Morning Time (Circe, Schole, Teaching from Rest)

[happypamama]

Morning time here consists of some subset of the following, depending on mood and everything:

 

Bible memory work

Bible reading/Narnia Bible lessons

Evan Moore Word A Day

Poetry

Science vocab review

Mr. Pipes book

Literature read aloud

Greek and Latin root words

Counting and alphabet practice

 

We do these at breakfast, so the littles are occupied with eating, or they are allowed to go play when they're done.

 

One day a week is set aside for art, picture study, music study, geography, and Shakespeare, separate from morning time.

[Zoo Keeper]

Do any of you who do morning time have children with LDs? How does this change your approach?

 

We've been sort of doing a morning meeting and really enjoying it but using web-based unit studies and read alouds. I plan to add our Bible/character study into that time in the fall as well. The ideas of adding a hymn or artist study are appealing too and we could possibly do poetry appreciation, but memorizing poetry or hymns is a sure way to frustrate my dyslexics who struggle significantly with language processing. My other concern is that the remediation of 2 dyslexics already takes so much time that I just don't have more than half an hour or so for MT or we will be schooling all day.

 

Any other moms of LD students care to comment on these concerns and how it works for you?

 

 My reading aloud to the group (whether it is poetry, Scripture, or some other book) has been a life-saver for my dyslexic son--he can still get content that feeds his mind and soul, even if his reading and writing level is not up to processing that content.  Having the chance to "chew on" these things on a consistent basis has helped him feel that he *is* just as smart as the next guy.

 

Our morning time is short--Bible reading (one chapter), prayer (one person prays, we take turns), memory work (sometimes a hymn/song, sometimes Scripture, sometimes poetry/speech--but NOT all three at once), then I read aloud from just ONE book for 15-20 min.  That's it.  About 35 min. total.  A few of my children have some umm, intense, sensory and attention issues, so that is as much as we can do effectively.  So that is all we do. 

 

If I happen to have my SuperMom suit on, I do try to squeeze in a second read aloud time at some point later in the day.  ;)

[mamamindy]

Oh, no! I totally didn't mean to make my resources sound that way. I am trying to get away from the locked down approach. Those are my resources, but I use them very free-flowing. Some days we don't even get to everything on my "list" and if those resources aren't used up in a perfect 36 week school year, then I use them next year. It's more like free-flowing within a list. I'm not sure if that makes sense.

 

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that your Morning Time works for YOUR family. I need to have resources because I have NO clue how to do most of this (Plutarch/Shakespeare/poetry) so the resources are to help me feel less stressed. But within those resources and my "schedule" it is VERY free form and relaxed. We read, we discuss, we move on. I just have planned out what I'd like to read (remember type A and all that)!

 

I don't think there is a right way to do a morning time. If I alluded that there was, then I am truly sorry. That was not my intention at all! 

Oh, Chelli, I didn't get the feeling that you were trying to "prescribe" the right way to accomplish Morning Time. :grouphug:   I didn't get that feeling at all from any comment you've made or blog post. Nothing.  I, too, need some help, and a starting point, until we get our bearings.  And that is why I appreciate your resources. ;)

 

My comments were more to warn against falling into something that's more about the thing (book, resource, curric, etc.) than the people.  Because, I'm sorry to say, I have been guilty of that in our own home.  So, I'm talking to myself here. ;)

[Forget-Me-Not]

I'm about halfway through the Morning Time podcast on the Circe website.  So my question is, when do you do your non-morning-time subjects?  In the past, I've found we do better if we get up and do math right away after breakfast.  On the other hand, I love the idea of a morning/devotional time before we jump into schoolwork and I feel like it's something that would benefit us.

[JustEm]

I'm about halfway through the Morning Time podcast on the Circe website. So my question is, when do you do your non-morning-time subjects? In the past, I've found we do better if we get up and do math right away after breakfast. On the other hand, I love the idea of a morning/devotional time before we jump into schoolwork and I feel like it's something that would benefit us.

