Mama_Rana Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 When I taught school, we always started the day with pledge, reading the daily schedule, calendar/weather; ya know, "opening" or "circle time". Now that I'm homeschooling my first grader, it'd be nice to have some sort of "starting the day" routine other than, "come on, DS; let's do school". I know some people open their day with prayer or meditation. We are secular homeschoolers, humanist/Buddhist-leaning UU's. I don't have a problem drawing from a wide range of religious sources, but wouldn't want to have any one source as a sole source. I do want/plan to start including some calendar time, but just haven't gotten that set up yet. Anyone want to share their opening rituals? TIA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keptwoman Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Mine is "Oi! You lot, get started" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom-ninja. Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Ds makes my coffee. :lol: Sometimes we start the day with me reading aloud. So perhaps reading aloud for 15 minutes each morning would make a nice transition into lessons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Mine is "Oi! You lot, get started" :lol: I usually run through the house with a cup of overflowing coffee in my hand, with baby wipes stuck to the bottom of my shoe, the Shih Tzu biting my sock, the 2 yro playing with a roll of toilet paper, the 8 yro slamming her bedroom door and the doorbell ringing...:glare: One time, tho...we did a Circle Time. I made the 4 of them sit in a circle and close their eyes. We were going to do a mental relaxation exercise, but the 7 yro Boy would not stop laughing...:glare: I wish we could do something like that at the beginning of school (but a successful version). :bigear: I'm interested in what others have to say about this... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolphin Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Mine is "Oi! You lot, get started" Love it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrothead Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Since I've been trying to let dd be responsible for her own time for the last year, I open school with, "Do you see what time it is?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KidsHappen Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Well, at my house it was coffee all around. We are shameless caffiene addicts around here. Next time I get carpet, it is going to be coffee colored. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dulcimeramy Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Ideally, we begin at 9 with a Bible reading, a psalm, a hymn, and a prayer. At least two days a week I fail to accomplish this, and we begin at 10:30 or later with me blustering through the house, saying, "For pity's sake. Did you think you have the day off?!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Alte Veste Academy Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 When I taught school, we always started the day with pledge, reading the daily schedule, calendar/weather; ya know, "opening" or "circle time". Now that I'm homeschooling my first grader, it'd be nice to have some sort of "starting the day" routine other than, "come on, DS; let's do school". Anyone want to share their opening rituals? We do "together time" between breakfast and the start of school. I love it! So far, it can involve any or all of the following... shared thoughts - Each of us can talk about anything on our minds. The kids like to tell about their dreams, which is actually kind of cute. Mrs. Sharp's/family/calendar time - day, date, season, weather, menu planning (each child gets to pick one meal per week), preparations for upcoming family birthdays and holidays, discussions about what movie we want to get for family movie night, etc., etc., etc. group memory work - mostly short poems, but we are working on The Pledge of Allegiance right now group math - skip counting, clock reading, math drill, etc. singing - We learn a new song together every week (can be a folk song, patriotic song, historic selection, etc.). chore review - Everyone is reminded of what their chores are for that day so that when we break, they can get right to them. I'm seriously contemplating naming a daily helper...just trying to figure out if it would really be all that helpful to have a helper. :lol: The kids would love it though and this is the kind of thing that will pay off for me in a few years, I'm sure. distribution of schoolwork - I clip whatever is necessary for the kids to complete their work each day to their clipboards and hand it over. (Only ds7 and dd6 have requirements but I make a clipboard for ds4 also because they're obviously the bees' knees. :lol:) Then we pick what to start with and get going. If there is disagreement about what to start with, we flip a coin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mama_Rana Posted September 9, 2010 Author Share Posted September 9, 2010 I start 'school' with the words, "Your bucket's ready". :001_huh: Every morning we go for a run first thing. About 2km so it doesn't take long. Just enough to get the blood flowing. As soon as we get home I start getting the boy's breakfast bucket ready. I put breakfast in a Tupperware dish and then we sit on the couch and read books. I like the idea of the morning run; I've been wanting to get more exercise. But I don't have a jogging stroller for the toddler...... And :bag: I also have this "fear" of running into my neighbors on their way to the bus stop. I've told my friend up the street whose dd is the same age as my ds, and I'm sure she's told everyone at the bus stop, but for some reason, I'm not looking forward to actually, yk, running into any of them. I'm such a wuss! Well, at my house it was coffee all around. We are shameless caffiene addicts around here. Next time I get carpet, it is going to be coffee colored. :001_smile: :lol Even the 2 year old? My toddler keeps wanting to drink my coffee! And wine [in the evening, that is!] Hmmm, maybe the day would go better if I switched that around ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mama_Rana Posted September 9, 2010 Author Share Posted September 9, 2010 We do "together time" between breakfast and the start of school. I love it! So far, it can involve any or all of the following... shared thoughts - Each of us can talk about anything on our minds. The kids like to tell about their dreams, which is actually kind of cute. Mrs. Sharp's/family/calendar time - day, date, season, weather, menu planning (each child gets to pick one meal per week), preparations for upcoming family birthdays and holidays, discussions about what movie we want to get for family movie night, etc., etc., etc. group memory work - mostly short poems, but we are working on The Pledge of Allegiance right now group math - skip counting, clock reading, math drill, etc. singing - We learn a new song together every week (can be a folk song, patriotic song, historic selection, etc.). chore review - Everyone is reminded of what their chores are for that day so that when we break, they can get right to them. I'm seriously contemplating naming a daily helper...just trying to figure out if it would really be all that helpful to have a helper. :lol: The kids would love it though and this is the kind of thing that will pay off for me in a few years, I'm sure. distribution of schoolwork - I clip whatever is necessary for the kids to complete their work each day to their clipboards and hand it over. (Only ds7 and dd6 have requirements but I make a clipboard for ds4 also because they're obviously the bees' knees. :lol:) Then we pick what to start with and get going. If there is disagreement about what to start with, we flip a coin. oooh, all very good ideas. Gotta think on some of those! And thanx for the link. