What does a WTM morning time look like?

[Critterfixer]

Having been somewhat Circe inspired for the last few months (read-tired to death of subjects and not having enough time in the day!) I've been jotting down morning time ideas. Most of them have come from Cindy Rollins, and as I'm looking through her morning time I know there are some things she does that I wouldn't want to do. Singing for instance. (It would not be a joyful noise!)

I have very active boys. There is no way they could stay focused for two hours without needing to MOVE! I would need to move. 

Anyway, I'm hashing out what my morning time would look like. I really see the point in it for my guys-because part of that morning time is going be our tea, our poetry, some grammar catechism, I want to be able to share what I've been learning in my studies, and have them share back with me, and I want to do some reading together. It strikes me as an awesome place for Civics and US History. It seems like a great place to pull a math problem with a real world application and play with it. And it would be a really good place for me to read aloud too.

 

I just wondered if anyone else had been inspired to try a morning time and what a WTM morning time looks like to you.

[Momof3littles]

We sometimes have one, sometimes not.  However, when we do it consistently, I often find it one of our most productive endeavors, and wonder why I let it lapse sometimes. I am not at all an expert, I probably don't do it correctly ;) , but I do find it very useful.

 

In the past I've done things like some of our current read aloud, some picture study/discussion of artwork (often something we've already talked about and we're cycling back around to), reading a poem (sometimes going deeper than just reading it).  We don't do much geography outside of SOTW, and I would like to incorporate some of that in our morning.  We are doing more consistent memory work, and that's a good time for review, recitation, etc. for us.

 

Mine is likely totally not done correctly, but I do find it to really make a difference for us when we do it consistently.

 

edited to add: can you try alternating something seated with something more hands-on or out of their seats?  Do you think that would help?  Thinking putty?  Modeling beeswax?

 

Oh, and back to add, there is no singing in our morning circle time.  Ever.  Will not happen ;)

[HelenNotOfTroy]

We do a much shorter time than that. I have plans to add more to this, but at this point we read out of several different books each day. One poem, one myth/legend/folktale book, one science book, and one history book that is not SOTW, which we read at another time. We also have virtue cards that we read one of daily.

[violingirl]

I know what you mean about boys and being still!  We start our morning with Bible reading right after breakfast, so that quiet time helps us stay quieter to start the day. We then move on to study latin for a short lesson, then on to morning time.

 

Morning time here includes: 

 

1. Memory work from all content areas, so this takes about 40 minutes between the week's new material and review material. Content areas include geography, Scripture memory, poetry memory, grammar, math facts, and sometimes material from history and science.

2. We take turns reading a poem or two from the book we are reading through at that time.

3. I read from a biography to them.

4. We have a mini-meeting about what that day will look like since each of our school days works differently due to my work schedule.

 

 

We do NOT have a 2 hour morning time- ours is about 1 hour, and I heavily encourage movement during memory review and learning. They toss a ball back and forth while reciting math facts together, they jump in place, do jumping jacks while waiting their turn, etc. 

 

I do ask them to sit quietly as we read poetry and I read the biography and we have our mini-meeting. It takes about 20 minutes, and I think it's important to also learn to control their desire to move constantly for that one period of time.

 

 

edited to add:  I want to add Shakespeare and artist study to our morning time this coming year, but I'm still thinking about how that will look, as that would be adding even more "quiet sitting time" to that period.

[Desert Strawberry]

I'm mentally adding things in as I plan for next year. Here are my current thoughts.

 

Skip counting in preparation for multiplication tables.

Read -aloud and/or picture book.

Picture study/poetry study...there should be something else here, I think. This is last and spins us into the hands-on part of our day.

EFRU - one new root per day. We do it like a decoding game.

Story math for the younger set.

Logic. Another game.

Sometimes history or science if we are working on that.

We also plan for the week and review what to expect.

 

All of this is well under two hours.

[Coco_Clark]

We LOVE morning time. We do prayers, memory work, poetry (1 poem every day for a week), a few picture books (each kid picks 1), a chapter from a chapter book, and one thing off our rotation.  This years rotation included composer study, artist study, aesop's fables, liturgical year, and nature study.  Next years rotation will be composer study, artist study, aesop's fables, saints, and geography.  It took about an hour, barring any art or nature project.  Next year I'm considering adding History and Science to morning time, but I'm not sure yet.    

