Our family always reads the Bible together between dinner and dessert. This has the advantage that we are already gathered around the table, and children who behave inappropriately during Bible reading can be credibly threatened with losing their dessert. But once a week, we have a family hymn sing instead.
Our hymn sing, like many of our family interactions, can be quite chaotic. We started having each person choose a hymn, but found that singing 7 hymns plus waiting for some of the less decisive members of the family to scrutinize every page of the hymnal took too long and caused others who had already chosen their hymn to begin racing up and down the hallway. So now we sing the hymns the first 4 people request, and leave it at that.
When we started doing our family hymn sing, I was the only instrumentalist, trying to sing along as I sightread the 4 part harmony in the hymnal. My sightreading skills have blossomed, which is satisfying. However, now I am joined by P15 on flute and E14 on violin. P15 only started flute lessons in September, but by March she was able to play most hymns straight from the hymnal. That ability is what I consider the minimum to claim proficiency in an instrument, and I have to say I like being able to brag that she achieved proficiency in flute in just six months. E14 does not read music, on principle. He can be forced to do it, whereupon he succeeds with great accuracy and the foulest attitude imaginable. But if I tell him the fingering of the first note, he plays his violin by ear on the first attempt as long as it is a melody he is familiar with. It's really fun to have three instruments playing.
There are some hymns the younger boys request repeatedly. E5 really likes Up From the Grave He Arose, and sings it with great celebration (involving climbing up on the futon and launching himself across the living room while announcing, "He arose!" at the top of his lungs). I think it is so right for a little boy to celebrate the greatest event in history with all his little boy style. If he doesn't feel like that one, he'll ask for Joy to the World - it could be April or September, he has no compunctions about keeping Christmas songs exclusively for Christmas.
Right now, as we're unable to gather in person with our church family on Sundays and Wednesdays to sing hymns together, our family hymn sing is even more precious to me. I miss filling the sanctuary with the sound of my violin, but at least we can fill our home with worship to the God who is here as well as in the church building.
Our hymn sing, like many of our family interactions, can be quite chaotic. We started having each person choose a hymn, but found that singing 7 hymns plus waiting for some of the less decisive members of the family to scrutinize every page of the hymnal took too long and caused others who had already chosen their hymn to begin racing up and down the hallway. So now we sing the hymns the first 4 people request, and leave it at that.
When we started doing our family hymn sing, I was the only instrumentalist, trying to sing along as I sightread the 4 part harmony in the hymnal. My sightreading skills have blossomed, which is satisfying. However, now I am joined by P15 on flute and E14 on violin. P15 only started flute lessons in September, but by March she was able to play most hymns straight from the hymnal. That ability is what I consider the minimum to claim proficiency in an instrument, and I have to say I like being able to brag that she achieved proficiency in flute in just six months. E14 does not read music, on principle. He can be forced to do it, whereupon he succeeds with great accuracy and the foulest attitude imaginable. But if I tell him the fingering of the first note, he plays his violin by ear on the first attempt as long as it is a melody he is familiar with. It's really fun to have three instruments playing.
There are some hymns the younger boys request repeatedly. E5 really likes Up From the Grave He Arose, and sings it with great celebration (involving climbing up on the futon and launching himself across the living room while announcing, "He arose!" at the top of his lungs). I think it is so right for a little boy to celebrate the greatest event in history with all his little boy style. If he doesn't feel like that one, he'll ask for Joy to the World - it could be April or September, he has no compunctions about keeping Christmas songs exclusively for Christmas.
Right now, as we're unable to gather in person with our church family on Sundays and Wednesdays to sing hymns together, our family hymn sing is even more precious to me. I miss filling the sanctuary with the sound of my violin, but at least we can fill our home with worship to the God who is here as well as in the church building.
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