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One subject that Charlotte included in her schools was singing. It’s a subject that some homeschool families are not quite sure how to incorporate, but it can add so much richness to your homeschool and to your family. We’re going to discuss all the advantages of putting singing into your homeschool schedule. Joining me today is my friend and coworker, Christy Hissong.
Sonya: Christy, thanks for being with us again.
Christy: Thanks for having me.
Sonya: We want to talk about singing, and I know this is a subject dear to your heart. Let’s just put it out there: a lot of homeschool families are not quite sure how to incorporate singing into their homeschool. Charlotte did solfège, and when you’re trying to sing in parts, there’s a problem: We have the von Trapp family in our heads, and we’re thinking we’re not measuring up to The Sound of Music. So help us with singing in the home school.
Christy: Well, one thing we have that the von Trapps did not have is the internet.
Sonya: That’s true. (laughs) Yes.
Christy: There are so many videos with people actually singing on them. So you can sing with people who can actually sing.
Sonya: So you don’t have your voice exposed, as it were, if you’re self-conscious about it or timid about it.
Christy: Because if you’re self-conscious or timid, your children will be.
If you’re self-conscious or timid about singing, your children will be.
Sonya: That’s a very good point. Tell me a little bit about why you include singing. What are the advantages? And also tell me about how you incorporated singing. Just tell us everything you can remember from your experience homeschooling. And let me just mention that you have one child that you homeschooled. So it’s not like you had a choir at home.
Christy: I did not have a choir at home.
Sonya: Okay. All right. So lay it out there. Give us some ideas.
Christy: Well, I am a singer. I love to sing. I have always sung. It was a natural thing for us to do. We sing while we do the dishes. We sing while we do laundry. We sing while we’re vacuuming. We sing during bath time. We were singing all the time. It came very naturally to us. The hymns and folk songs that the Charlotte Mason method brings in were natural. And there are so many great renditions of them on the internet. So of course we did the hymns and the folk songs and we loved them. Another thing that we often don’t think of for singing is with composer study. So many of the Bachs and the Vivaldis, they were written for choral performance. There are actually words to them. I can remember my son was just enamored with “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.” And he would sing it. He would climb up to the top of the tree and just sing it to the neighborhood like he was saying his creed. He wanted to call a friend one day and wish her “happy birthday.” I thought he was going to sing the happy birthday song, but he burst into “Jesu Joy.” Another time, we were walking into church, and there was a huge pipe organ in the front of the church. He came in the back door and just began running up the aisle, he was about 4 years old, “Jesu Joy!” Johann Sebastian Bach, he had made a connection with that music and with that composer. That was dear to my heart.
So many of the Bachs and the Vivaldis, they were written for choral performance. There are actually words to them.
Sonya: With the singing of the hymns and the folk songs especially, I know composer study is scheduled in your school time. Did you have a separate singing schedule in your plan? Like, “We are going to sing a hymn on this day and this day,” plus all the spontaneous, or did you just do the spontaneous singing to make it part of your family?
Christy: We did it anytime and all times. We had a special time for hymns and a special time for folk songs. It’s really interesting. I teach at Oak Cottage, which is a Charlotte Mason homeschool enrichment program, K-12, and I teach high school. We had our first graduating class, and one of the things that those students wanted to do for graduation was—first, they wanted to be knighted on top of a mountain, so of course we had to make that happen, and then, they wanted a bonfire where they could sit around and sing all their favorite hymns and folk songs from the years they’ve been at Oak Cottage. It’s community-building; it’s memory-making. Especially in your family, it can be so meaningful and bring an intimacy to your family. We can be somewhere and all I have to do is hum three little notes, and it takes everyone in my family back to a time, a place, a memory, a music-making memory.
Sonya: That’s interesting. It just dawned on me; I have that kind of connection with my kids with certain literature books. One time we were sitting in church, and someone mentioned a line, just a phrase, that was from a literature book that we loved, and we all just immediately looked at each other and ah—that camaraderie, that kindred spirit right there. Because it was something we had shared, but singing almost takes it to another level because everybody has to contribute to that experience. It’s not just, “I will read and you will listen,” it is everyone lends his or her voice and heart to this. That can deepen the experience.
Christy: The more senses you can bring into any experience, the better.
Sonya: Yes. Wow. What else do you want to tell us about singing?
Christy: Well, I do believe that any opportunity you can take to enjoy live music together, whether that’s in church, in your worship service, or community theater, musical theater. We live in the mountains of Tennessee, so bluegrass and old-time country music is very important. There’s a venue called The Carter Fold that everybody in our community goes to a lot, and they have big name groups come in and everyone dances or claps and sings. Oh, that’s the other thing. The more you can get your body involved with the singing, the better it is. So, whether it’s something cultural about where you live, or the symphony, or any live music, there’s something about it that engages more of the senses and is more memory-making.
Sonya: I know you can listen to a symphony orchestra playing something over a speaker system, and that’s one experience. But if you go to it live, for some reason, it just resonates in your body; it reverberates through your whole body, and talk about all the senses included! It’s a whole different experience. It’s really fascinating. You think, “Well, I’ll just turn up the volume on the speakers and I’ll get that reverberation,” but it’s not the same.
Christy: No, it’s not. And even with composer study, without the singing, the verses, the 1812 Overture, that was another one that just struck my son, for whatever reason. I went to the mailbox one day and I could hear the 1812 Overture just blasting all over the neighborhood, and I went in, and he had opened up his window and put his little boombox up there and just turned it up to full volume and I said, “What are you doing?” He said, “Everybody needs to hear this!” So it can be memory-making, a sense of inspiration, and something that your family wants to share with others. And if you are a singer, it’s even better if you can participate in making music with a group of people. There’s nothing like that. Nothing.
Sonya: I love when, especially church choirs, involve all ages, that it’s not, “You have to be this tall in order to participate,” but the whole family can be included. It would also help respect the child as a person. For example, if one child perhaps has a problem with speaking, but he can sing, honoring that in that child would go a long way toward encouraging him and helping him to grow as a person, that type of thing.
Christy: Absolutely.
Sonya: So what kind of encouragement can you give someone who is hesitant about incorporating singing into a home school? Maybe she hasn’t done it up to this point because it’s just one of those things, “I don’t know about that…”
Christy: Now, hymns and folk songs, I can’t emphasize those enough. They just get a place in your heart, and you don’t have to sing it yourself. You can look at the internet. There are so many. Set aside a time, and be sure you schedule a time and look for your resources beforehand so that you’re not caught off guard, and you’re not sitting there looking for your resource and the clip you want to listen to.
Sonya: It’s so easy when you’re in the moment and it’s, “Oh, just a second, kids, I need to find something. No, that’s not it, never mind, let’s just move on.” It’s so easy to do that if you’re not prepared.
Christy: Yes, and it doesn’t take long, and you don’t have to do the actual singing yourself. Just like learning with your children; you can sing with your children.
Sonya: That’s great. Thanks so much.
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