My son is only 5 and a half so he only does math and phonics daily but I've found that doing them both right after breakfast, sometime before if he asks, works so much better for us than doing morning time stuff right away. We do the morning time stuff after he gets a break once math and phonics are done. Its still feels like that a good start to the day even though it not the very first thing we do.

[FO4UR]

Do any of you who do morning time have children with LDs? How does this change your approach?

 

We've been sort of doing a morning meeting and really enjoying it but using web-based unit studies and read alouds. I plan to add our Bible/character study into that time in the fall as well. The ideas of adding a hymn or artist study are appealing too and we could possibly do poetry appreciation, but memorizing poetry or hymns is a sure way to frustrate my dyslexics who struggle significantly with language processing. My other concern is that the remediation of 2 dyslexics already takes so much time that I just don't have more than half an hour or so for MT or we will be schooling all day.

 

Any other moms of LD students care to comment on these concerns and how it works for you?

 

Instead of memorizing as we traditionally think of memorizing, recite it together (in some form or fashion) daily until it's memorized. I get this from CM btw, not my own idea. This may not be only a MT thing, but you may play at seeing who can remember the next line of Jaberwocky (or whatever you are working on...) as you drive to your sports practice (like the ABC game LOL).  Or, you might cut up a printed poem and put it together like a puzzle over snacks.

 

Obviously, take your kids cues as the best advice.  If it's "dumb" they will let you know.  If you find pieces that are a fit for them, they will try to remember for the fun of it. 

 

Don't push methodical memorization on a dyslexic though. Ouch! It's not so important that they have verbatim recall. It's most important that the Ideas and the Language are infused into their day.

 

Setting poetry to music is fail-safe...if you can find it.

[Mystie]

We love Circle Time at our house. Here are my recent plannings and musings on the topic:

 

How to Start Circle Time

 

Our 2014-2015 Homeschool Year: Circle Time (aka Morning Time)

 

Circle Time: Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real, Exhausting

 

31 Days of Organizing Homeschool Stuff: Circle Time Binders

 

We use our time as more of a "set the tone for the day" time and reciting (we all read aloud together from our own binders; it makes it feel more like camaraderie than like me directing a crazy train). We pray, sing, read-repeatedly-to-memorize chapter-length sections of Scripture, learn catechism, and memorize poetry. I don't do read alouds or any sort of activity during our time. So, it's more of a morning worship and morning recitation wrapped into one.

 

It was really hard to get rolling when everyone was little, but now it's indispensable to our family culture. I spent today putting our pages into page protectors for next year. :)

[Critterfixer]

Just in case anybody is reading these threads and wanting to see positives on morning time, and how devoting some time daily to things that don't seem to be connected to other things in your day, I thought I'd give my opinion of how morning time is going so far for us.

This is my first year doing it. We have done various things that were similar (we have an evening reading time, and we have a poetry-tea time daily) but nothing like Morning Time.

 

I'm real loose-goose when it comes to planning for morning time. I took one look at the idea of a check list and frankly wondered if I could stomach that. I don't care for them, and the idea of a regimented time for doing things just struck me as one more thing to cross off the list. A subject.

So I started small-a read aloud while the boys draw (not nice nature pictures-just drawing, which is all from their imaginations) and a short Civics lesson. And a Shakespeare synopsis once a week. That would do for now. Add in more stuff if that works.

 

And how has it worked! We have our thirty minutes after breakfast, after everyone has been out for a bit, beds made, that sort of thing. Sometimes I pour everyone a second cup of tea, sometimes not, and this is done at the table in the kitchen where we do all of our school work. I find it important to me to have the whiteboard, because I keep coming up with things that I want to write down, some for me and some for the boys. Without my trying we have discussed dragons, fantasy genre, the differences between a short story and a novel, science fiction vs fantasy, state history, Rome, Latin, Norse mythology and runes, time travel, Charles Dickens, the adventure plot and the ascent/descent plot in fiction, how characters from one story might have their roots in another story and archetypes in fiction, the Declaration of Independence, the use of colors to represent ideas, George Washington, the terms of US presidents. All in five days of Morning time.

