Learning hymns doesn’t have to mean endless drilling or rote memorization! Try these easy ways to learn hymns.
The biggest goal of hymn study is to help our children learn the words and understand the meaning of some well-loved hymns.
And let me tell you, it is SO worth the effort!
I can’t describe how amazing it is to hear my little girls singing the hymns they’ve learned—at church, at home, and even in the car. (If they are singing in the car, they each insist on singing alone…which usually results in a lot of drama.)
I know they don’t understand everything they are singing yet, but learning the lyrics is the first step.
After all, in the words of Isaiah 28:10, “. . . precept must be upon precept . . . line upon line; here a little, and there a little . . .”
So yes, it’s worth every minute of effort to me.
But let’s face it, memorization isn’t always easy. In fact, it can be downright tough.
We help our kids memorize dozens of things as part of their homeschool education. Math facts, grammar rules, spelling words…and the list could go on and on.
I’m fairly certain that most of us have no desire to add one more thing—even something as worthwhile as hymns—to our list of things to memorize. Am I right?
But here’s the good news: Learning hymns doesn’t have to mean endless drilling or rote memorization! Try these easy ways to help your child learn hymns effortlessly.
3 Easy Ways to Help Your Child Learn Hymns
1. Sing hymns with your child.
Have you ever sung a catchy tune to help your child learn geography, grammar, or math facts? If you have, you know that singing really DOES aid in retention!
As you sing a hymn together, you child will see, hear, and say (sing) the words, providing multiple methods of learning. You’ll be surprised at how quickly kids will learn the hymns they sing!
Hymn singing is easy to fit in during morning time, Bible time, or family devotions. You can sing from a hymnbook or sing along with a video with lyrics (like the one below).
2. Use hymn lyrics for copywork.
Copywork is an easy, no-prep way to help kids become more familiar with hymns. The act of carefully copying the lyrics helps to reinforce the words in the memory.
Depending on age, a child may copy a single line or an entire stanza from a hymn each day (or week). You can find lyrics for your favorite hymns with a quick Google search.
3. Listen to hymns.
My 3-year-old daughter, Kiera, loves to listen to music at bedtime. After weeks of singing her to sleep, I began offering her a choice of music at night. She usually chooses this playlist of hymns by the Vagle Brothers.
Just from listening to hymns at night as she falls asleep, she has learned some of them well enough to sing them during congregational singing at church.
It’s such a blessing to hear her little voice singing the words of one of her favorite hymns:
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.
It’s worth noting that I have done nothing else to help Kiera learn hymns. She has learned them completely on her own from listening to them at bedtime.
And THAT, my friends, is truly effortless learning!
Learn Hymns with a FREE Hymn Study
This free hymn study unit includes everything you need to study the hymn “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”:
- hymn history
- sheet music
- links to listen to the hymn
- review questions to gauge comprehension
- vocabulary words taken from the hymn
- copywork and notebooking pages
- related Scripture to memorize
Sign up below to receive your FREE hymn study unit.