Hymn Study: 2017/18

Fisher Academy loves Hymn Study!

We tend to use AmblesideOnline's 2017/18 hymn selections most years simply because it's so handy to have them thoughtfully picked out for us. We ♡ AmblesideOnline!

Today, we're playing the playlist I created for the 2017/18 school year with the option set to shuffle.* We really like listening to our hymns as background music. While there are other viable options on YouTube, some recordings out there don't lend themselves very well to that!

Sometimes we use the videos to learn a new hymn or one we don't know very well. In that case, we play the video on my laptop during Jovi'oval Time and sing along reading from the screen or from Our Family Hymnbooks. You might like to do something similar. The hymns embedded below should work pretty well.

Enjoy!

*{There are several versions of each hymn, if you listen to the playlist as-is you will hear each hymn 2-5 times in a row. Even if each one is different that's a little too repetitive for me. Setting it to shuffle allows the songs to play out of order. I use bluetooth from my iPhone to my Bose SoundLink mini speaker (it's small enough that I literally travel everywhere with it). It's my favorite way to play the songs at lunchtime or all throughout the day. }

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The hymns in the playlist have been chosen with the following criteria:
1) presentation - must be well sung;
2) listenability - must have a high quality sound recording and be bearable as background music;
3) singability - sing-a-long-able-ness is nice;
4) lyrics on screen - a plus but not a requirement for this list

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The hymns included below meet the standards above but have lyrics on screen (link provided when not):

September: Marching To Zion

October: My Jesus I Love Thee

November: O Love That Will Not Let Me Go

December: Star in the East

January: Thus Far The Lord Has Led Me On

February: Blest Be the Tie That Binds (lyrics here)

March: When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

April: On Jordan's Stormy Banks I Stand

May: Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee

June: It Is Well With My Soul

July: Great is Thy Faithfulness (lyrics here)

August: My Faith Looks Up To Thee

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Helpful Links:
More AmblesideOnline Hymn playlists
Center for Church Music: Songs and Hymns
Hymnary.org

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Hymn Study: Our Family Hymnbook

photo courtesy of  anissat

Today, I'm working on our Family Hymnbook. I've actually been very casually working on it for several years, but officially for the last --- days, well, since February according to my pop-up reminder app. :( Obviously, I've been procrastinating a little. However, I have decided that I am quite done with that pesky pop up feeling of guilt every time that little reminder unexpectedly comes on the screen. I have determined to finish our hymnals this week, printed and all. I'm actually getting really excited. I know it will really help streamline our hymn-singing each morning.

Cindy Rollins in her recent series on Morning Time, had a post that highlighted hymns, as well as consistent reminders sprinkled throughout the series about their family hymnal, and I suddenly became thoroughly frustrated with myself for my major Family Hymnbook failure! We enjoy singing hymns, but sometimes we get kinda stuck in a rut with the oldie-but-goodies, if I haven't yet scrounged up the words and music for the newer hymns.

So, today, I looked up all the hymns we have and don't have music sheets for (links provided, see below), I slapped them all in a pdf file, printed it off and now I'm excited to finally put our Family Hymnbooks to use! All I have left to do is make 5 copies.

You might already have access to a hymnal or two (though I advise you to consolidate your favorites into a more family friendly version... you bet it'll go much smoother!), or could make a more personalized version yourself. I'd encourage you to do that, in fact. But, if you're like me and you could use something in the meantime to keep you from utter hymn chaos on some of those mornings, please feel free to use this one! :) See download link below.

In the post, Hymn Study: What we do, I talk a little more about how we do hymns, but honestly you should not go a day longer without reading Cindy's posts linked above. She is an EXPERT. :)

In our Family Hymnbook:
(Links to printable sheets for individual hymns. Personalize your own hymnbook!)