[Desert Strawberry]

Ah, yes. We used to include a guided meditation(prayer). I think I will bring that back. 

 

Not sure if I want to include music. I'm leaning towards no, as I like our morning time be quiet and calm.  We can save music till later. 

[Ms.Ivy]

We've been doing our version of Morning Time for quite a while, although I recently became discouraged because it was frequently falling by the wayside.  A couple of weeks ago I happened on Cindy Rollin's posts and boy, were they a breath of fresh air.  The best tip I got from her blog was that Morning Time can start at ANY time.  I had it scheduled for the first thing we do in the morning, and because of our family dynamics (mostly because of two toddlers) it wouldn't happen and then I would skip it.  

 

Now, I get the older kids started on their math drills or independent work while I take care of the crazy home stuff, and when I am able to, I say, "Time for Morning Time!" and we do it, then get back to our other school work afterward.

 

We are all HORRIBLE singers, too.  But we still work on memorizing a hymn each month, one new verse a week.  I use YouTube videos projected on the TV for us to sing along with.  Nearly all the good old hymns have a version on YouTube that includes lyrics and is easy to sing along with.

 

I intersperse each thing with a physical exercise like jumping jacks or a kid's song like Father Abraham for the little ones to benefit from.

 

1. Prayer, where we take turns going through the A.C.T.S. prayer model.  (Confession to God and each other really helps their attitude throughout the day).

2. Pledge of Allegiance (sometimes the national anthem, too)

3. Apostle's Creed

4. Catechism memorization

5. Hymn of the month (we sing it three times with YouTube)

6. Poem (I read it three times for them to memorize)

7. Bible memory verses for Sunday School program

8. Bible reading

9. Spanish lesson from GSWS

10. Skip counting (for memorizing multiplication facts later)

11. Benediction

12. Closing song on YouTube.  (My kids like "You Shall Go Out with Joy") 

 

[EndOfOrdinary]

I have been trying to let go more.  Circe is helping quite a bit.  I am trying to focus on the idea of truth, beauty, and goodness permeating everything in our learning.  With that in mind, I'm thinking morning time will be something like

 

1) Positive statement about the previous day

2) Thankful statement about the previous day

3) Something to work on from the previous day (A Do-Over with behavior basically)

 

All discussed while sitting down and having coffee/cocoa/tea.  Trying to make it a time to have casual conversation about actual topics so we can enter our schooling with mindfulness and commitment rather than just plowing forward.  More than anything, I'm noticing the need to have a specific place where just the two of us just talk.

 

Sometimes this takes 10 minutes, sometimes it will be an hour, but it reminds me that one of the big reasons I am homeschooling my son is to be able to get to know him.  That is more important than fitting in 45 minutes of history.

 

[Critterfixer]

I am thinking that our morning time had better be happening at roughly the same time each day. To have it happen whenever would drive me nuts.

I also think that for the most part, we had better do it after some exercise, instead of sort of exercising through it. Maybe after a good run or bike ride.

I do like the idea of a rotation.

I've never done one, so hearing what others do for morning time is helpful. Keep it coming!

[Chelli]

Another Circe inspired Morning Meeting makeover mom! Ours lasts about an hour to an hour and a half based on discussion from the kids. While we're doing MM I have a special MM basket that contains quiet things they can work on while I'm reading such as puzzles, coloring/drawing, sewing, Rainbow Loom, etc. I don't expect my son to stay in the room for it so he wanders in and out, but while he's in the room he does have to respectful and quiet. I divided our MM time by the Circe principles. Of course some things could fit under more than one principle, but this made it have a nice flow for me.

 

Here's our new Morning Meeting schedule as we've been doing it for the past month or so (copied and pasted from my print out):

 

Truth:

·         Hymn* (Not good singers here either but the girls love to do this.)                                                        

·         Prayer*

·         Bible Reading*

·         Bible Memory Work*

Wisdom:

·         Timeline (The old CC world history timeline that I'm having the girls memorize a week at a time.)

