He married Louisa Todd of Hamden on 15 April 1822, at which time he was already working as a singing teacher and choir director.
In 1829, a fellow citizen of Hartford, William Channing Woodbridge, returned from Europe, where he had been studying methods of education, and where he had spent time with Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg, Michael Traugott Pfeiffer, and Hans Georg Nägeli.
[4] Woodbridge provided Ives with books and materials by Nägeli, Pfeiffer, and Georg Friedrich Kübler, who then translated them with the help of Dutton and a Mr. Taylor from Andover.
[5] After studying the Swiss works, and incorporating them into his teaching method, Ives put together an experimental choir of about 70 children during the summer of 1830.
[6] During this same summer, Ives was working on a revision of the instruction portion of American Psalmody that would reflect the Pestalozzian-based ideas promoted by Woodbridge.
[9] Additionally, he began working with Mason on Juvenile Lyre,[10] a collection of three-part children's songs, published in 1831.
[11] There has been some debate over who wrote what in Juvenile Lyre; it appears that the Preface and final song, "Suffer Little Children to Come unto Me", are definitely by Mason, while many of the arrangements were done by Ives with versification of the German texts by Dutton.
He also continued writing singing manuals and collections music, including materials for the American Sunday School Union.