One of the hesitations I’ve heard from some moms who are considering a Charlotte Mason education is the sheer number of subjects being covered. They look at a list of the many areas to be touched upon, including Charlotte Mason hymn study, and it feels overwhelming. I can understand the initial thought, but I always encourage them to look more closely because what at first seems intimidating is actually one of the most liberating parts of this method.

When you examine the many subjects covered, you will find three things:

• The lessons are generally much shorter than most of us are used to when we think of sitting down to study something.
• Many of the lessons are only scheduled for once a week.
• The lessons that are above and beyond a traditional education are high-interest and joy-filled.

Charlotte Mason hymn study is a perfect example of all three of these points coming together. It takes ten minutes or less to talk about and sing a hymn, and after the initial day or two, you are only singing so it is really quite short. Singing a hymn is often only on the schedule once a week, but I have it on my homeschool schedule three times a week because we just love it. In some years, I schedule it daily, but I’ve found that, once learned, our hymns are hummed and sung many times randomly throughout the week so I don’t have to formally schedule it as often.

Hymn Study Planning

I love how easily hymn study comes together. I plan all of my songs for the year in advance so I don’t have to think about it again. During my planning time, I select 10 hymns for the year. We rarely get through that many, but again, I don’t want to have to figure it out later so I prep extra songs just in case.

I select a mixture of songs:

• Common hymns that I have heard again and again in my lifetime
• My personal favorites from childhood or beyond and songs shared by my extended family
• New songs that I’m not familiar with at all

Through trial and error, I’ve found that this combination works best for my family because I want my children to know the hymns that resonate deeply across our faith and the songs that are most known and loved within our family, but I don’t want them to be limited by my own knowledge or experiences. Some “tried and true” standards mixed with our most beloved and sprinkled with beautiful lyrics I can uncover for the first time alongside my children has been perfect.

Once the songs are chosen, I print out a copy of the lyrics for each child and one set for myself. Experience has taught me to print a set for my non-readers as well because (1) they want to be like the big kids and (2) sometimes they actually surprise me with their ability to follow along over time. Some terms my print outs are beautifully designed and placed in adorable Morning Time folders. Other years they are photocopied from our hymnal or printed from a random website and placed in a 3-ring binder. It really just depends on how I choose to spend my time any given year. I enjoy looking at things printed on pretty paper, but sometimes it’s plain or nothing so we happily move along with plain.

Finally, I mark the page in my hymnal that tells a bit about the story behind the song, or I save a website where I’ve googled similar information if we’re covering a hymn that is not in our book. I also find multiple versions of each song and save them in a Charlotte Mason Hymn Study folder on YouTube. Doing all of this during my summer planning time makes these lessons open and go for the entire school year.

Hymn Study Lesson

Week 1 – Day 1: I introduce the hymn title and share a little about the history of the song. I tell what I know about the person who wrote the lyrics and who created the melody as they are usually different people. We listen to a couple of different people sing the song on YouTube.

Week 1 – Day 2: I read (not sing) the words out loud to them and we talk about the meaning of the song. I want them to carry the words of these hymns with them throughout their lives, so it’s important to me that they understand what they’re singing. We listen to a different person sing the song on YouTube and then we sing along with them.

Week 1 – Day 3: We listen to yet another person sing the song on YouTube and then we sing along with them or one of the previous singers.

Weeks 2 – 4: We simply sing the song along with our favorite version(s).

Weeks 5 – 6: We sing with instrumentals only. Sometimes we do this with a YouTube video and other times I play the melody on the piano. I am not an accomplished pianist AT ALL, but I can play at least the right hand melody for the songs in our hymnal.

After six weeks, we are usually ready to move on to another song. It’s not an exact formula though. Some songs are very simple to learn well, so we move on sooner. That’s why I like prepping more songs than we’ll probably need. Then there’s no pressure to continue with a certain hymn when we’re ready to start a different one.

Once we finish a hymn, it doesn’t just go away. It becomes part of our family repertoire to be included during lessons from time to time but mostly to be enjoyed in our home and during car rides forevermore.

Why all the different versions? I really want my children to see that people interpret songs differently and have their own styles for singing the same lyrics. Many of the resources available for singing hymns only offer very traditional versions. They are nice, but they don’t represent the way I heard the songs growing up. Black people tend to sing hymns in a more soulful way that resonates with me and my family. I want my children to hear many versions so that beauty is not prescribed for them and so they’ll intimately know and love the musicality of their ancestors.

Charlotte Mason Hymn Study Resources

There are many resources available for choosing hymns. I like to put together my own plan based on the objectives I shared above, but I pull ideas and inspiration from multiple sources. Here are a few I find helpful:

• Hosanna, Loud Hosannas Student Hymnal. This is my go-to hymnal for many of our lessons. I love that the history and meaning behind every song is already researched and ready to go. I also like that the sheet music for the simple melody line is included because that’s about all I can play on the piano, and I use it frequently.
• Simply Charlotte Mason Hymn Schedule. This is a wonderful list of hymns to choose from or even just follow exactly. They also offer Singing the Great Hymns – a hymn book with audio recordings to go with these selections. I love resources like this that make it easy to just sit down and dig in.
• AmblesideOnline Hymn Rotation. AO always has a beautiful list of hymns already planned out with lyrics to match.
• Happy Hymnody. I haven’t used this site (yet), but it’s a brilliant idea that is popular among many of my Charlotte Mason friends. It features a hymn of the month along with printable lyrics and YouTube links.

Family Favorites: Don’t forget to ask your older family members which hymns they remember or find meaningful. One of my happiest mothering memories was our family reunion in August 2019. My entire extended family was gathered in the banquet room of the host hotel for our own Sunday church service before everyone departed for their respective homes. My great aunts and uncles (my grandmother has passed but she had 11 siblings) broke out in song, and I saw my children’s faces light up at the recognition that they knew the words and could share so heartily in the worship of our Lord and Savior alongside multiple generations of family. They got to see that we come from a long line of Jesus-loving people who regularly sing out in praise, and it pleased them so much to stand side-by-side and share fully in the experience.

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