·         Skip Counting

·         History Reading * (I read through two history overview books every year, one world history and one American history. This is the slot where I do that.)

Beauty and Goodness:

·         Art or Music Appreciation (usually a review of what was introduced on Monday)

·         Poetry Reading and Memory Work

·         Art/ Music Reading (Monday)* (I read a book about the artist/art piece or composer/composition that we will be studying that week)

·         Loop of Shakespeare/Character or

Plutarch/Nature for six weeks, then

switch (Tuesday-Friday). (We study a Shakespeare play for 6 weeks, two days a week, then switch to Plutarch for the next 6 weeks, then back to Shakespeare, etc. The same rotation is followed with a reading from a character-type book and a nature book.)

Focus:

·         Rotates weekly between history,

geography, science, and interests (I do a loop with our content subjects so depending on what our content subject focus is for that week, then that is what I read from. For example, when it's science week I read a half chapter from Sassafras Science since that's what we're studying right now.)

Inspiration:

·         Rotates between tales/myths,

classic literature, and biography* (Usually this reading ties in with the week focus or it's just something that I think the girls would like.)

 

*Denotes Monday’s shortened Morning Meeting schedule (We do a short Morning Meeting on Monday because that is our short school day.)

 

Hope that helps some!

 

Looking forward to seeing other ideas.

[Chelli]

I have been trying to let go more.  Circe is helping quite a bit.  I am trying to focus on the idea of truth, beauty, and goodness permeating everything in our learning.  With that in mind, I'm thinking morning time will be something like

 

1) Positive statement about the previous day

2) Thankful statement about the previous day

3) Something to work on from the previous day (A Do-Over with behavior basically)

 

All discussed while sitting down and having coffee/cocoa/tea.  Trying to make it a time to have casual conversation about actual topics so we can enter our schooling with mindfulness and commitment rather than just plowing forward.  More than anything, I'm noticing the need to have a specific place where just the two of us just talk.

 

Sometimes this takes 10 minutes, sometimes it will be an hour, but it reminds me that one of the big reasons I am homeschooling my son is to be able to get to know him.  That is more important than fitting in 45 minutes of history.

 

We do something very similar to this at supper each night so that dh can participate!

[Desert Strawberry]

Morning time always opens our day. It's the time that I gather my children around me to do things together. Before and after, we each go our separate ways, but for this part-however long it takes us to get there-we are all together.

 

I can't specify a time, per se. After breakfast and chores, before everything else. If I sleep late, or I have to deal with a particular child, or whatever, we push morning time up. But we only skip it when I am sick, or we are out of the house in the morning(rare). In those cases, we are not likely to do much of anything anyway. If I am delayed, the other kids may begin their independent work knowing that I will call them together when I am ready.

[Coco_Clark]

I am thinking that our morning time had better be happening at roughly the same time each day. To have it happen whenever would drive me nuts.

I also think that for the most part, we had better do it after some exercise, instead of sort of exercising through it. Maybe after a good run or bike ride.

I do like the idea of a rotation.

I've never done one, so hearing what others do for morning time is helpful. Keep it coming!

 

I have to have mine at the same time too.  Honestly my whole life runs that way.  If its not in the rhythm (on autopilot) it doesn't get done.  

 

We have ours first thing in the morning when we are still all fairly sleepy.  We get dressed and eat breakfast AFTER morning time, that's how early it is!  If there is a project or any kind of output (not most days) they do it while I cook.   

[Critterfixer]

I was thinking about doing ours sort of with breakfast.

[craftyerin]

I was thinking about doing ours sort of with breakfast.

I have been thinking the same thing. I want to do more of a morning time next year. This year we've been in the habit of doing bible memory, reading devotional, and then watching a Salsa video or doing a mad lib or reading our FIAR book or something like that at breakfast, but it's been flex and somewhat based on what they request.  Given the temperament of my oldest, though, I just can't wrap my mind around finishing breakfast and then starting an hour or more of Morning Time where we run through bible, poetry, memory work, read aloud, etc. He just doesn't have that sort of cooperation. I think I need to USE the momentum we've got with random breakfast subjects to add to that for Morning Time.  Still thinking on it… 

[thessa516]

I've jumped on the bandwagon with a Circe-inspired Morning Time, too. I'm surprised how much I enjoy it. The kids LOVE it and will not let me miss a day. I dropped some of our "check-the-box" subjects in order to make time for our Morning Meeting.

