Review: Peter and the Wolf from Maestro Classics

As I was doing some dishes last evening, I overheard SA(7) humming a tune. I looked at my husband. "Is that...?" He nodded. Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. Yes, this is the child that couldn't carry a tune in a bucket not so long ago. The humming, slightly off-tune but perfectly recognizable, was thanks to some daily sol-fa work. The actual tune was thanks to a Maestro Classics recording we've been listening to lately. We received an MP3 and digital download of Peter and the Wolf to listen to and review.


Maestro Classics' recording of Peter and the Wolf is part of their Stories in Music series, a collection of twelve recordings that includes classics such as The Nutcracker and Carnival of the Animals, and also some beloved children's stories set to original music like The Tortoise and the Hare and Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. All of them are performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Stephen Simon and include extras such as the stories of the composers, more information about the music or the story, and extra music.

Our Peter and the Wolf recording came with the story of Prokofiev; a music-only track without the narration; a talk from the conductor about how the musical themes, not just the instruments, represent the characters in the story; a Russian dance performed by Trio Voronezh; and themes from Peter and the Wolf performed by the same trio, giving it a Russian flavour (This was my favourite extra!). We also received a download of an activity booklet (CDs come with a physical copy). There is a free curriculum guide online to accompany the recording. We didn't use it, but I know some of you might be interested.

At our house, Thursday is music appreciation day. Normally, that means that at about 10:30 AM, we take our snacks upstairs to watch Classical music on YouTube. Each term, we focus on a particular composer and watch a several of his works performed by a variety of performers and symphony orchestras. When we received Peter and the Wolf, we took a break from Brahms and listened to Prokofiev instead. Several Thursdays in a row we listened to Peter and the Wolf again along with one of the extra tracks. We also did a couple of the activities from the booklet. Their favourite was matching the instruments to the animals.

We had actually watched Peter and the Wolf about a year and a half ago during one of our regular music appreciation sessions on YouTube. It had been a wonderful performance, so I was surprised that the boys didn't remember it when we began to listen to this CD. I suppose that should be a lesson to me... we do need to listen to things over and over again for them to become familiar and beloved. I don't think they will ever forget Peter and the Wolf now. Because of this, I have decided to choose one piece from each composer we study to listen to repeatedly until it is very familiar. I think I will also buy some CDs like this one that the boys can listen to on their own whenever the mood strikes them. I sense a Christmas gift idea! :)

For more reviews of Maestro Classics Peter and the Wolf, as well as The Nutcracker, click on the link below.

Saturday Catch-All: First Week, Dudamel, Nature Journal Share

First Week
We just finished the first week of our new school year. Why so early, you ask? Two reasons: We had already had five relaxed weeks and needed to get back into routine, and starting early allows us to be a little more flexible about taking a day off here or there if necessary. We are already planning on a two-week break at the end of August/beginning of September as Stephen takes his vacation then. SA(7) started Year Two using Ambleside Online, and JJ(5) started his "Kindergarten" year. This basically means that I have started reading lessons with him, while he continues to participate in our family outdoor time, reading aloud time, poetry tea time, math activities, etc.

Anyway, I am exhausted today. Homeschooling requires intense interaction with my children, and I had gotten used to less of that during our vacation. As an introvert, all this interaction drains me. I know from last year, though, that I will adjust over time and come up with coping mechanisms to deal with it. And I do love homeschooling with a passion that still surprises me despite this small drawback in my own personality.

The rewards appear daily when I least expect them...
-the twinkle in SA's eye as he's about to narrate something that amused him.
-the effortless use of a big word that he just heard for the first time in reading a week ago.
-the creative engineering of paper airplanes to make them fly better (a collaborative effort between the oldest two).
-JJ's excitement in the discovery of addition facts using Cuisenaire rods.
-the enthusiasm with which all three of them run around gathering fistfuls of flowers for me to draw in my nature journal as I sit peacefully in the grass with the baby.