A Mighty Fortress
Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed
All Creatures of Our God and King
All Hail the Power of Jesus Name
Amazing Grace
America the Beautiful
And Can it Be
Be Still My Soul (We Rest on Thee)
Be Thou My Vision
Blessed Assurance
Bringing In The Sheaves
Christ The Lord is Risen Today
Come Thou Fount
Come Ye Thankful People Come
Count Your Blessings
Crown Him With Many Crowns
Eternal Father Strong to Save (Navy Hymn)
Fairest Lord Jesus
For A Thousand Tongues To Sing
For the Beauty of the Earth
Great is Thy Faithfulness
Hallelujah What a Savior
He Leadeth Me 
He Who Would Valiant Be
Holy, Holy, Holy
How Great Thou Art
I Sing The Mighty Power of God
I surrender All
I'd Rather Have Jesus
Immortal, Invisible
It Is Well With My Soul
Joyful, Joyful
Just As I Am
Leaning on The Everlasting Arms
Low in The Grave He Lay
Man of Sorrows
More Secure Is No One Ever
My Anchor Holds
My Country Tis of Thee
My Hope is Built
My Jesus I Love Thee
Nearer My God to Thee
Now Thank We All Our God
O Come All Ye Faithful
O God Beyond All Praising
O God, Our Help in Ages Past
O Love of God
O Sacred Head Now Wounded
O The Deep, Deep Love of Jesus
Onward Christian Soldiers
Our God Reigns
Pass Me Not
Praise Him, Praise Him
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
Rock of Ages
Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us
Softly and Tenderly
Soldiers of Christ Arise
Take My Life and Let it Be
The Church's One Foundation
The Old Rugged Cross
The Star-Spangled Banner
There's Power in the Blood
Thine Is the Glory
This is My Father's World
Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus
To God Be The Glory
Trust and Obey
We Rest on Thee (see Be Still My Soul)
What a Friend We Have in Jesus
When I Survey
Wonderful Grace of Jesus

Chorus's:
Above All
Be Unto Your Name
Blessed Be the Lord God Almighty
His Name is Wonderful
I will Sing of the Mercies
In Christ Alone
Lamb of God
Lord, I lift Your Name on High
Shine, Jesus, Shine
Shout to the Lord
There is a Redeemer
We Bow Down
We Will Glorify
You Are My All in All

AO hymn rotation for this year:
(those that were/are new to us and not linked above are linked below)

September: Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken (tune is from Haydn's Emperor String Quartet) -
October: There Is a Happy Land
November: Come, Ye Thankful People, Come
December: How Great Thou Art
January: Trust and Obey
February: Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah
March: Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
April: Lord Of All Hopefulness Lyrics
May: Beneath the Cross of Jesus
June: Fairest Lord Jesus
July: I Love To Tell the Story
August: Awake My Soul and With the Sun

Search for more of your favorite hymns here:
Center for Church Music: Songs and Hymns
Hymnary.org

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Download Our Family Hymnbook Part One HERE.

Hymn Study: Dear Lord and Father of Mankind

Scheduled in October...  Sung in November... Posted in December... :)

Hymn Study: He Leadeth Me

We sang this hymn during October (it was scheduled for September, I think!) and I never did post this... until now. :) I figure it's nice to have all this in one place, so I'm posting it anyway.


He Leadeth Me:



Click here to Listen, Download [ Real Audio | Mp3 ] and/or Print [ Lyrics | Sheet Music ].



Helpful Links:
Hymns in public domain (in both word or pdf formats): http://hymnchords.net/
English Hymns in the Commons: http://musicasacra.com/english-hymns-in-the-commons/

Hymn Study: I am Resolved

Yesterday I posted how we do hymn study. Today, I'm posting some fun links that we are using this month as we study the AO selection for September, I am Resolved.

Video for your enjoyment:

We enjoyed this one as a whole family.  We LOVED it.  It is sung by a church in Harlem.







Performed on a mountain dulcimer:

Here's an entirely different style of music... same hymn :)  Also VERY nice.  Get out your hymn book and sing along!



Sheet music and mp3 file:

At timelesstruths.org you'll find the sheet music, midi and mp3 file for free download.  woohoo!!

