Alte Veste Academy Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 OK, I don't like the name and wish I could find something better to call it but regardless, Circle Time has been a great way to start our days. Our Circle Time takes place after breakfast and is the official start to our school day. It can include any combination of: Yoga/Walking the dog calendar/seasonal/weather Memory work/recitations skip counting, clock reading holiday planning and family special events discussions menu planning (each child gets to pick one meal per week) singing - We (ideally) learn a new song together every week (can be a folk song, patriotic song, historic selection, etc.). chore review shared thoughts (taking turns talking about anything on our minds) At the end of Circle Time, I give the kids their binders with daily work. New this year, I have moved group/content subjects to the morning and do one hour of one-on-one on skill subjects with each child in the afternoon while the others play quietly and/or have quiet time. I can't believe I never thought of it before. It makes for a longer but much calmer day. The kids get their individual work done much more quickly, as they stay on task because they have my full attention. If you do something like this to start your day, what do you include? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjgrubbs Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 so how long is your group time? My problem is that while I'm working with one kid if my other 2 are not "busy" they get loud playing together or make a mess or get into other trouble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momsuz123 Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 OK, I don't like the name and wish I could find something better to call it but regardless, Circle Time has been a great way to start our days. Our Circle Time takes place after breakfast and is the official start to our school day. It can include any combination of: Yoga/Walking the dog calendar/seasonal/weather Memory work/recitations skip counting, clock reading holiday planning and family special events discussions menu planning (each child gets to pick one meal per week) singing - We (ideally) learn a new song together every week (can be a folk song, patriotic song, historic selection, etc.). chore review shared thoughts (taking turns talking about anything on our minds) At the end of Circle Time, I give the kids their binders with daily work. New this year, I have moved group/content subjects to the morning and do one hour of one-on-one on skill subjects with each child in the afternoon while the others play quietly and/or have quiet time. I can't believe I never thought of it before. It makes for a longer but much calmer day. The kids get their individual work done much more quickly, as they stay on task because they have my full attention. If you do something like this to start your day, what do you include? Wow, my kids want to come to your house! I am new to hs this year and have a "calendar time" in the morning. It is both of my girls favorite time of the day (I found this out the other day). I am going to add more to it, from your list - thanks. In my calendar time I include making the date with money, and ones/tens/hundreds place, etc. We do time, and I have tooth charts for when the next tooth is lost. I need to get a birthday template to chart all the family and extended families birthdays (then I won't forget my husband's side of the family!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagira Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 How about pow wow? Or "gathering"? Sounds like organized fun at your house :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Love My Life x4 Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 Looks like we do a lot of the same things! Here's our circle time routine... MORNING CIRCLE TIME * Pledge * Prayer * Bible Story (or review/questions/discuss) * Books of the Bible Review & Song * Weekly Bible Verse Review * Calendar & Weather * Picture Book (THEME) * Singing * Skip Counting; Reading a clock * Special Sounds Review Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairyMom Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 We really enjoy Circle Time and make sure to include it as much as we can. If we don't start off the school day like that, it seems to not flow as well for all of us. What we include ~ Each child has their own opening verse memorized, plus my 2nd grader has a poem she works on for the week she picks out from the Syllabus. It's almost exactly what Oak Meadow suggests. We've done it going on 3 years now, so why change it if it works. First day of the week, we go on a nature walk to put something special in their corners. Then each child gets their special candle, I help to light it, they recite their verses and poetry. Then on to the fun. We dance, sing songs, finger plays and play loud instruments. Basically get the blood flowing and the sillies out. Closing verse, blowing out of the candle, then on to gather our school materials. This routine has really helped to start off the day right. I do notice a difference when we skip it for time constraints. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Love My Life x4 Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 We really enjoy Circle Time and make sure to include it as much as we can. If we don't start off the school day like that, it seems to not flow as well for all of us. What we include ~ Each child has their own opening verse memorized, plus my 2nd grader has a poem she works on for the week she picks out from the Syllabus. It's almost exactly what Oak Meadow suggests. We've done it going on 3 years now, so why change it if it works. First day of the week, we go on a nature walk to put something special in their corners. Then each child gets their special candle, I help to light it, they recite their verses and poetry. Then on to the fun. We dance, sing songs, finger plays and play loud instruments. Basically get the blood flowing and the sillies out. Closing verse, blowing out of the candle, then on to gather our school materials. This routine has really helped to start off the day right. I do notice a difference when we skip it for time constraints. LOVE this! I have many "get your wiggles out" times planned throughout the day!! LOL! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alte Veste Academy Posted September 20, 2011 Author Share Posted September 20, 2011 (edited) so how long is your group time? My problem is that while I'm working with one kid if my other 2 are not "busy" they get loud playing together or make a mess or get into other trouble.Our group/content learning time has been about 2-3 hours. This is all three kids together and includes history (projects, documentaries, lots of reading), science (inquiry based, lots of experiments), conversational Spanish and vocab, art, and nature study. DS5 is allowed to migrate in and out and participate to whatever degree he wishes, as I don't require work in Kindergarten. I'm lucky in that he plays well on his own. With two older siblings trying to boss him around all the time, I think he enjoys making all the choices when he plays by himself. :lol: Mostly, he likes to participate with us though. During group time, the kids all work at their own level. Some skill subjects are hit in this group/content work also (science notebooks, history narrations and copywork, etc.). During their one-on-one time, they do WWE, BW, Spelling Power, math, logic, and handwriting (not all daily but always math and LA). When I'm doing one-on-one with one child, the others are having one hour of quiet time (sometimes quiet play with 2, if they can truly be quiet) and one hour of a mix of RS Spanish, handicrafts, and reading (independent or reading aloud to a sibling--DD likes to read to DS5). I don't know. They do OK. They're under pretty heavy threats of losing prized privileges though, so that helps. Edited April 4, 2015 by Alte Veste Academy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alte Veste Academy Posted September 20, 2011 Author Share Posted September 20, 2011 Wow, my kids want to come to your house! I am new to hs this year and have a "calendar time" in the morning. It is both of my girls favorite time of the day (I found this out the other day). I am going to add more to it, from your list - thanks. In my calendar time I include making the date with money, and ones/tens/hundreds place, etc. We do time, and I have tooth charts for when the next tooth is lost. I need to get a birthday template to chart all the family and extended families birthdays (then I won't forget my husband's side of the family!). The tooth chart is a cute idea. My DD just lost her first tooth a few days ago and the second will be gone soon too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alte Veste Academy Posted September 20, 2011 Author Share Posted September 20, 2011 How about pow wow? Or "gathering"? Sounds like organized fun at your house :) I'm actually feeling a little sheepish about how much fun they're having this year, with me being more organized and scheduled. I do like the term gathering. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LindaOz Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 If you do something like this to start your day, what do you include? We have together time in the morning. After breakfast I set the timer for 15 minutes in which time everyone scrambles to do his/her morning job (if I don't set the timer someone takes toooooo loooong). Then we meet for three things together: 1. Our Bible and prayer time. 2. A read-aloud. 3. Another activity - art 2x week, freewrite, music course we're working through, poetry tea-time with morning tea. Then we move off to individual work. It works well, and some of those extra activities like art etc just wouldn't get done if we didn't have them at the start of the day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alte Veste Academy Posted September 20, 2011 Author Share Posted September 20, 2011 Looks like we do a lot of the same things! Here's our circle time routine... MORNING CIRCLE TIME * Pledge * Prayer * Bible Story (or review/questions/discuss) * Books of the Bible Review & Song * Weekly Bible Verse Review * Calendar & Weather * Picture Book (THEME) * Singing * Skip Counting; Reading a clock * Special Sounds Review Thanks for sharing. I love the idea of including a picture book. Oh, that could go with our calendar/seasonal/holiday discussions. Thanks! We really enjoy Circle Time and make sure to include it as much as we can. If we don't start off the school day like that, it seems to not flow as well for all of us. What we include ~ Each child has their own opening verse memorized, plus my 2nd grader has a poem she works on for the week she picks out from the Syllabus. It's almost exactly what Oak Meadow suggests. We've done it going on 3 years now, so why change it if it works. First day of the week, we go on a nature walk to put something special in their corners. Then each child gets their special candle, I help to light it, they recite their verses and poetry. Then on to the fun. We dance, sing songs, finger plays and play loud instruments. Basically get the blood flowing and the sillies out. Closing verse, blowing out of the candle, then on to gather our school materials. This routine has really helped to start off the day right. I do notice a difference when we skip it for time constraints. This sounds lovely. I've always been very attracted to the Waldorf way of making things special and lovely. I also notice we seem off when this transition from breakfast to the start of the school day doesn't go as planned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alte Veste Academy Posted September 20, 2011 Author Share Posted September 20, 2011 We have together time in the morning. After breakfast I set the timer for 15 minutes in which time everyone scrambles to do his/her morning job (if I don't set the timer someone takes toooooo loooong). Then we meet for three things together: 1. Our Bible and prayer time. 2. A read-aloud. 