 

Prayer

Sing a Hymn

History Memory Work (right now we are working on the Preamble to the Constitution)

Question or two from Civics Test 

Read a Poem from Favorite Poems Old and New (we just pick one at random to enjoy and read through a few times, talk about it, etc)

Poetry Memorization from Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization

Artist Study (still working on this one - thinking about using the Simply Charlotte Mason portfolios)

Composer Study (still working on this one, too)

Grammar (just purchased MCT's Practice Island - right now we are diagramming a simple sentence together)

Science Selection (read a section from Usborne Science Encyclopedia)

Shakespeare (knock me over with a feather! this has been the biggest hit so far - How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ludwig)

Read Aloud (read a couple of chapters of our current read-aloud book)

 

 

I love the ideas listed by the previous posters. I need to add in some skip counting, logic problems, maybe a biography section (one of my kids would LOVE this)!

[julie4]

This is what morning time looks like around here-

 

We gather on the couch or on a big cushy blanket on the floor. We start early, we are all early risers so usually have breakfast by 7 and start morning time by 7:30/8 am at the latest. We stretch our legs about half way through and there is always a snack involved :)

 

1. Prayer, bible, catechism memory work, gratitude journal (everyday)- 30 minutes

2. Read Aloud (everyday)- 45-60 min

Break

3.. Fine arts- composer or artist study, using picture books, Masterpiece art cards, classical music (3 days/week) 20 minutes

3. Poetry- some for memory work, some just for fun. We alternate poetry with a Shakespeare play (3 days/week) 20 minutes

4. Nature study, nature journaling. Or I read some kind of science to them. (2 days/week) 20-30 minutes

5. Math, latin, and phonogram flash cards we alternate these so we don't do them all each day. (everyday) 15 minutes

6. kids do their drawing lesson or a project to go along with our artist study, while toddler gets mommy time.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

I'm going to go back and read over the replies in a minute to gather more ideas, but wanted to post first.  I have been AGONIZING over morning time for a month now!  LOL.  I've posted several times about it, I've got spreadsheets, handwritten notes, blah, blah, blah, trying to figure out how much I can cram into morning time, and then am trying to get a morning routine in place before baby arrives!  LOL.  So here is my "current" plan... 

 

- Exercise- while it's still summery, I think I'm going to take the kids out to run around the soccer field a few times first thing after breakfast.  When the cold sets in, I'll switch to having them do one of my Jillian Michaels DVDs with me (they actually like these...)

 

Then...

 

A standard routine for morning circle time based around a read-aloud rotation, memory work rotation, and activity rotation, with each day having a "theme" to connect these. 

 

Daily:  Logic of English lesson, memory work review from all categories using the SCM memory work review system

 

Monday (History) - SOTW chapter+ coloring page + oral narr for ds, timeline memory work

Tuesday (geography) - FIAR book w/geography of setting found on globe, SOTW map work from yesterday's chapter, memory work for geography (both finding previously learned locations and learning about geo terms in general)

Wednesday (Art/Enrichment) - Classic children's read-aloud, memory work of a new Latin root (every 2 weeks or so?) and grammar terms, SCM picture study portfolio, art lesson

Thursday (Science) - Science read-aloud, science memory work and practical memory work (address, phone, etc.), science activity depending on weather (experiment, journal sketch, nature walk)

Friday (Enrichment) - Read-Aloud (history supplement, children's lit, or...), memory work of a literary element from FIAR book, not sure on activity. 

 

I'm keeping that Friday pretty light, because ideally I would like to go to a 4 day school week and have one morning for something else, but not sure yet if that will really work. 

 

 

This leaves afternoons (toddler nap time!) for individual skill work in math, reading/writing, and French.  Phew. 

 

[IfIOnly]

I'm inspired reading about your morning times and subbing.

[Critterfixer]

Lots of good ideas. Taking notes.