Hymn Study: Our method

Studying hymns... this just cracks me up!  If you would have told me when I was a small child that I would someday enjoy studying, let alone singing hymns, I think I would have thought you were crazy. for sure!

photo courtesy of Martin-ko

Well, here I am some 20+ years later doing that very thing...  heheh.  Not only that, but I am making my kids study hymns too!  hahahahahah!  Well.  Fortunately, they ENJOY it even NOW, even though they are still kids.  :)

Knowing hymns provides the believer with SUCH a rich background... presenting theology in a poetical way... bringing joy to the heart when one least expects it when some happy tune gets stuck in the head...  Precious.  But in order to have this treasury to draw from, one has to have some knowledge of the hymns already there.  It gets there by becoming familiar with the hymns.  We don't have the added benefit of having hymns sung in English every Sunday at church (it's all in Spanish!).  So, what my kids learn of hymns is what Micah and I will teach them.

There are so many!  Where does one begin?!  Well, AmblesideOnline does give suggestions, and that is one place to start.  OR you could just make a list of all your favorite ones and concentrate on one a month.  I do both!  ;)  One a month isn't enough for us, we'd get kind of tired of singing the same one over and over again (though we do sing hymns occasionally as part of our family worship).  But, either way, we plan to study 2 per month.  One from the AO Hymn Schedule and one of our own choosing. I feel all the liberty to substitute hymns from the following list.  After all, I don't know all of those, and there are others that I like more, etc.

Here is the AO schedule for this year:
(click over to the AO site for links to the cyberhymnal pages)

September: I Am Resolved 
October: To God Be The Glory 
November: The Love of God 
December: Tell Me The Story Of Jesus 
January: O God, Our Help In Ages Past 
February: I'll Fly Away
March: At Calvary 
April: Am I A Soldier Of The Cross? 
May: I Know That My Redeemer Lives (Wesley/Handel) 
June: 'Tis So Sweet To Trust in Jesus 
July: Nearer, My God, To Thee 
August: More Love To Thee, O Christ

So, once I've chosen my hymns, I google the title for more information.  I'm only partially interested in the history and the writer information.  Sometimes it is interesting, sometimes not.  Mainly, I need an audio file of the song to sing along with, since none of us can play an instrument (yet) and the lyrics. If you play the piano and have your own hymn book, you could skip this step :)

Then I print off a copy of the music/lyrics for our family hymn book (a 3-ring binder) and several for each of the reading kids to use (4 total).  You could either take a copy from your hymnal, get hymnals for everybody, or print it off from the internet like we do.

photo courtesy of  anissat

Our kids keep their copy of the hymn in their 'everything' notebooks.

At lunch time on Tuesdays I put the music on the computer on repeat, and we sing along once before we eat and pray, then I just let the music run in the background while we eat.  Thursdays I do the same thing with the other hymn that we are studying for that month.  This month for example, we are studying 'I am Resolved' from the AO list, and 'We Rest on Thee', my choice.  Tuesdays we focus on the former, Thursdays the latter.

It's as simple as that!  :)

Helpful Links:
You can find LOTS of hymns sung in different styles on Youtube.  Just search using the title.
Timeless Truths has a lot of resources including the music file and sheet music.
igracemusic.com also has overhead files, sheet music and the like.
Here's an excellent post from AmbleLore where Lorraine describes hymn study in her family.


If you haven't started, I encourage you to pick some hymns and start a new tradition in your family! 
Stay tuned because tomorrow I'll be posting links for this month's AO hymn suggestion  :)

Does your church sing hymns every Sunday?

Do you sing hymns at home?  

How do you do it at your house?  

Hymn Study: My Redeemer

Helpful Links:
Youtube with choir & lyrics
Printable music sheets and more @hymnary.org
Author bio - Phillip Bliss
& another bio

Getting ready for Easter...

"The great Easter truth is not that we are to live newly after death - that is not the great thing - but that... we are to, and may, live nobly now because we are to live forever."

-- Phillips Brooks

Because I live, you also will live. 

