"Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song." - Psalm 149: 1
This picture is from a medieval collection of Christmas Noels or carols from the 16th century.
Our daughter's school had their Christmas concert last week and we were treated to a marvelous concert of Puer Natus in Bethlehem, In Dulci Jubilo, and Psallite. It was a remarkable concert, all the more amazing because it is such a small school (150) and a school that originally grew from homeschooling families. Click here to listen to an excerpt. The string quartet was made up from the parents, but the singers were all 2nd-12th graders. It was beautiful.
This History of Christmas Carols site suggests that a Roman bishop in AD 129 was the first to advise that an Angel's Hymn be sung at a Christmas service. St. Francis of Assisi was credited for reviving Christmas songs when he included canticles in his nativity plays in 1223.
If you like to learn some of these old carols (especially wonderful if you are learning Latin together), you will love Choral Wiki. There is a treasure trove of free choral music (piano music included), MIDI files, and other resources to sing them at home.
Ever since we were married, we have watched a video of Lessons and Carols from Kings College every Christmas. On YouTube.com, we found an excerpt, Once in Royal David's City. Enjoy!
Drs. Eide
ReplyDeleteI have been reading your blog for about a year now. It is such a blessing to me. I learn a lot about classical education from it. Now we are looking for a Latin christian school for our child. Your daughter's Latin school is so appealing to us. Would you give us some more information about the school? Thanks!
That's wonderful. Did you know that Providence is having an Open House this coming week? It'll be Jan 8th or Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteIt was the outgrowth of a remarkable group of Bellevue area homeschooling families 10 years ago.
I will try to email you offlist to see what grade / grades you are looking into, etc. Our daughter will also probably be singing with her class on Tuesday, so if I know how to find you, I can talk with you then.
Hello again. I guess I don't know your email address, but please feel free to email us to ask us any specific questions you may have (drseide "at" neurolearning.com)
ReplyDeleteProvidence's Open House is at 7 pm and I need to drop my daughter off at 6:30. The children sing from 7 to 7:30. An ideal time to talk would be 6:30 if that might work for you. We won't be staying long after 7:30 I think.
The different school grades are divided into Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric. Music and Bible are integrated throughout the curriculum. The Grammar years are lots of fun with historical enactments, singing or chants to master basic facts of Latin, history, or grammar, and writing through imitation (progymnasmata). Science is taught within historical context, although covering all the essentials of fact mastery.
The Logic and Rhetoric years involve more analysis, comparison, and synthesis, and Rhetoric in particular emphasizes persuasion to prepare students for communicating their ideas to the world. The learning is not passive; it resembles more a tutorial system you might find in strong humanities programs in colleges, with discussion, practice providing evidence to support ideas.
There is also a lot of cooperation and love between students of different years - some of this because the school is blessed with some very large families that have siblings throughout the grade levels. It is wonderful to see, though because the young ones are inspired to be like the older ones, and the older ones learn to guide and protect the young. The culture of this K-12 school is truly a blessing.
Let me know if you have any other questions, and blessings to you in your search for the right school for your child.
FYI:
ReplyDeleteProvidence Classical Christian School
Principal, Mr. Ryan Evans
21500 Cypress Way
Lynnwood, WA 98036
(425) 774-6622
http://pccs.org