[brookspr]

I am glad I am not the only recently-inspired Circe/morning time mom!  Earlier this week I listened to one of Cindy's podcasts on morning time and will definitely be adding this to our school day in the fall.  My kids are older (11,14) so I expect some push back on this one.  This was our first year homeschooling, and although it went well, there were always things I wanted to do that never got done.  Grammar, read-aloud literature and science, poetry/Shakespeare, to name a few.  My list for next year's morning time looks like this:

 

Review the day and do some light meditation/yoga

Poetry/Shakespeare

Logic

Joy Hakim Science books read-aloud

Grammar

Lit Analysis

 

My daughter will be going to high school part time next year to participate in choir and band and possibly take one core class, so she will be gone two or three mornings a week.  I'm hoping to do morning time in the morning on the days she is home and then right after lunch on the other days.  I really hope this works out because I was always stressing over the things we weren't doing consistently.

 

Many articles I've read about morning/circle time talk about letting the kids do something with their hands (play with clay, legos, blocks, knit, color) while listening to read-aloud or lessons.  I let my son sit on an exercise ball when he watches IEW videos or online classes and it helps him get some energy out and focus at the same time.  We will probably do the same with morning time.

 

Looking forward to reading others ideas for motivation!

[Critterfixer]

That is awesome for the Latin nouns! My guys did something like that with the verbs when we were learning them, and I really up to keep it up. It does make Latin recitations fun and active.

 

We played with Morning Time today, although we are currently on summer holiday. It was very relaxing, and I think we'll keep that up year round if we can. Today the boys walked dogs with me, we ate breakfast, and then after a few chores (chickens, medicating our one obnoxious Border Collie with an ear infection--she is a terrible patient! Her owner should have taught her manners! :laugh:) ---we sat down at the table. One boy got out his drawing paper and started on his ships, the other pulled out his work of fiction and started drawing to illustrate the coming chapters. And I got took my tea-cup and finished reading aloud part of Horatio Hornblower that we didn't get to finish the other night. Made for a good discussion, and nobody was in a hurry to be running around after the morning exercise and chores.

This just might work.

 

So far I've been jotting down books for reading. I promised the boys I'd read The Sinking of the Whale Ship Essex for them, which will probably mean Moby Dick is around the corner. I rather suspect we will have to put in a poet of the week, as they really enjoyed that when I got some Edgar Allen Poe and we read a lot of his stuff one week last year. I'd been trying to find a place to discuss a math word problem together and here seems to be a great place for that. I also have a nature/geography book I've been wanting to use, but wasn't sure where I'd do it. I think it can go here. Very exciting stuff!

[julie4]

I'm going to go back and read over the replies in a minute to gather more ideas, but wanted to post first. I have been AGONIZING over morning time for a month now! LOL. I've posted several times about it, I've got spreadsheets, handwritten notes, blah, blah, blah, trying to figure out how much I can cram into morning time, and then am trying to get a morning routine in place before baby arrives! LOL.

I'm a planner too, but our MT was one thing I tried not to over-plan. I wanted it to flow from the natural rhythm of our household. So, I started with just read aloud & prayer/bible/saint studies because it's natural for us to start our day with prayer. Then I started to add things that naturally felt right for us to add, poetry, art/music,

memory & nature study, one thing at a time.

Just letting it evolve over time has saved me from the stress I cause myself when I try to over plan or cram too much in.

 

You will find what works best for your family by just starting with a few basics that are important to you. And congrats on the new baby. :)

[mama25angels]

Another Circe inspired Morning Meeting makeover mom! Ours lasts about an hour to an hour and a half based on discussion from the kids. While we're doing MM I have a special MM basket that contains quiet things they can work on while I'm reading such as puzzles, coloring/drawing, sewing, Rainbow Loom, etc. I don't expect my son to stay in the room for it so he wanders in and out, but while he's in the room he does have to respectful and quiet. I divided our MM time by the Circe principles. Of course some things could fit under more than one principle, but this made it have a nice flow for me.

 

Here's our new Morning Meeting schedule as we've been doing it for the past month or so (copied and pasted from my print out):

 

Truth:

· Hymn* (Not good singers here either but the girls love to do this.)