 

A second thing I've noticed since starting morning time: the day goes faster. Now we aren't on full days yet, this being summer term, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of dawdling or complaining during the day since starting morning time. It's almost as if having the start of the day be such a exercise in jumping between things and from one idea to the next seems to help the brain wake up. Could be that second cup of tea, too! But it has almost acted as a brain stretching exercise, and there seems to be less of a need to break during the school day as a transition. It is almost as if Morning Time is teaching them to think of ideas and disciplines as a continuum and not as subjects. 

 

Now, it's only been a short while. But I can see that this rather short (for now) little time in the day has some real value. So for anybody on the fence, just grab you two things you like for morning time and go for it. Don't get hung up on what anybody else is doing or how they are doing it. Just go do it, and see where it takes you.

 

OK, getting off my soapbox.

[Mystie]

A second thing I've noticed since starting morning time: the day goes faster. Now we aren't on full days yet, this being summer term, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of dawdling or complaining during the day since starting morning time. It's almost as if having the start of the day be such a exercise in jumping between things and from one idea to the next seems to help the brain wake up. Could be that second cup of tea, too! But it has almost acted as a brain stretching exercise, and there seems to be less of a need to break during the school day as a transition. It is almost as if Morning Time is teaching them to think of ideas and disciplines as a continuum and not as subjects. 

 

 

I love this observation!

[Farrar]

I've been reading all the morning time threads and trying to think it through...

 

We definitely do some of these things anyway, and we often start with them, especially what we call "books on the sofa" though not always.  I like the flexibility to be able to start with what we need to start with.  Some days we need to get a couple of things done and get out the door.  Other days we have a long and slow day and can start however we like.  So that interferes with any really set every day routine.

 

For awhile we were starting with a short silence and a check in.  I liked that.  I like having the practice of silence, which feels very Quakery and right to me.  But...  it was also difficult to keep up for some reason.  Many of the things people are mentioning here like memory work and picture study we simply don't do every day and I don't foresee us starting to either.  I like the idea of always starting together, and of having time to check in.  "Morning meeting" makes it seem like we would overview the day, which we sort of do because I put it on the board, but doing it more formally could be good.

 

I guess it really appeals to me but I'm not sure if it's super necessary or if it's something I could really keep up.

[FO4UR]

Many of the things people are mentioning here like memory work and picture study we simply don't do every day and I don't foresee us starting to either.  I like the idea of always starting together, and of having time to check in.  "Morning meeting" makes it seem like we would overview the day, which we sort of do because I put it on the board, but doing it more formally could be good.

 

I guess it really appeals to me but I'm not sure if it's super necessary or if it's something I could really keep up.

 

 

If it's not something you can keep up with, I think that means that it's not something that's organically part of your family rhythm. Either you are OK with that (I mean, WHO can ...or would even want to...be ALL the Homeschool Fad Awesomeness That Abounds On the Internets?????), or this is something to start small and build up into your family rhythm.  You like starting the day together and having time to check in.  Do that. Make it (whatever *it* is) fit your own family. 

 

Think about those things that you would regret never getting to with your dc, yet never seem to fit into the day. Do those things when you are meeting together. That could be anything from making sure they are dressed for the day (Ha!) to reading Shakespeare plays.

[FO4UR]

dp

 

[birchbark]

This might be a good time to link to Sarah's post about being a homeschool superstar. Just substitute "Morning Time Mom" for "Salt-Dough-Map-Making Mom."