This is what I will remember, and it is what I choose to think about after the exhausting jumble of chores and schoolwork, discipline challenges and moments of joy, happy lessons and lessons that meet with resistance.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

(Philippians 4:4-8)

Introducing Dudamel 
Our composer this term is Johannes Brahms, and this week's listening was "Variations on a Theme by Haydn." Our music appreciation lesson is very simple. On Thursday morning at teatime, we get our snacks and go watch the piece on YouTube.  Yes, that's all we do. One of my favourite things about watching music on YouTube is that you can often watch the conductor. I love watching conductors! This week's conductor was Gustavo Dudamel. I was immediately struck by his air of calm joyfulness. Curious, I later looked up more videos with him conducting and was amused to see a huge difference in style between his older and younger self, though still the same friendliness and joy (see especially around the 4 1/2 minute mark in that second link). Finally, I looked up his website, and found a fascinating character. Do check it out! You can also find a few interviews on YouTube as well.

Nature Journal Share
If you enjoy nature study, you may like the Mud Puddles to Meteors blog. They also have an active Facebook group, a great place to share your nature walk finds with an appreciative audience! One fun thing Dawn just started there is the Nature Journal Share. She invites anyone in the group to post their nature journal entries on Saturdays with the tag #naturejournalshare. I anticipate that this will be an inspiring event every week. I am not a natural artist, and have been slow to get into the habit of nature journaling, though we love our nature walks here.

My share this week is a small weed...we have so many weeds I don't know the name of! I suspected that this one would have some relation to chamomile because that's what it smelled like to me. Sure enough, it's known as rayless chamomile, or wild chamomile. I think one of its other names, "pineappleweed," will stick with us, though.

And that's all for this week!

Review: PianoWithWillie from JazzEdge

If you know me in real life, I know what you're thinking. What, Nelleke? Jazz? Edge? JazzEdge?
Yes, boring, classical, stick-in-the-mud Nelleke was learning some jazz piano. It was a lot like learning a new language, and it was fun!

I've been thinking for a while that I need to play the piano more often, especially as my children are growing. As the busyness of my family life has increased, I have played less and less. SA(6) is beginning to learn how to play the piano as well now. The thought has struck me that trying to teach him without first inspiring him by my own example would be a lot like teaching a child to read without ever having read aloud to him. And then the Schoolhouse Review Crew offered me a chance to try out Studio Access to PianoWithWillie from JazzEdge in exchange for my honest opinion. "This will be my catalyst," I thought.

PianoWithWillie is like an online piano teacher for the experienced piano student (JazzEdge has other programs for beginning students and younger children, such as Easy Piano Basics or HomeSchoolPiano). With a high speed internet connection, you can stream videos with a variety of "Foundational" (technique, rhythm, reading) or "Fun'dational" (songs and improvisations) lessons. Course materials and sheet music are also available for download.

Since it has been a while since I've played the piano regularly, and the whole world of jazz piano is new to me, I began to follow the "Piano Start" guide.

I downloaded and printed the course materials for the "30-Day Success Playbook" and began to go through them. I quickly realized that the first lessons were too easy for me, so I skipped ahead to Day 21 (with the teacher's permission, of course!). I easily sight-read all the music for the subsequent days, but began to realize that understanding all the complex chords would be a challenge.

I began to watch the video lessons corresponding to the days I found challenging. This is where I ran into trouble. We have "high speed internet," but we live in rural PEI where that doesn't mean much (Though I hadn't anticipated problems because Netflix and even YouTube work fine here.). Even with all the settings turned down to as basic as possible, the video lessons only streamed seconds at a time before stopping to load another few seconds. After chatting online with someone on the JazzEdge support team, I paused the videos for a few minutes to allow them to load more before playing. Even so, I could never get them to load more than three minutes at a time. Needless to say, this was extremely frustrating. I began to watch the videos while doing other things, just so the wait every couple of minutes wouldn't drive me completely crazy. Once I was done with the 30-Day Success Playbook and began to try other lessons, I realized that I did not have the same problem with all of the videos on the site. (My computer-tech husband tells me that they may have been recorded differently, and indeed, the videos that worked well for me did seem to be a bit older.)

Jazz was not a natural choice for me. However, I do like the complex chords and the clean sound of some jazz piano. And I found that PianoWithWillie is not at all limited to jazz, but has lessons on gospel music, pop/rock, blues, and even a bit of classical music! I spent the rest of my time on the "Fun'dational" side of the lessons, trying out different songs. I especially enjoyed "Precious Lord, Take My Hand." Having done that, I know I will need to dig into the more "Foundational" lessons to really get the most out of PianoWithWillie. I really want to learn more about chord formation now, and that's where I'll focus next.