-- Jesus

What an opportunity we as Christian parents have to pay special attention to the cornerstone of our faith, the Resurrection!  I'm really thrilled, and would have posted this earlier if I'd had the chance.  But anyone who is interested still has time to check out the following links and download a couple hymns and worship songs to share with your family.  This year, during this upcoming week between Palm Sunday (tomorrow) and Easter Sunday, we will be doing Holy Week Devotions for the Family by Mikko Gibson.  I also picked up her FREE Lenten Tree and Activities Book, which has a lot of super easy ideas to implement over Lent (which is almost over this year).  I'm really quite pleased to have something to focus our hearts on our Savior this month especially while we are somewhat distracted lately by traveling.  Enjoy the Life we have in Christ!

Art:

Biblical-Art.com lists art work by biblical theme and text.
Here are the pages with artwork on the Passion, the Resurrection and Ascension.
The links on Olga's list are similar.

A few of my favorite pieces of  art...
Gethsemane - Barocci (culture.gouv.fr)
Christ in the Hall of Caiphas - Benjamin West (www.mfa.org) 

The Crucifixion - Geertgen tot Sint Jans (nationalgalleries.org)
Ascension (shown above) - William Blake (william-blake.org)

Ascension - Benjamin West (bjumg.org)

The Ascension - Rembrandt (rembrandtpainting.net)

Helpful links:

Click HERE- for AO Easter Hymn suggestions - I appreciate this concise list, because it includes mostly hymns I am already familiar with...

Didn't find the one you were looking for?  Find an extensive list of Easter hymns at NetHymnal.com/CyberHymnal.org - includes midis and lyrics. 

I'm really excited about this British site I just found!  Family Worship has several worship songs with an Easter theme, and they include the mp3 with sheet music for free download.  I also printed off the script to several dramas that I plan to use with the kids at home.  Apparently, they also give away a free song everyday?  cool.  I love free.

Hungry for more?  You will find a HUGE list of Christian Easter resources, including the Bible's stories, children sermons, music and poetry on king's kids stuff.

And just for fun, a link that I would NEVER recommend using in real-life for Easter event planning... major fluff and twaddle if I ever saw it!!  Just so you know what I WILL NOT be using as a reference... heheh.

Hymn Study & Spanish all-in-one!

Wonderful Cross by Chris Tomlin in SPANISH!! 

Adapted from Isaac Watts When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

This is a wonderful worship song adapted from a classic hymn by Isaac Watts.  We are using it in our Lent activities in preparation for Easter.  I will be posting about this very soon.  We love this song in English, and we sing it here in Spanish as well.  We are going to officially learn it as a family now.  Enjoy!

(translation of hymn lyrics IN SPANISH on nethymnal.com)

(printable sheet of worship song with lyrics and chords IN SPANISH - left click and save as)

OH GLORIOSA CRUZ

Cuando recuerdo la Gloriosa Cruz
Donde muriera el Hijo de Dios
Todo lo estimo por vano y faláz
Y mi orgullo no tiene lugar
 

Mira sus manos,
Su frente, sus pies
Que extraña mezcla
De amor y dolor
Cuando el amor significa morir
Por darnos vida Él vino a sufrir
 

Coro

Oh, Gloriosa Cruz
Oh, Gloriosa Cruz
Me enseña que por tu morir
Puedo vivir
Oh, Gloriosa Cruz (Igual que la primera parte del coro)
Oh, Gloriosa Cruz
 

Nos reunimos hoy, a bendecir
Tu nombre, Oh Rey
Con qué podría pagarte Señor
La vida misma jamás bastará
Para pagar tan inmenso amor
Más hoy te entrego todo lo que soy

The Wonderful Cross (worship song) - Lyrics and chords in ENGLISH

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross - original hymn lyrics in ENGLISH

Activity:

Listen to the song while watching the youtube following along with the word prompts.  Try to sing along!  :)

 

Activity:

Compare the original hymn with the adaptation for worship in English, note differences.

Compare the original hymn with the adaptation for worship in Spanish, note differences.

Hymn Study for October

This is the hymn we're studying for October with Ambleside Online...
Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring:


And with both verses:


Enjoy!
Amy