.  Usually we refer to our Hymn words each time we sing.

I wish I could say that we learn all the words by heart, but we haven’t.  We usually remember some verses and we all sing the chorus with confidence, but some hymns are quite long.  Also, some of the recordings differ in verse order or leave verses out.

I realized that my children are quite sensitive to the music style of the recordings.  If the instrumentation or singing style is “too country” or old-fashioned or even “too opera”, they are put off.  Certainly, they do not enjoy singing to the Midi files on the Hymn websites!

So if they disliked the style of a hymn, I tried to find other CD recordings …

But here’s my solution … I (try) play the music on my guitar.   I do not play very well and  I am not very musical (although I really wish I was), but we can sing the basic hymns.  When we sing together it is more intimate and I am encouraged by the kids’ response.  We sing together and here’s the best part – my 11-year-old has taken up the guitar and can play some of the hymns and other worship songs.

So, here we are 6 months into our Hymn Study and we …

• know some and are very familiar with several beautiful hymns
• love the words and images of these hymns
• find the words and melodies a real comfort and faith-building
• join with others in church fellowship
• sing them outside alone, or together while walking or working
• are learning to play them on the guitar

Because my children are still young, 8 and 11-years-old, I am confident that we will grow in the appreciation and understanding of our hymns as we keep to our schedule.

I pray that as we learn hymns, a deep and authentic spiritual deposit is laid down in my children’s lives.

Are you put off hymn study?  Is it too much to add to your schedule?

Perhaps you could gently introduce an easy and recognizable hymn and learn it together.  Don’t worry about making it a full lesson.  Perhaps just start each day with the hymn playing in the background while they come to the school room.  Maybe teach the chorus and join in and sing it together.  Let them talk about the images the hymn inspires – pictures they visualize while they listen.  Gradually add a little depth to this with a quick scripture reference or vocabulary extension.  Who knows, you could have a short, but in-depth hymn study time?

Blessings as we sing our praises of Him,

A New Free Page ~ Bible Pages

Image by Denis Collette...!!! via Flickr

I have just created a new Free Page

with all the free Bible downloads

and their links to the original posts.

I will add new pages here as I create them!

Blessings this weekend,

Hymn Study Schedule for 2011

Image via Wikipedia

As I shared before in

Confessions ~ I didn’t do it all,

I didn’t do it all.

The other plan that just didn’t happen in 2010

at all …

all year …

was…

Hymn Study

Image via Wikipedia

Charlotte Mason suggests that,  just as you would do a monthly Artist and Composer study, children should study a hymn each month.

She said that children should~

“form the habit of listening to and reading the scriptures – the actual scriptures.  Children should be in the habit of praising God.  Sing hymns. ”  (Vol 2, pg. 142)

To start

I went to Simply Charlotte Mason and copied their Hymn Study Schedule.

I have some hymns on CDs here at home.  I believe in using what I have, so I highlighted all the hymns on the schedule that I have on my CDs.  I had 12!  That’s one hymn for each month!  (I prefer our recordings to the midi files and MP3 files online, but there are excellent YouTube videos of several hymns that you could download if you don’t have your own CDs.)

Next

I created a Hymn Study Schedule for 2011 (the download is at the end of this post) and linked to websites that have midi files or mp3 files, background information on the authors and composers and the songs words.

I downloaded 27 pages of  FREE –Hymn Study Notebooking Pages that Jimmie created at  Jimmie’s Collage.  Jimmie gives some great ideas for hymn study.  Besides blank copywork pages, there are pages for vocabulary you find in hymns, Bible verses you find in hymns, and the meaning and etymology of the word hymn.

I highly recommend Jimmie’s Hymn Study Squidoo Lens.  Here you’ll find stacks of Hymn Study ideas, activities, CDs & book titles, other web sites and links for free hymn study downloads.

Dana at Epi Kardia shares how her family does their Hymn Study. They ~

Image via Wikipedia

1. Discuss the hymn.
2. Discuss the author.
3. Sing the hymn every day for a month.
4. Additional options:

• Assign one stanza along each week as copy work.
• Assign one stanza each week as memorization to be recited.
• Ask your older student to research the author and write 3-5 paragraphs about their lives and work
• Request that your older student find Scripture pertaining to other phrases in this work mentioned above (Born of His Spirit, Washed in His blood, etc.)
• Have your student write out this hymn in his own words.
• After studying this hymn, have your student create her own hymn.
• Assign your student to find a passage of Scripture and compose a melody to accompany it.

Finally

I printed out the words of each hymn (free download at the end of the post) for the girls to learn the hymns and for copywork lessons.

In order to ensure that we do our hymn study, I have purposed in my heart to keep it really simple to start.  (I tend to jump in and crush their joy with over-zealous enthusiasm!)

Image via Wikipedia

I pray that as we sing the hymn daily during the month,

I may gently include a little extra study each week on the hymn.

It may be some copywork.

Or perhaps memorization.

Maybe they will write a short biography of the author or composer.

But I know that I will NOT do it all.

 

I want to gently urge my children to appreciate these hymns,

to understand them,

to recognise them,

and maybe remember some verses.

Perhaps they may even sing them.

The bonus would be some narrations on their notebook pages,

or beautiful handwritten copywork

or biography pages.

Here are some more Hymn Study Websites:

• Songs and Hymns.org has background history, scriptures, real songs and mp3 downloads.
• Hymnary.org has a comprehensive list of hymns and music.
• Garden of praise.com has some popular hymns, lyrics and free printable music scores.
• Lassen Technologies at  has most hymns with midi files.  Some popular hymns have music scores downloads.
• Cyber hymnal.org
• The Centre for Church Music, Songs and Hymns has a full list of hymns.
• I found guitar chords and tabs at www.chordie.com

Here are my Free Downloads:

• Hymn Study Schedules 14 page .pdf file
• Hymn Words 11 page .pdf file

Blessings as you worship Him,