SA said to me just last week, "Mama, I like the way it sounds when you play the piano." PianoWithWillie has done what I hoped it would --it has inspired me to play the piano regularly once again. And my children are listening. I am proud of how diligently SA is practicing his own piano lessons now, and I don't think it's unrelated to the fact that I have been practicing myself. I look forward to continuing to learn from PianoWithWillie.

For more reviews on PianoWithWillie and other JazzEdge products, click the link below:

Handicraft and Music Update

We're well on our way through term 3 of Ambleside Online's Year 1. Towards the end of last term, we really slowed down on some of the "extras". This had something to do with being nine months pregnant and having baby AJ at the end of January. This term, though, we are doing great! We are still not doing enough nature study, but I plan to make up for that this summer. There is still so. much. snow.

Handicrafts
I am so proud of myself for actually doing some non-cooking/baking handicrafts this term! In case you haven't picked up on this yet, I am emphatically not into arts and crafts. However, I have pulled out the paper and the origami book and we are folding paper once a week together. Stephen has gotten in on the action as well and made the boys some very cool jumping frogs.

 Now I know you're wondering about how "real" this craft is. Charlotte Mason handicrafts are not usually of the useless, throw-away sort. However, having done it for a few weeks now, I wish I'd done more of this as a child. I am not the sort of person who can look at things and understand how they are made or how they work. I think folding paper may really begin to develop a child's relationship with physical materials so they have a real understanding of how things are designed and made. I am confident that origami will be the first step to paper sloyd for us.

So far, we have created little boxes, boats to float in the bath tub, and 3D houses. The boys are still not doing these on their own...they do the first few folds, and then need help with the tricky parts. Maybe I need to find a simpler origami book so we can find some projects they can do completely on their own? But anyway, we're having fun with it, and we're actually doing something, which is more than the nothing we were doing before.


Music
I mentioned in November that my 6- and 4-year-old boys were still not singing on-key. I'm so happy to be able to say now that they have made progress.

I began with "so" and "mi". I would sing those two notes and ask them to listen and hold it in their mind. Then I asked them to sing the same notes, and they did! They were perfectly in tune and had beautiful tone. We did that several times. Then I introduced them to "Up and Down," a song I stumbled across on YouTube from Jolly Music. For some reason they absolutely loved this simple, two-note song. We played games with it. A few times we held hands and put our hands up and down with the words of the song. Other times I would sing the first "up and down" and point at one of them to sing the next bit. They can sing the song perfectly on tune, as long as we don't try to sing it together. Somehow the effort of listening and producing the right note can not be done at the same time yet.

Next, I started to point out the so-mi interval in the hymns we were singing. "Jesus Loves Me" begins with so, mi, mi, for example. I sang songs in solfege so they would start noticing the different notes in the songs we sing every day. Both of them are starting to be able to produce a line of a hymn. This is still as long as we don't try to sing on-key together. Still, echoing and alternating lines is fun. We are learning "Nothing But the Blood of Jesus," and that particular line repeats several times in the hymn. So I will sing all the other lines, and let one of them at a time sing "Nothing But the Blood of Jesus." JJ(4) does especially well with this.

Today I began to try to get us singing the same note together. When I started the note and asked them to join in, SA(6) could not seem to find it. So I sang the note so we could hear it in our minds first. Then I got SA to start, so we could join in with him. That worked much better.

I should tell you that MM(2) is doing all of this with us. His learning to sing is as natural as a bird learning to fly. It's funny to me that this is an area where my youngest is the most skilled, followed by my middle child, followed by my oldest (not counting the baby, of course!). But I'm feeling confident now that they will all get there. Maybe I'll have a boy's choir here before long. :)

When the News is Too Heavy

Sometimes there is no understanding. Then we hold on to our Refuge.



Lord, Thou hast been our refuge from one generation to another
Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever the earth and the world were made,
Thou art God from everlasting and world without end.

(O God our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.)

Thou turnest man to destruction;
again Thou sayest Come again ye children of men
For a thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday,
seeing that is past as a watch in the night.

As soon as Thou scatterest them They are even as a sleep
and fade away suddenly like the grass.
In the morning it is green and groweth up,
but in the evening it is cut down, dried up and withered.

For we consume away in Thy displeasure,
and are afraid at Thy wrathful indignation.
For when Thou art angry all our days are gone;
we bring our years to an end as a tale that is told.