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tutor Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Now we start with family devotions, but when the kids were younger and family devotions were in the evening, after breakfast I would have each kid pick a storybook out of the library bag, and we would snuggle on the sofa while I read those out loud. Then I would usually read a chapter of a longer book then a chapter of SOTW. By then, the caffeine from my tea had worn off and the couch was just so comfy.......... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsbaby Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 I start by calmly telling the kids it is time to start school. It usually escalates to me yelling something to the effect of "Get down here NOW"! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iwjeanie Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 I just have preschoolers at this point so we go to the school room and either color, play playdough or a quick game. We then do calendar time - where we follow a mix of http://1plus1plus1equals1.com/Calendar.html and my calendar from Learning Resources (I looked for a link but it looks like they don't carry it any more) which has letter of the day, rhyme time, number of the day. We are also learning a song (seasonal) a month. It is a great way to start the day! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SailorMom Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 My day always seems to begins with... "Why haven't you eaten? What? You only get hungry when I say it's time to start school??? What do you mean you still need to take a shower?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pam Wilhelm Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 My day always seems to begins with..."Why haven't you eaten? What? You only get hungry when I say it's time to start school??? What do you mean you still need to take a shower?" :lol::lol::lol::lol: Have you been in my house???? :lol: It sounds just like this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 I start by calmly telling the kids it is time to start school. It usually escalates to me yelling something to the effect of "Get down here NOW"! Yeah, sometimes I'll just grab one as he's running down the hallway with his lightsaber and say, "Time for Language Arts!" :D And coffee-colored carpet is a WONDERFUL idea! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thescrappyhomeschooler Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 I have a kid who needs to know what the schedule for the day will be, so after breakfast, we put our schedule up on the whiteboard, and the exercise captain chooses which activity we will do for exercise time. Then, the kids get dressed, wash faces, brush teeth, etc. Then we do the pledge, review latin phrase for the week, review poems and songs we've learned, review any other memorization piece for the week, and then we begin our first subject. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Closeacademy Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 There have been times when we have done circle time complete with movement verses, seasonal poetry and bean bag games to practice the times tables as a start to our day. I would love to move back toward that. But for now, with my oldest I ask her if she is done with breakfast and we just dive into her work. When I call my youngest over she reads to me and then we do the calendar and the rest of her work. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happyWImom Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 For the past 2 years, we have been doing a kind of "circle time". I tried to eliminate it, because I thought maybe they were past it, but they love it, so.... Anyway, we start with the Pledge change the date on the magnetic wall calendar sing a song (This is the Day) complete with movements say a prayer, and repeat our memory verse. Then, they get out their "Daily Binder", and that has a few theme pages for each month-for instance, they each have a poem about the month, then a song that helps them learn to spell it. Ex: SEP-TEM-BER (clap,clap) SEP-TEM-BER (clap,clap), If you love the sunny weather, then lets sing it altogether, SEP-TEM-BER. (to "If you're happy and you know it). If I find the link (I searched), I'll put it on here, because they have one for every month, and I've kept the ones they did from years ago. They love it. After the monthly theme, they fill in a weather graph page Put they date in their calendar page Make a tally mark, for how many days in school Write the "number of the day", which is how many days we've been in school. We also have themed month-September is clouds, so I printed off a sheet (like an empty calendar page) and they write either stratus, cirrus, or cumulus in the box, along with the picture. We have an artist of the month, along with a picture or postcard of one of their famous paintings that we look at and name. Then we name the previous ones (I have about 10 put up). Then, we finally move on to our "schoolwork". When I tried to eliminate all of this, they were a lot crabbier, and I think they like the tradition of it. Some of it is pre-schoolish, but I love pre-school! Some days, I will add extra songs that we will sing, and even clapping games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LauraQ Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 (edited) Yeah, I start with this recitation: "KNOX, GET OUT OF BED! CARLEY, ENOUGH READING THAT BOOK--GET TO YOUR SCHOOL BOOKS! KNOX, GET OUT OF BED! CARLEY, QUIT MOTHERING YOUR BROTHER! KNOX, GET OUT OF BED!" or something similar, just to add variety which I hear is the spice of life. I'm not even sure my kids know how to recite the pledge. Maybe I should ask them? I know some start with prayer/bible, but seeing as how NONE of us are morning people, I don't want them to associate the goodness of God with the wicked pain of mornings. Edited September 9, 2010 by LauraQ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.