· Prayer*

· Bible Reading*

· Bible Memory Work*

Wisdom:

· Timeline (The old CC world history timeline that I'm having the girls memorize a week at a time.)

· Skip Counting

· History Reading * (I read through two history overview books every year, one world history and one American history. This is the slot where I do that.)

Beauty and Goodness:

· Art or Music Appreciation (usually a review of what was introduced on Monday)

· Poetry Reading and Memory Work

· Art/ Music Reading (Monday)* (I read a book about the artist/art piece or composer/composition that we will be studying that week)

· Loop of Shakespeare/Character or

Plutarch/Nature for six weeks, then

switch (Tuesday-Friday). (We study a Shakespeare play for 6 weeks, two days a week, then switch to Plutarch for the next 6 weeks, then back to Shakespeare, etc. The same rotation is followed with a reading from a character-type book and a nature book.)

Focus:

· Rotates weekly between history,

geography, science, and interests (I do a loop with our content subjects so depending on what our content subject focus is for that week, then that is what I read from. For example, when it's science week I read a half chapter from Sassafras Science since that's what we're studying right now.)

Inspiration:

· Rotates between tales/myths,

classic literature, and biography* (Usually this reading ties in with the week focus or it's just something that I think the girls would like.)

 

*Denotes Monday’s shortened Morning Meeting schedule (We do a short Morning Meeting on Monday because that is our short school day.)

 

Hope that helps some!

 

Looking forward to seeing other ideas.

 

Awesome! I really like what you guys do.

[prairiegirl]

We have been doing MT for about 6 years now and every year it has looked different.  I have older children so our MT  looks different than how it looked when we first started.  I read, and was impressed by, The Living Page earlier this year and that has influenced our MT a bit.

 

We do MT during breakfast.  Again, my kids are older so we can do it this way.  I make breakfast and then we take it into the living room and eat while I carry on with our reading and reciting.  I really like doing it this way, it lends to the coziness of MTs atmosphere.

 

We do daily subjects/ activities  and then there are weekly ones.  MT  usually does take us 2 hours  but, again, my kids are older and we have been doing this for a long time.

 

Daily--Bible reading, scripture memorization, poetry memorization, game, Shakespeare, read aloud, history discussion

 

Monday--poetry notebooks (we write down a poem that we like into our notebooks,) diagram sentences

Tuesday--current events notebook (we write down things that have happened in the world during the past week,)  Grammar of Poetry

Wednesday--Grammar of Poetry, diagram sentence 

Thursday--Grammar of Poetry

Friday--Commonplace book (we write down sentences or quote that we read during the week,)  literary elements(I am teaching this to the two youngest--we read a picture book then pick out the elements. We are doing this with picture books now but will move on to books after we are comfortable with doing it this way first.)

[My3girls]

Wow, y'all really take that morning time seriously!  Ours is very simple. 

 

Mon: watch Cosmos (recorded from week before) with popcorn, drinks, and blankets all snuggled up

Tues:  read a Greek Myth (we did fables before, and we'll do American Tall Tales next) & Handwriting

Wed: Poetry & Handwriting

Thurs: Poetry & Handwriting

Fri: read aloud (tomorrow's is Shakespear's 12th Night but it rotates) & Handwriting

 

After morning time, dd12 splits off to do her work solo while I work with the youngers.  I'm thinking of incorporating a "this day in history" in our morning time next year.  Memory work is usually done in the car.

[FloridaLisa]

We've always done a morning time together. We got it Bible time mostly because that's what anchors it. Our morning time includes:

 

*reading/study: a chapter from the Bible (We usually cover the historical books or Proverbs and proceed fairly chronologically but s l o w l y one chapter a day.)

*memory work: usually a large portion of scripture but we've also covered creeds and some of the Westminster catechism over the years

*prayer

*hymn:  this is more spontaneous and usually inspired but what we've studied that morning or a hymn we're working on 

*daily announcements: :)  This is our time to go over schedules, issues that need addressing and just all get on the same page.  As needed. 

 

I meet with the youngers later in the morning for poetry memory work.  I love the idea of current events for the olders, but our morning time already presses an hour once we've read and studied and the olders are ready to get started on their workload!

 

Lisa