The years of our age are three score years and ten,
and though men be so strong that they come to fourscore years,
yet is their strength but labour and sorrow;
so passeth it away and we are gone.

Turn Thee again, O Lord, at the last.
Be gracious unto Thy servants.
O satisfy us with Thy mercy and that soon.
So shall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life.

Lord, Thou hast been our refuge from one generation to another
Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever the earth and the world were made,
Thou art God from everlasting and world without end.

And the glorious Majesty of the Lord be upon us.
Prosper Thou, O prosper Thou the work of our hands,
O prosper Thou our handy work.

Text: Psalm 90, para. Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
Music: Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

This Week's Musical Teatime

We are still doing our "Musical Teatime" once a week on Thursdays. This term we are listening to Handel. We watched "The Messiah" during December. Now we are on to his "Water Music" and "Music for the Royal Fireworks." Beyond choosing the pieces we will listen to, I don't put a lot of planning into this beforehand. Yesterday we stumbled upon a beautiful, graceful baroque dance set to Handel's "Water Music."


Following that, we watched an electrifying version of the "Music for the Royal Fireworks" performed by Le Concert Spirituel conducted by Herve Niquet. (Sorry, I know I need an accent in his name, but can't figure it out right now.) If you like watching conductors, here's one worth watching. He has a bit of a villainous look, for one thing. Then the way he conducts is beyond description. He seems to  move and shape the music with his hands in a way I've never seen anyone else do. Fascinating. Watch it just for that.


Next week I plan to look for some Handel music performed on an organ (My boys love organs because their Opa has one.). I will also check if the Music Animation Machine (musanim) has anything by Handel. Yes, this is the way I "plan"...

Music on My Mind

Music and singing have been occupying a lot of mental space in my head lately. Maybe more space than is necessary, I don't know. I would be very interested in hearing your experiences with this.

My six- and four-year-old boys do not sing on key. Up till now, I have been hoping that singing will still come naturally at some point. Neither of them are tone-deaf. By this I mean that I know they can hear the difference between notes, and I assume that the problem is that they cannot produce what they hear. Thankfully neither of them are self-conscious about their singing yet. My six-year-old has begun playing the piano, and is doing very well with it.

How can I tell they're not tone-deaf? With JJ(4), it's still just a feeling on my part. But I gave SA(6) a little test to make sure. I played a note on the piano, and then a second note. I asked him to tell me if the second note was higher or lower than the first. I did this several times with notes closer and farther apart, high and low. Then I did the same thing with my voice. He got it right almost every time. Then I asked him to sing and hold a note, and I sang several notes around his note until I finally settled on his note. I asked him to wave when I got to his note (which happened to be a perfect middle C, by the way). He did just fine, though I could tell he felt self-conscious about holding the note so long.

In researching on-line, I discovered that children who are not tone-deaf but can't sing on key are often the result of a lack of early musical exposure. This is not the case with my boys. We have always listened to music in our home, and we also have always sung together daily as a family. They gladly choose and sing their favourite hymns after our meals, and they enjoy putting their favourite CD's into the CD player to listen to on their own.

My question now is: Is this just a matter of children developing at their own speed? Will singing still come naturally at some point? Six seems old to me to still not be singing on key, but my experience is limited. Or is there something I should be doing with these boys to help them a little?

I am concerned that doing something about this will make them self-conscious about their singing. I am happy that they willingly sing along anytime we sing, and I don't want that to change.

I would love to hear from you in the comments if you have any experience that I could learn from!

Musical Teatime and the Music Animation Machine

This term we have been having a musical teatime on Fridays instead of our usual daily poetry teatime. We take our tea tray and go upstairs and sit in front of the big screen and watch YouTube. I decided to focus on Johann Sebastian Bach this term. We started with a lot of organ music, because the boys love their Opa's big organ. At some point we stumbled across Stephen Malinowski's Music Animation Machine,and SA was hooked. Check this out!

I love it myself, too. I think it's because it's a visual representation of what I hear in a much more direct way than a musical score is. Read about it at the Music Animation Website. I find it fascinating!

The boys enjoy watching live performances as well. Here's one they really enjoyed, on the largest church pipe organ in the world. My sensibilities were a bit offended by all the ostentation (Isn't a pipe organ beautiful without the garish lights?), but my children didn't mind that. JJ noticed that it had more stops than Opa's organ. (Ha!)


