Monica_in_Switzerland Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 I'm thinking of doing Catechism, a classic read-aloud, FLL, a right start math game, and ... ? I think I will put in the kids' silly putty for when I don't have a coloring activity to do during Catechism. What sorts of things do you do in the morning basket as a whole family? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garddwr Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 Right now we do devotional (currently singing hymns and New Testament reading), memory work, a history or science read-aloud, and a literature read-aloud. Adding in math games is a great idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ladydusk Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 We call it Circle Time, but it's essentially like a Morning Basket except our focus is very much on Memory Work, I'm posting the below because it does have the resources we use linked already. This is a repeat of a post from April ... We start our day with Circle Time, which is a blend between Memory Work and some Ambleside read-alouds. It's actually almost all memory work. It takes about an hour with my 3 children. I utilize the Simply Charlotte Mason Memory work system, but I use a notebook, not a box. We do our Circle Time approx 4 days a week, so I created this chart. I number each grouping of memory work, then put the numbers on that chart. It saves moving cards, making three sets of cards, and children dumping cards (ask me how I know). I don't give the children copies of this, it is all done orally. It is a capacity I want them to work on. I read, they repeat each day. We generally add 1 stanza of poetry, 1 verse of a Hymn, 1 Bible verse, etc. each week. We start our Circle Time each morning with either the Doxology or Gloria Patri, alternating by month. Then, we pray together, including prayer requests from the children, missionaries from our denomination, and other requests as needed. We also pray for our day of school. We start with our newest hymn. I read and they repeat the new verse for the week. Then, we sing the hymn starting with verse 1 through the verse we're working on. We use the Trinity Hymnal with Hymns for Kith and Kin, Hymns for a Kids Heart, or Listen While we Sing (no one plays piano well enough yet so we use a mp3 playlist that has all our hymns on it). My 2012 hymn list is here. Over the past two years, we've learned the Apostle's Creed and Nicene Creed. We recite them, alternating by month. We do Bible verses one verse at a time. We're still (two years later) reviewing Gen 1 daily, but we've learned Ps 1, Ps 100, Ps 130, and are working on Matt 5:1-12 currently. We're also working on The Catechism for Young Children We work on a page until they have it down pretty well. Then it moves through the SCM Memory System chart. Again, I just recite and they repeat. We use IEW's Poetry and love it. We follow the same sort of system, working on one stanza per week. I usually read the poems, but sometimes let Mr. Pudewa do so on the mp3 player. We don't use his system, but the SCM system. I usually read some poetry after they're done, a page or so from an anthology per day. We do skip counting (these are cute charts). Geography Songs. History from Hannah's Grammar Stage Memorization. Science from Living Memory. We do one of these subjects each day. It's too much to review otherwise. We'll see this year how much we get through. Then, we're reading from Aesop [edit: finished Aesop and are reading from The Heavens now] and just started Parables from Nature. I just read a little each day. It often helps if we stand when we sing. Everyone focuses better. One of the most important parts, for me (and we generally don't accomplish it) is on Saturday we try/want to/ sometimes do "Recitation for Daddy" where they must stand and recite/respond clearly and as grown uply as they're able. It's a nice carrot when we're on schedule ... "You're going to have to recite it on Saturday ..." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 How exciting! Let me drag our basket in here!! :hurray: The Phantom Tollbooth (we'll be finishing that today) My Father's Dragon Wolves of Willoughby Chase The House at Pooh Corner (can you tell I have a big span of ages to teach :tongue_smilie:) Story of the World 1 In Search of a Homeland Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective is in the basket, too...but my kids are supposed to grab that out of there and read it on their own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kesmom Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 :lurk5: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiegirl Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 In our Morning Basket we have: (the titles might not be exact as I am doing this from memory) a KJV Bible a missionary book--right now it is Eric Lidell's bio English Literature for Boys and Girls 101 Famous Poems a nature book (haven't decided on title might be 'Wild Animals Have I Known) The Taming of the Shrew Lamb's Shakespeare Journey Through Bookland Vol. 2 My Book House BK 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abbeyej Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 I would add poetry and singing -- those provided some of the best memories from when my children were small. Yes, there are a few poems in FLL, but not really enough to my mind. We'd do silly ones, beautiful ones, old favorites, new ones... Sometimes the kids would get up and act out a poem -- sometimes they even ran away and came back with props from around the house, lol. :) We also sang. You can do folk songs, religious songs, whatever... But starting the day with music and poetry is a wonderful way to begin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chelli Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 Here is a blog post I did about our Circle Time: Circle Time with a Second Grader and Preschool It is our favorite part of the day. