Singing as a family is easier for some families than others. Some families are quite musical. Others avoid singing for fear of sounding like a chicken being choked to death. Singing along to a pre-recorded hymn may be the way to go for those in the nearly dead chicken category. If you have a piano in your home, and if this is permissible in your denomination, gather at the piano to sing a hymn before beginning Bible class. Even if you do have a piano in your home, it may be beneficial, or even necessary, to sing a capella at times. When? Perhaps the family is traveling in the car and would like to take that time to sing and read the Bible. Of course, pre-recorded hymns work well in the car's sound system.
The singing of a hymn prior to reading the Bible serves not only the purposes above, but can be used to acquaint children with traditional hymns of Christianity. Some churches in the Western world do not sing traditional hymns anymore. Yet, worldwide, it is the traditional hymns that tend to be more recognized by Christians than the modern praise choruses. By singing hymns, the student is learning a part of Christian culture, and being connected to Christians from the past and those located all around the world.
Vanguard Education has some suggested hymns to sing, and a suggested rotation system for the hymns.Each month of the year will have a new hymn to sing. That hymn is sung for one month, and then a new hymn is learned. If you wish to change the Bible reading for a particular holiday, go ahead. The nativity story can be read on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Passages from Easter can be read at Easter. Or, keep going with the regularly scheduled Bible passages on those days. It is up to the parents.
Each month of the year will have a new hymn to sing. That hymn is sung for one month, and then a new hymn is learned. As a suggestion, hymns recently learned are sung as review on the first six days of the month, and then the new hymn is begun on the seventh day of the month. The hymn learned six months ago is sung on the first day of the month, the hymn learned five months ago is sung on the second day of the month, and the hymn from four months ago on the third day of the month, and so on. The hymn learned last month is sung on the sixth day of the month. The new hymn is begun on the seventh day of the month. Of course, when starting out, there will be no hymns from the previous months.
As a suggestion, sing only the first verse of each hymn. Which hymns? That is up to the teacher of the Bible class. If you would like some suggested hymns, we have some.
Vanguard Education has a list of hymns that teachers are welcome to use. There are nine years worth of hymns. The hymns are from different denominations, and from different English speaking countries around the world.
There are far more hymns in Christendom than can possibly be placed on this list of suggested hymns. Feel free to add or subtract hymns as desired. The list of suggested hymns tries to place a Christmas song in December, an Easter song in April, and a Thanksgiving song in November. If Easter comes in March instead of April on a given year, the teacher may wish to switch the songs for March and April in that year. If you are from a country which celebrates Thanksgiving in a different month than November, you may wish to move the November song to that month. The first year does not have an explicitly Thanksgiving hymn in November.
The complete list is available as a PDF download. There are nine years worth of hymns in the list. Here is the first year, given as an example.
| January | Holy, Holy, Holy |
| February | The Church's One Foundation |
| March | Jesus Loves Me |
| April | The Old Rugged Cross |
| May | Come, Thou Almighty King |
| June | Love Divine, All Loves Excelling |
| July | The Way of the Cross Leads Home |
| August | Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee |
| September | All Creatures of Our God and King |
| October | Blessed Assurance |
| November | Rock of Ages |
| December | O Come, All Ye Faithful |
If you download and use the list of hymns, what do you do when you get to the end of the list, after nine years? Begin at the beginning again!
(3) Bible Reading: Things to Be Aware of
(4) Suggested Hymns with Bible Reading (You are on this page)