We also borrowed a CD from the library called "Mr. Bach Comes to Call." The story was fanciful and the quality was a bit spotty, but it had some good pieces of music on it. Another plus is that SA seems to have been inspired to practice more and more on the piano.

Music for Good Friday

Wednesday with Words: The Power of Habit

I have a ridiculous number of books on the go right now, too many, really. Three in the bathroom, three beside my bed, a few more in the living room. Given the nature of life with three little children, I read snatches from each when I have a chance, making steady but very slow progress. They are all wonderful books...I really can't drop any of them. I suppose that should be a lesson to me about starting books when others aren't finished yet.

My quote for Wednesdays with Words  is from a book by Charles Cooke called Playing the Piano for Pleasure. I stumbled across this book at my library, and it is an absolute delight. The preface to the original edition (1941) begins: "This book is frankly intended as inspirational. In it I have tried to communicate my indelible enthusiasm for music-- in particular for the infinitely varied music that can be drawn from that noble, self-sufficient instrument, the piano." I feel this captures both the tone and the purpose of the book. If you play the piano as a hobby, or you used to play and would like to again, you will very likely find this book of great practical help. (I should mention that the focus is on Classical music.)

In his chapter titled "The Pleasant Necessity of Practicing," Cooke writes:

"Habit is a miraculous thing. To me it is more miraculous than nuclear radiation. From now on we are going to be working closely with Habit, piano playing being a complex of mental and physical habits. Therefore it behooves us to form right habits all along the line, and having formed them, to make them so intensely ours that they function unconsciously. When you substitute a good habit for a bad one, or when you decide to acquire a habit where none existed before, the new habit must function at first, for a little while, from power supplied by you. This is the stage where we have to make a strong conscious effort, even to the extent of a sensation of spiritual pain. But in a surprisingly short time the habit begins to take over the task of supplying power; it begins to develop its own momentum; and finally we get a sensation of spiritual pain if we don't exercise the habit....Hamlet, reasoning with his mother on the topic of dropping a bad habit and substituting a good one, said: 'For use almost can change the stamp of nature.' As far as piano playing is concerned, I take the liberty of differing with the Bard; I maintain that the word 'almost' could be omitted...Every day of our life, from now on, we will see proof that Habit is miraculous."

 Of course, I thought of Charlotte Mason and "Habit is ten natures" when I read this.

Click through to see what others are reading today!

Saturday Commonplaces 10

I don't have a lot to share today. I decided to have a musical teatime one day this week instead of our usual poetry teatime. We watched Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf." I think I'll try to do a musical teatime once a week from now on. The only problem? I don't know how we're going to top this! Enjoy.

Saturday Commonplaces 7

Random notes from my week...

Saying
Yesterday, SA:
"So is it the twenty-fourth? Or the twenty-threeth?"

Singing
MM (17 months) has been going around singing "Happy, happy, happy." I'm not sure if it's from "Trust and Obey" (To be happy in Jesus) or "There is a Happy Land." He also sings "Holy, Holy, Holy" and "Up above the world so high" from "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." The fun thing about the latter is that the tune is recognizable. I've waited a long time for a musical baby...

Watching
Stephen and I have been watching Poirot on Netflix. There's something sweet and gentle about it. It doesn't try to hook you in or manipulate you to watch just one more episode. It is clean, and that's something very rare. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.

Listening
The boys have been enjoying Songs for Saplings as they learn their catechism. I wasn't sure about the songs at first... the rhythms seemed complex, the lines long. There is a lot of repetition, and that's good for memorization. It is clear to me now that even for my children (who can't really carry a tune yet), memorization with music sticks better than memorization without music.

Reading
I've been reading Charlotte Mason's volume 1 along with a reading group at Ambleside Online. I'm still hoping to write about what I'm learning soon. I may have to drop some perfectionism first and just type my notes as they are.

Have a great week, everyone!

Saturday Commonplaces 4

A collection of random thoughts and happenings from my week.

Outdoor Time Log
We did better than the last two weeks, but still did not meet our target of 10 hours. We still have today, though the forecast is calling for 6-8 hours worth of ice rain. I'm hoping to clear a bit more snow before then, as the family vehicle is still snowed in since Wednesday's snowstorm.
Sun. Snowstorm, 0 Hours
Mon. .5 Hour
Tue. 1.5 Hours
Wed. Snowstorm, 1 Hour
Thu. 1.5 Hours
Fri. 2 Hours
So that's a total of 6.5 Hours this week. Hopefully I can bump it up to 7.5 today.

