Category: Preschool-Grade 12

Hymn Study Ideas and Resources

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The study of hymns is an interesting way to add music to your home school curriculum.  Hymn study can be made simple or detailed – tailored to fit your family.   Getting started with a hymn study is very simple.

*  Choose the number of hymns that you would like to study for the year.  Some families choose just one for the month, others like to focus on two or three at one time.  Perhaps you want to focus on the hymns of one particular author or follow a particular theme. You could select the hymns sung by church pioneers  or choose to learn  new hymns to add to your family’s worship repertoire.

* The elements of your hymn study do not always have to be the same.  There are so many elements to study:
Author of the hymn
Composer of the music
History of the tune if is a traditional tune
Scriptural reference that goes with the tune
Date and circumstances behind the hymn
The hymn as poetry
Memorize the hymn
Learn to play the hymn on whatever instrument you choose
Object lessons that the hymn may teach
Using the lyrics for handwriting practice/copy work
Listening to both instrumental and vocal versions of the hymn

*  Gather resources.  In addition to the church hymnals that are available through the Adventist Book Center, there are lots of other resources that are helpful to preparing a hymn study.

Adventist Book Center – Don’t forget there is a companion book to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal that gives background information for each hymn.  There is also Early Advent Singing, which includes a history and story about each hymn from early Adventist history.

The SDA Digital Hymnal website is a collection of midi files and other resources based on the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal.
TheCyber Hymnal website contains over 8,000 hymns.  It is an excellent hymn study resource with lots of author and composer biographies.

Hymns for Kid’s Heart features free sheet music as well as free mp3 files for a nice selection of hymns.  You can also purchase the full-featured book that includes author biographies and a devotional for each hymn.

The best free hymn study resource that I’ve found on the web is the Squidoo lens by  blogger and  homeschooling mom, Jimmie.  She shares some great free hymn study note booking pages that she created, as well as a web page full of good ideas.

Here is  a printable/downloadable .pdf  version of this post  to add to your notes:   Hymn Study pdf

Inspiration For Toddler Activity Bags

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Looking for ideas for activity bags/boxes for the toddler/preschool set?  Here are a few ideas gleaned from Pinterest that I’m sure will inspire you to create hours of new learning experiences for your children.  Follow the source links at the bottom of each picture to learn more about each idea.

Busy Board – hands-on fun while improving fine motor skills.

 

 

 

Shape Sorting – inexpensive stickers can provide hours of productive fun

 

 

 

Twenty-Five Activity Ideas – includes a printable master supply list

Motivation Monday

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“Let every youth and every child be taught, not merely to solve imaginary problems, but to keep an accurate account of his own income and outgoes. Let him learn the right use of money by using it. Whether supplied by their parents or by their own earnings, let boys and girls learn to select and purchase their own clothing, their books, and other necessities; and by keeping an account of their expenses, they will learn, as they could learn in no other way, the value and the use of money.”

Counsels on Stewardship, 294.

Motivation Monday

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The mother should be the teacher, and home the school where every child receives his first lessons; and these lessons should include habits of industry. Mothers, let the little ones play in the open air; let them listen to the songs of the birds and learn the love of God as expressed in His beautiful works. Teach them simple lessons from the book of nature and the things about them; and as their minds expand, lessons from books may be added and firmly fixed in the memory. But let them also learn, even in their earliest years, to be useful. Train them to think that, as members of the household, they are to act an interested, helpful part in sharing the domestic burdens, and to seek healthful exercise in the performance of necessary home duties.

Fundamentals of Christian Education, 416, 417.

Motivation Monday

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Do not intimate to your children that it is no matter whether they labor or not. Teach them that their help is needed, that their time is of value, and that you depend on their labor.

I have been shown that much sin has resulted from idleness. Active hands and minds do not find time to heed every temptation the Enemy suggests; but idle hands and brains are all ready for Satan to control.

Spiritual Gifts 4B, pg 137

Bird Unit Study Resources

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Are you thinking of participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count but need a few ideas to “flesh out” your unit study on birds?  Here are a some links that will get your creative juices flowing to create a project of interest for students of all ages:

Bird unit study ideas from Adventist Home Educator

All About Birds from Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Bird crafts from DLTK Kids

More Bird crafts from Family Fun

Cross-curricular ideas for bird unit study at Squidoo

Bird coloring pages at Squidoo

Motivation Monday

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During the first six or seven years of a child’s life, special attention should be given to its physical training, rather than the intellect. After this period, if the physical constitution is good, the education of both should receive attention. Infancy extends to the age of six or seven years. Up to this period, children should be left, like little lambs, to roam around the house and in the yards, skipping and jumping in the buoyancy of their spirits, free from care and trouble.

Parents, especially mothers, should be the only teachers of such infant minds. They should not educate from books. The children will generally be inquisitive to learn the things of nature. They will ask questions in regard to the things they see and hear, and parents should improve the opportunity to instruct, and patiently answer, these little inquirers. They can in this manner get the advantage of the enemy, and fortify the minds of their children, by sowing good seed in their hearts, leaving no room for the bad to take root. The mother’s loving instructions is what is needed by children of a tender age in the formation of character.

A Solemn Appeal, pg. 133