[happypamama]

I have to say that I have been really enjoying these threads. As I mentioned on a post, we do have a version of Morning Time during/after breakfast, but if life happens, this is one thing that gets dropped in favor of making sure we get math, history, etc. done. I am taking this is a challenge to do those things anyway, no matter how late the day might start.

 

We normally do our morning time round the breakfast table, and I think I will continue that. I'll suggest to the kids that they get their paper and colored pencils and have them on the table when they sit down to breakfast, rather than interrupting our time to go and get them. Maybe I'll put crayons or playdough on the table for small people too. Then after we finish morning time, we can clear the breakfast dishes, and everyone can brush their teeth and migrate to the schoolroom to commence our individual studies. I don't have room for our couch in our schoolroom, and the room where the couch is really isn't the best for babies and toddlers, so I tend to do readalouds either sitting at our dining table or schoolroom tables (the schoolroom is my baby-safe room) or sitting in my rocking chair in the schoolroom, with one or three small boys in my lap or snuggled next to me, and anyone else either sprawls out on the floor with colored pencils, sits at a table, or sits on a small ottoman at my feet.

 

But anyway, I feel like this is a challenge, a push for me to commit to Morning Time and make sure it stays important.

[angelmama1209]

i haven't read the circe threads so i don't know if there's something special that's supposed to happen during this time, but i remember big discussions going on a few years ago about "morning baskets" that i liked the idea of so i implemented it. recently it's been afternoon, but we start our school time with group work- devotion, Bible verse, character/virtue, rhythmic writing, handwriting, and an extra or 2- poetry (reading and writing), music, letter writing, global studies, nature reading, art, etc.. then we transition to schooltime with a 15 minute nature assignment (go out and look at clouds, find a new bug, etc) 4 days a week and cooking 1 day.

 

this is my kids' favorite part of school.

[idnib]

I've stopped looking at other poetry books, for what it's worth, but I don't have it in hand yet :)  I think it's cheaper at Rainbow Resource, so I'll probably order from there with all my other curriculum.

 

My book arrived today. It's an excellent selection of poems. They are all fairly short and seem like they would be good for circle time.

[JoyfullyNoisy]

We love morning time - If we miss it, our day doesn't run as smoothly.  Somehow we're not as connected, I suppose.

 

What we do is memory work (gentle, no pressure, but we do lots of memory palaces -inspired by surprising little books like this -so that makes it fun), read a fun story and review a poem.  All over breakfast and coffee.

 

Included in our memory work is usually skip counting or multiplication tables, composers/eras, poetry, silly limericks. 

 

A typical morning was this morning- we read two stories of Potato Face Blind Man, memorized "Fog" (an opportunity to discuss personification) and read a short story about Carl Sandberg from this book.  Then we proceeded to look on a map for where he was born and died, took a detour around the great lakes, discussed how Gary Indiana was considered the most polluted city in the US, etc.  All in all, the best part of the day for the whole family.  Almost like 5 in a Row, but so natural and easy; there was a theme, but no supplies and no real agenda aside from enjoying one another and something interesting together.

 

[happypamama]

Today was our first day of school.  We've done morning time before, but armed with some new ideas and new enthusiasm, we started with morning time.  Memory work will come; I'm still inputting it into a new program.  We did a page from Evan Moore's Word-a-Day, and we read a few pages from one of the Mr. Pipes books.  We also discussed the Narnia chapters we read the other day, using ROAR and the Ditchfield book with the Bible lessons.  They were initially skeptical about the Bible lessons (and I didn't read every single one, just a few; I want the Narnia books to be enjoyable without them feeling like they have to suck every single meaningful lesson out of them), but then, bam: someone said, "This is cool."  And they wanted more.  I started with a simple question of, "Should Lucy have gone into the wardrobe?," and we got a short discussion, but a good one.  (It's a little tricky because my oldest child has read the stories and knows them well, so I want her to be involved and thoughtful but without spoiling the story for the youngers.)  But I did feel like it really started the day off well. :) :)