Adventures of a Baby in the Snow
MM is 17 months old now. It has been a real challenge for me to take him to play outside with the boys, and not just because the snow has been deep enough to bury him up to his neck the last few days. The child will not keep his mittens on. I put them on, he takes them off. I put them on. He takes them off. I leave them off, hoping he will notice his hands getting cold and want them back on. His hands get cold. He cries. I put the mittens back on. He takes them off. He cries more. This is not an issue a cord between the mittens will fix. True, the cord keeps him from losing them, but not from taking them off in the first place. So, being a mom of the 21st Century, I googled "keeping mittens on a toddler." And the solution is...(drum roll please): DUCT TAPE!!! I couldn't find any around, but I found a roll of Tuck Tape (the red kind). For our second time outside today, I put his mittens on, then taped around his wrists. It didn't quite keep him from taking his mittens off, but it sure kept him busy. It also took him a lot longer to get them off, so I could do more shoveling.

Anyway, with the "crying-because-my-hands-are-cold" off the table as an excuse to go back inside, he had to come up with something else once he was tired of being outside. And he did. About an hour after we went outside, he came and looked up at me.
"Pee-pee," he said loudly.
I looked at him. "Do you need a clean diaper?"
He deliberately nodded his head. Then, for good measure, he pointed to his diaper area and squatted.
I had a feeling I was being manipulated, but since it was getting dark as well, we went inside.


On Music
I watched a music documentary on Netflix last week called "Herbie Hancock: Possibilities." Now I'm not normally a jazz fan (Classical, folk, and blues are more my style), but I really enjoyed it. It's a documentary of Herbie Hancock's collaboration with a number of different artists, including Carlos Santana and Angelique Kidjo, Sting, and Paul Simon, and Christina Aguilera. My favourite was Annie Lennox singing Paula Cole's "Hush, Hush, Hush." If you are into music, you might enjoy this documentary. I love how really good musicians continue to grow and try new things as they age. People like Paul Simon, Eric Clapton, James Taylor, to name a few, just seem to get better and better.

Also on music, we have been continuing to watch Handel's Messiah on YouTube. Now that it's part of the routine, SA always makes sure we listen to our "Christmas music." Yesterday after we watched, I asked them if maybe they'd like to play the violin someday. SA had to think about it (Which one is the violin, anyway? No, Stephen and I have not been playing our violins enough in recent years.), but JJ was off like a shot to get one of Stephen's violins. I tuned it up and helped each of them hold it in turn. Of course it was much too big for them. SA produced the squawks and squeaks you'd expect from someone holding a violin for the first time. Surprisingly, though, JJ had amazing control of his bow hand, and not only had beautiful tone, but played each open string as he pleased. I still don't know for sure that he's not tone deaf (He doesn't sing on key), but if he's not, playing the violin may turn out to be something that comes easily for him. We'll see.

On Fancy
SA came out with something quite imaginative yesterday. I know many kids (especially girls?) have great imaginations, but SA isn't really given to flights of fancy.
"Mama, Mango (our cat) wanted to go outside, and I let him outside. I said to him, 'Mango, if you see a wolf outside, climb up into a high tree, higher than the wolf, so that the wolf can't get you.'"

On a Charlotte Mason Education
I have never intended to give my children a classical education. Classical homeschoolers have always intimidated me. The academic rigour, the trivium, the Latin and Greek...it all sounded like too much, and quite frankly, not my style. Give me Charlotte Mason, I thought...a gentle approach, yet one that is broad and rich and takes the child's personality and interests deliberately into account. However, I'm starting to realize that a Charlotte Mason education is a classical education. Last week I read this article by Andrew Kern on classical education and realized that all of the key attributes he claims for a classical Christian education are also true of a Charlotte Mason education. There are differences in the practicalities, but I think that the roots are the same.

A MacDonaldite Hymn

I had a phone call this week from Louisiana. The woman had heard someone sing "In the Regions Higher, Higher," one of our beloved MacDonaldite hymns. She wondered if she could get a copy. So that was my project today: jotting down and arranging a tune I have only heard orally. Many of the tunes in the P.E.I. Free Church have been passed down in this way. Some are familiar hymn tunes, but they acquire a character of their own after a few generations. There is often even some small variation from congregation to congregation in singing the same tune. I am not sure of the origin of this tune...I only know I haven't heard it anywhere else. If someone out there in the wide wide world knows where it originates or has heard it in any other context, please let me know in the comments! (Just click the "play" button at this link to listen.)