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoot Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 Right now we have: (Daily) KJV Bible (complete) on DVD by Scourby Current Read-Aloud - Boy in the Striped Pajamas (Rotate weekly) The Harp and the Laurel Wreath The Rainbow Fairy Book Tales From Shakespeare Trial & Triumph Our Young Folks Plutarch God's World News Answers Magazine And then at lunch we have The Story of the Trapp Family Singers. In a couple of weeks we'll add in KISS Grammar and Getting Started With Latin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monica_in_Switzerland Posted July 18, 2012 Author Share Posted July 18, 2012 This has been really helpful! I will add in memory work! Does anyone have recommendations for how to do a physical activity to help break things up for littles? "Simon says" perhaps? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garddwr Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 This has been really helpful! I will add in memory work! Does anyone have recommendations for how to do a physical activity to help break things up for littles? "Simon says" perhaps? How about combining physical activity with memory work? Do jumping jacks while you recite or sing (we put almost all of our memory work to music, often to nursery rhyme tunes), toss a ball back and forth, recite the first line of a poem, run across the room, recite the second line, run back, etc., play "do as I'm doing" or "follow the leader" while reciting--one person is the leader and everyone else has to watch them and imitate everything they do. From what I understand, physical activity helps a lot with memorization, so have fun with it. Now I need to follow my own advice:tongue_smilie:Thanks for giving me the chance to think about this! --Sarah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnylady303 Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 I love this idea and have been trying to figure out how to implement it for this year. I am loving reading what folks have in theirs. Oh so much to think about! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleIzumi Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 Our Circle Time is scripture memory, poetry, song, read-aloud, and yoga. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momto2Cs Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 Right now, in our [Afternoon] Basket, I've got... Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing The Light Princess An Everyday History of Somewhere Treasure Island 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth Snails (a vintage nature study book) Totally Irresponsible Science How The U.S. Government Works A More Perfect Union: The Story of Our Constitution See How They Run! Campaign Dreams, Election Schemes, & The Race to the White House The Story of Presidential Elections Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angelmama1209 Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 totally stupid question- What is a morning basket and how do you use it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiegirl Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 totally stupid question- What is a morning basket and how do you use it? A morning basket is a basket that you put books into. You use these books for group time/morning time/circle time-- whatever term you use. Every family does this differently as you can see from the books/items that are in their basket. Our family has Morning Time first thing in the morning after breakfast and morning chores. We gather in the living room and read from the books that are in the basket. For us, we do Bible reading, read aloud, poetry reading and memorization daily and the rest (Shakespeare, fairy tales, mythology, nature books) are done on a weekly rotation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngelBee Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 Taking notes... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CandaceC Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 To break it up a bit we do exercises to skip counting about halfway through our memory work and reading. We do jumping jacks and count by 5's. We march around the room while we count by 2's. We touch our toes and count by 10's. Etc... I do need a few more ideas for "active" breaks...we have had so much reading and such that my kids are getting restless! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holly Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 This has been really helpful! I will add in memory work! Does anyone have recommendations for how to do a physical activity to help break things up for littles? "Simon says" perhaps? Our HOD lessons have us do some simple exercises in between reciting their Bible verse...jumping jacks, push ups, toe-touches, etc. I think that would work for morning baskets as well. I don't have a morning basket yet, but I'm hoping to put one together soon...I love how different they all are! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zenjenn Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 Apparently I'm a slave driver. I crack the whip and math & writing gets done first thing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALB Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 Here is a blog post I did about our Circle Time: Circle Time with a Second Grader and Preschool It is our favorite part of the day. :001_smile: Wow. That was a really inspiring post. Thanks for sharing the details! I'm off to consider how to do something like that in our homeschool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swellmomma Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 After reading posts about morning basket a few times over the past year I decided I want to incorporate it next year. This is my current plan for first term of the year Everyday: Bible stories; current read aloud (we have 3 going-1 per grade); classical cd- Mozart; handbells Monday: Usborne Tales from Shakespeare; poems from harp and Laurel wreath Tuesday: Nature Reader; The Blue Fairy Book Wednesday: Young Folks Plutarch; Music flash cards; They broke the law Thursday: Wilds of Whip-poor will farm; SOTW 3 Friday: SOTW 1; Best of Australian short stories; Poems twice told Second term Everyday: bible stories; current read aloud, classic cd- Bach; handbells Monday: Mythology by Edith Hamilton; The harp & laurel wreath Tuesday: Young Folks Library Volume 1; World's best fairy tales Wednesday: Young folks Plutarch; Aesop's Fables Thursday: D'Aulaire's greek mythology; SOTW 3 Friday: SOTW 1; Poems of childhood; Kingfisher stories Third term Everyday: Bible Stories; current read aloud; Classic Cd- Beethoven; handbells Monday: Mythology by Edith hamilton; harp & laurel wreath Tuesday: Young Folks library volume 2; Grimm's fairy tales Wednesday: Young folks Plutarch; Nature reader Thursday: Renaissance poetry; SOTW 3 Friday: SOTW 1; Apologia Botany At the end of those things the bigs will be dismissed to start their seat work and the younger kids will stay put to do calendar, etc with me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsBanjoClown Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 We don't have a "morning basket", but we start every morning this way: After getting dressed and chores, the boys come to breakfast. While they eat, I read to them. 1. First we do Bible story/devotional. We are using Ergermeier's Bible Story Book and reading the stories as they go along with SOTW 1. On days we don't read a Bible story we do a devotional from My Book of Devotions about Self-Control. 2. Memory Work - Right now we are just doing ds7's poems from PLL, but when they start AWANA I will add in their memory verses to this time. 3. Social Studies - Each morning I read a section from Abeka's 1st grade social studies book My America and My World. We will move on to the 2nd grade book when we finish this one. After this I start Math with ds5 and ds7 has a "morning folder". This is work he can work on while I do the math lesson with ds5. In it I put an extra practice page from Singapore, a page from his analogy workbook, and a page from his map skills workbook. Once he finishes those (or once ds5 is working in his workbook), ds7 moves on to spelling and we begin working through each of our subjects. We do have an "afternoon basket" that is filled with books they can choose from to read. This basket changes from week to week as we change topics. For this week, it holds: Let's Discover The Prehistoric World Farmer Boy What is the World Made Of? All About Solids, Liquids, and Gases It's Disgusting and We Ate It! The First Dog Wilma Unlimited The Ultimate 10 Sports Olympics July/August issue of "ask" magazine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LynnG in Arizona Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 Our morning/getting started routine includes: Bible (Telling God's Story, plus one selection from Storytime With the Millers weekly) Calendar (we use the magnetic Melissa and Doug calendar) Memory work - review something old Memory work - learn our current piece Poem (currently working on the lovely poetry collection from Julie Andrews) Music (at least one piece daily; we alternate between classical, religious hymn or praise song, and patriotic) We then have breakfast, clean up, and launch into the rest of our school day. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiannaC Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 Here is a blog post I did about our Circle Time: Circle Time with a Second Grader and Preschool It is our favorite part of the day. :001_smile: Thanks for sharing your circle time. That was very helpful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emagine Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 My I get a lot of great ideas on here, such enablers lol. I had never heard of a Morning Basket. I am going to create an Afternoon Basket though that will be our go to when I am cooking etc... So far I have dug out and dusted off a good bit of hands on learning things, a few games and books. LOVE this board! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamatohaleybug Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 We do memorization (scripture, vocabulary and poetry), folk songs, hymns, Yogarilla, scripture reading, prayer. All of our other readings are done later since I only have one child. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homemama2 Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 We have a basket in the kitchen that is used at different times during the day. :001_smile: After Breakfast: Bible (this year it will actually be Who Is God by Apologia) Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow A binder that includes: Poetry from AO that I've printed out Hymns (AO) Folksongs (AO) Memory Work (Poems, History things etc.) Wee Sing America CD Awana books (We only read one poem per day and sing one of the above songs.) During Snack: McGuffey Readers (one eats while the other reads then they switch.) Story of the Orchestra (once per week) Pictures for our picture study (and notes)-once per week Composer of the week notes and CD During Lunch I read: Pilgrim's Progress Tales from Shakespeare Parables from Nature Study Plutarch Wisdom and the Millers (only 1 per day) I'm thinking I might put the music on my ipod and just keep that in the basket this fall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CandaceC Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 For those of you that do multiple read alouds and other various things in the mornings, approximately how long does this take? And help me figure out how to get my kids to listen for longer. :D I do break it up (with the movement activities mentioned earlier.) I do let them do things with their hands. But I need to be reading MORE. And I really like to do it ALL in the morning. I think it's my own issue, after lunch I am just done. :tongue_smilie: I have been known to give consequences, especially lately...but I really wish there was a positive way to help them enjoy this time more! It's MY favorite time of the day! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom2OandE Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 Very intresting thread. I hadn't heard of a morning basket before so I've enjoyed reading this. Up until this past year we always did a devotional at breakfast and I am going to add that back in now that we are hs'ing. We will also do our bible time then. After that it's off to LA and Math followed by our subject of the day. Then we'll have lunch and after lunch we will curl up on the couch for our read aloud. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mama25angels Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 I hope it's o.k. to post what i'm going to put in my Morning Basket :001_unsure:: The Harp and Laurel Wreath (poetry) Storytime with the Millers CLP Nature Reader 4 (1 story a day) Wee Sing America SOTW vol. 1 audio VP cards What Your K and 4th Grader Needs to Know Parable From Nature Calendar Math shark I'm planning to switch things around each term. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momsuz123 Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 Here is a blog post I did about our Circle Time: Circle Time with a Second Grader and Preschool It is our favorite part of the day. :001_smile: WOW - love your blog - I need to get some popcorn and sit down and read your whole blog - so many wonderful ideas! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A.Balaban Posted July 21, 2012 Share Posted July 21, 2012 As always, great ideas! I was planning on doing Calendar time, but I think that adding some read-alouds during that time is a great suggestion! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chelli Posted July 21, 2012 Share Posted July 21, 2012 Wow. That was a really inspiring post. Thanks for sharing the details! I'm off to consider how to do something like that in our homeschool. Thank you! It came about by compiling lots of different ideas I found and some of my own. Thanks for sharing your circle time. That was very helpful. You are very welcome. WOW - love your blog - I need to get some popcorn and sit down and read your whole blog - so many wonderful ideas! Thanks! Feel free to peruse away. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chepyl Posted July 21, 2012 Share Posted July 21, 2012 Apparently I'm a slave driver. I crack the whip and math & writing gets done first thing! Me too. We do our core subjects first thing In the morning. DS has better focus then, and he will do math, grammar, spelling, reading, and either science or history in one sitting. After lunch I have him read If he did not do it before I woke up. We do read alouds at bedtime. We vary what we do. We have read chapter books, poetry books, Dr seuss, and fine short stories. We also sing at bedtime. So I guess we do a nighttime basket....but it is a giant bookshelf ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amy Jo Posted July 21, 2012 Share Posted July 21, 2012 Me too. We do our core subjects first thing In the morning. DS has better focus then, and he will do math, grammar, spelling, reading, and either science or history in one sitting. After lunch I have him read If he did not do it before I woke up. We do read alouds at bedtime. We vary what we do. We have read chapter books, poetry books, Dr seuss, and fine short stories. We also sing at bedtime. So I guess we do a nighttime basket....but it is a giant bookshelf ;) I'm pretty sure ours will be an afternoon basket. Either right after lunch, or around quiet time when DD is hopefully napping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs.Gregg Posted July 21, 2012 Share Posted July 21, 2012 We start off with our school work/core work. DD2 and I go over calender work together, DD1 is too old. We have an afternoon basket that has current read alouds, memory flash cards, a boardgame (we rotate) poetry and mini bios Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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