3. Another activity - art 2x week, freewrite, music course we're working through, poetry tea-time with morning tea. Then we move off to individual work. It works well, and some of those extra activities like art etc just wouldn't get done if we didn't have them at the start of the day. Nice! And you have a big range in ages. I bet that makes doing things together even more special. Love the idea of poetry tea-time in the morning. That never occurred to me. We do ours in the afternoon but on days when I goof off too much in the morning before starting, it can get pushed too close to dinner. I'll have to ponder breakfast poetry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairyMom Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 LOVE this! I have many "get your wiggles out" times planned throughout the day!! LOL! If I think I can skip this, I regret it later. It's better to get whatever we can done after Circle Time than to skip it. They are actually more attentive and want to do school. Maybe I'm more attentive, too! ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
extendedforecast Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 We do circle time too, but we call it table time. I have a theme for each day to help keep things fresh. Monday- Math Tuesday- History/Geography Wednesday- English/Poetry Thursday- Science Friday- Pop Culture Our table time usually goes like this: Stretch - 5 minutes Read Aloud or Group Logic problem - 20 minutes Q&A- earn stickers by answering questions or reciting poems that apply to the theme of the day (reward is girls' lunch out when their chart is full)- 10 minutes Look over to-do lists, schedules and ask questions - 5 minutes I'm :bigear: for new ideas. And yes, my girls are older, but they love starting out the day with table time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alte Veste Academy Posted September 20, 2011 Author Share Posted September 20, 2011 We do circle time too, but we call it table time. I have a theme for each day to help keep things fresh. Monday- Math Tuesday- History/Geography Wednesday- English/Poetry Thursday- Science Friday- Pop Culture Our table time usually goes like this: Stretch - 5 minutes Read Aloud or Group Logic problem - 20 minutes Q&A- earn stickers by answering questions or reciting poems that apply to the theme of the day (reward is girls' lunch out when their chart is full)- 10 minutes Look over to-do lists, schedules and ask questions - 5 minutes I'm :bigear: for new ideas. And yes, my girls are older, but they love starting out the day with table time. Oh, I love the pop culture theme! I definitely need to add current events to our morning time. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tawlas Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 my oldest is still young (4.5) so our calendar is short and sweet before we get chores done and run big sister off to highschool at eight am. BUT, once that big sister is graduated, we'll be adding stuff lol! At this time, we do standard calendar, weather (we graph it with bar graphs and compare/count different weathers), then we talk about our day and I add homemade daily events to our pocket chart so we all know what's coming up. That's a springboard for chores (getting dressed, cleaning certain areas etc) so we can get gone. Some day I'd like to add many things, but those that are not yet listed include: yoga, character traits (definitions, discussions a la Family Virtues Guide). I've also been meaning to pin pictures of family members next to their birthday months (listed to one side of the calendar) as well as special days such as First Day of Spring, Christmas etc so we can remenisce (sp!) about and look forward to them. Love all the ideas, have written them down for future purposes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LindaOz Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 Nice! And you have a big range in ages. I bet that makes doing things together even more special. Yes, it is special and I love that we can have that time all together still, even though they are at different ages and stages. The books we read aloud at that time are often books that the older girls heard when they were younger, but I tell them that a book worth reading is worth reading again. And the older kids still get a kick out of the stories. We also have a teen-time after lunch where I get together with my three older girls for current events reading and discussion, and an older read-aloud. I value this time too. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 We've not been doing that very well this year and I really miss it. We always did fingerplays, songs, and read-alouds before. I like to include at least one song that has some movement to it and I love starting the day with a picture book! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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