The hymn was written by the Rev. Donald MacDonald. MacDonald was a circuit riding Presbyterian minister on P.E.I. during the 1800's. He was greatly used by God in two revivals, one in the 1830s, and another in the 1860s. These hymns were never sung during his church services (and still are not in the P.E.I. Free Church today), as these churches hold to exclusive psalmody. Instead, selections (many of these hymns are very long!) are often sung informally while people are gathering to worship. You can find a full copy of Hymns by the Rev. Donald MacDonald and Elders at the Haddington House website. You can read more about Donald MacDonald's hymn writing in a paper by Dr. Jack Whytock here, though Dr. Whytock does not mention this particular hymn.

1. In the regions higher, higher,
Than the eye of man can see,
Dwells the Lord of life and glory
On His throne eternally;
He alone can fill the station
Next the Father on His throne,
Rule the nations at His pleasure,
On that glorious heavenly throne.

2. From of old before creation,
In the regions far away,
In the blazing rays of glory,
In the effulgent light of day;
He enjoyed His Father's presence,
In His love benignly free;
Rejoiced joyfully before Him,
In His order One of Three.

3. In the council of the Eternal,
Lo, the Son, our Lord was there;
Justice called for righteous vengeance;
Sin deserved it everywhere,
See Him now with admiration,
Standing forth our Friend to be;
To avert the threatened vengeance,
By His death upon the tree.

4. Wondrous plan for our salvation!
Framed and fixed by sure decree;
God to assume the human nature,
Soul and body man to be.
Love infinite, thus engaged Him,
Willied His justice to appease,
That His honour and His glory,
Through His Son, His saints might see.

5. Who the purpose of Jehovah
Can behold and silent be,
When the covenant most gracious,
Is the plan of persons three?
See the will of God our Maker,
Through His Son to us revealed,
That our pardon by's oblation,
Should be mercifully sealed.

6. Glory to the blessed Saviour,
Who engaged our souls to free,
Who agreed to terms of covenant
Should fulfillment painful be:
Before you view Him in the manger,
Lo! the song of angels hear,
Praising God in joyful chorus,
And withal our hearts to cheer.

7. Lo! the God of all creation,
Lo! the Word made flesh appears,
In the likeness of our nature,
To expel our guilty fears;
Lo! Emmanuel our Saviour,
In the flesh most humbly low;
God in Christ to reconcile us
To Himself, and grace bestow.

8. Justice loud our death demanded;
Low we lay in guilt and sin.
Woeful spectacle to angels,
Slaves to Satan in his gin;
Now behold the loving favour,
Of the Lord to sinful men;
He came to free us from our bondage,
And to raise us up again.

9 Hallelujah sing in chorus!
He is worthy of our song;
Of our humble adoration,
And the praises of our tongue;
Hosts of angels sang before us,
Which the trembling shepherds heard;
Saints in thousands loud shall praise Him,
When they'll hear the sweet award.

10. If the sight of Him in childhood,
Caused the hosts to sing with glee,
Loud the saints shall join in chorus,
When triumphant Christ they'll see;
When arrayed in all His glory,
By His Father on His throne;
When they'll see the conquering Lion,
They shall worship God the Son.

11. When His side shall be exposed,
And His hands and feet we'll see,
Surely shouts in thankful chorus
Shall the songs in glory be;
All these marks of death so painful,
Borne by Christ for sinful men,
Must excite to admiration,
Of a love beyond our ken.

12. When the kingdom to the Father,
Christ resigns respectfully;
All the mystery then disclosed
Love shall shew eternally;
Love infinite to the creature,
Then displayed in full shall be;
Then the effects of Christ's oblation,
Lo! the adoring hosts shall see.

13. Then the saints and angels joining,
In a holy joyful glee,
Shall the Lord in rays of glory,
On His throne forever see;
Then they'll know what He obtained,
By His death upon the tree;
See His shining face in favour,
Where no pains or death can be.

14. God is love, as is declared
In His word, as all shall see:
When His Son, His Co-Eternal,
As in council both agree,
Was resigned to death most painful,
Groans and cries and agony;
That His purpose, ever gracious,
In His love displayed should be.

15. Now the tokens of His favour,
And His love to sinful man,
Are above our estimation,
Are above what we can scan;
God is high above creation;
Grace is seen in wisdom's plan;
Man's the object of His favour,
Grace in love through ages ran.

16. Now again, to reassure us,
And confirm us in His love,
He bestows the Spirit freely,
In the likeness of a dove;
Now His blessings freely flowing,
Showering from His throne above;
Prove His changeless loving kindness,
Which shall never more remove.

17. Hosts above in holy regions;
Men on earth who taste His love,
Tune your harps for solemn praises,
Tune your harps your thanks to prove;
Grateful hearts with love o'erflowing,
Prove your love in grateful songs:
Thrill the air in quick vibrations,
With the praises of your tongues.

18. Worthy truly ever is Jesus;
Worthy truly ever of love,
For He suffered and died to free us,
From the law and merited curse;
Behold Him now and ever adore Him,
Highly seated in heaven above,
At God's right hand, our Brother believe it,
Pleading our cause His merits to prove.

19. Sound the voice in praise of Jesus;
Sound the voice in praise of love,
When absorbed in spiritual vision,
When allured to heaven above;
Saints and angels ever adore Him,
Saints and angels ever above;
Sing the song that ever is pleasing,
Sing the song of heavenly love.

(Edited April 2023 to fix broken links and add link to full hymn book. NP)

The Nathaniel Dett Chorale - Chariot Jubilee

I was listening to the wonderful Nathaniel Dett Chorale sing "Chariot Jubilee" yesterday (on their CD "Listen to the Lambs"), and was struck again at how wonderfully the Spiritual "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" is interpreted in this piece. It's truly full of the gospel. This video only has part of the entire piece, but you'll get the idea. These are all the words. They are repeated and interwoven and put together in different ways. You really have to listen to it to appreciate how wonderful it is.

Chariot Jubilee
R. Nathaniel Dett

Down from the heavens, a golden chariot swinging,
Comes God's promise of salvation.
(Amen, Amen!)
Hallelujah, hallelujah!

Swing low, sweet chariot,
Coming for to carry me home,
Swing low, sweet chariot,
Coming for to carry me home!

God made a covenant,
For the glory of His grace
Through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
His gospel, full and free,
Like a chariot swung from heav'n,
Shall bear the true believer home,
Safely home.

Salvation, sweet cov'nant of the Lord,
I shall ride up in that chariot in that morning.
(Tell it, tell it.)

He who doth in Christ believe,
Though he were dead,
Yet shall he live.
King Jesus triumphed o'er the grave!
His grace alone
Can sinners save.

O Hallelujah!

Lord, Thou Hast Been Our Refuge

I sang at a funeral this week (No, it wasn't this piece by Ralph Vaughan Williams, before you get too impressed.). Funerals always make me think again about how short life is in light of eternity. I do wish I could have a choir sing this at my funeral. That probably won't happen (for obvious practical reasons!). Turn the volume up!

Lord, thou hast been our refuge from one generation to another.
Before the mountains were brought forth
or ever the earth and the world were made,
Thou art God from everlasting and world without end.
Thou turnest man to destruction; again Thou sayest:
Come again, ye children of men.
For a thousand years in Thy sight are
but as yesterday; seeing that is past as a watch in the night.

O God our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come.
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.

As soon as thou scatterest them, they are even as asleep,
and fade away suddenly like the grass.
In the morning it is green and groweth up,
but in the evening it is cut down and withered.
For we consume away in thy displeasure,
and are afraid at thy wrathful indignation.
For when thou art angry, all our days are gone,
we bring our years to an end, as a tale that is told.
The days of our age are threescore years and ten:
and though men be so strong that they come to fourscore years,
yet is their strength then but labour and sorrow.
So passeth it away, and we are gone.
Turn thee again, O Lord, at the last.
Be gracious unto thy servants.
O satisfy us with thy mercy, and that soon.
So shall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life.

Lord, thou hast been our refuge from one generation to another.
Before the mountains were brought forth
or ever the earth and the world were made,
Thou art God from everlasting and world without end.

And the glorious Majesty of the Lord be upon us.
Prosper Thou, O prosper Thou the work of our hands upon us.
O prosper Thou our handy work.