How did I not know about Morning Basket?

[Peplophoros]

Just discovered the idea, implemented it this week (after reading the ebook Teaching from Rest...) and I am AMAZED at how much better our homeschool day goes!  How did I not know about this before?

 

Just curious....what's in your morning basket?

[Ethel Mertz]

For DS 12 (our one and only): Composer Study and Artist Study (alternated each week); reading of American Folktales (including First Peoples and African American); Song of the week; Poem of the week; Person of the Day; Memory Work; and - to be added in - Shakespeare.

 

I too have found our day goes much better with the addition of Morning Basket.

[momto2Cs]

Ours is an afternoon basket, because that's when we homeschool, but anyhow....

 

a book of stories/folktales/etc. for the region of the world we're studying (daily)

a mathematical read-aloud (1x weekly)

a science/nature read-aloud (1x weekly)

a historical read-aloud (1x weekly)

our rotating language arts books (grammar, word roots, literary elements, poetry)

A Shakespeare story (1x weekly)

whatever good book/literature we are reading (daily)

 

So I'll give you our current titles to give you a better idea of what we cover...

The Girl Who Married a Lion & Other Tales from Africa

The Man Who Counted

Swampwalker's Journal: A Wetlands Year

Poop Happened! A History of the World from the Bottom Up

The Tempest (story version)

The Marvelous Land of the Snergs

 

Our language arts books are The Giggly Guide to Grammar, The Word Snoop, Figuratively Speaking, and currently Emily Dickinson's poetry, which will be switched out for Edgar Allen Poe in October.

 

Sometimes short stories/picture books still sneak their way into the basket too! I don't think anyone is ever too old for a beautiful book.

 

[SemiSweet]

I love the way this sounds. How do you implement it? How does it make your day go better? Please tell me more! :)

[Chelli]

We LOVE our Morning Meeting time!

 

Here's a blog post on the how and why of our Morning Meeting: Morning Meeting Makeover

 

Here's a blog post on the what of our Morning Meeting: Morning Meeting Resources for 2014

[lots of little ducklings]

This is our first year using one too… and it has been a phenomenal success. Even my 2 year old shrieks with delight when I call for Morning Meeting, and can babble off the timeline and Dickinson with the best of them (though you can only understand half of what she's saying.)  :001_smile:

 

Our basket includes:

• memory work (CC memory work like our Acts and Facts cards, Grammar definitions, Scripture memory cards, Poetry + Literature passages, Latin cards, and anything else that comes along… I haven't included math yet because we do that during math time.)
• blob-map supplies
• calendar time supplies (for my kindy-4 and kindy-5)
• My Bible
• Training Hearts Teaching Minds: Family Devotions Based on the Shorter Catechism (Starr Meade).  This pairs well with Holly Dutton's excellent (pleasant even for adults!) memory song CDs for learning the catechism… just be sure to teach your children Dutton's traditional wording, not Meade's updated wording.
• Hymns 
• Shakespeare (currently Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare - E Nesbit)
• Homer (The Children's Homer by Padraic Colum has been a big hit)
• Poetry (currently I'm swapping out volumes from the Poetry for Young People series… my children love them)
• a few teacher items: my daily list for each child, a daily memory-work checklist (not that I aim to accomplish it all each day; this just serves to remind me what i did yesterday so I'm not consistently skipping the same things), and my pencil-and-paper planner (in which I journal our accomplishments after-the-fact). 

How we implement it:

• typically mornings, for 30-45 minutes, in a circle on our living room floor.  On a couple of days, we switch to afternoons so that my kindy 4 (who attends nursery school) can take part.  Hadn't planned on this, but she loves it and hates to miss out.  And if we can't meet formally for some reason, I just sprinkle as many elements of our morning meeting into the cracks of our day (timeline at the park, science over lunch, poetry before bed…)
• Devotionals, however, occur over breakfast (this is Bible and Meade). 
• And lengthy literature passages like Homer or long readings of Shakespeare are done over tea-time in the afternoon (another huuuuge success I added in this year… love the great ideas I find on these forums!) 
• For memory work that doesn't already have cards, I print it out in large font, MCT style, using colors and occasionally images.  Even my non-readers have found this helpful.  I print on white 65lb card stock so that it will hold up to wear and tear.  
• You Tube has been helpful for learning hymns, since I'm not exactly the world's best vocalist.
• I'm not organized enough yet for fancy memory games… we just repeat what we are learning, typically in some chant-style that I make up on the spot. I also make up hand motions on the spot if I've had enough coffee to think creatively.  If they are extra-wiggly (well, they are always wiggly, but when they realllllly start to annoy me), we do our memory work while jumping or some such thing. Fridays are our Memory Mastery days (we aren't part of a CC group, so this is our next best thing).  On Fridays, we spend a little longer at Morning Time so that everyone can individually demonstrate what they've mastered, and for each item (say, a verse or the week's timeline cards or a poem), they get a treat.  In our case, a chocolate chip dropped into their mouths, because that's what's in our cupboard right now.  Just like puppies.  And just as effective.   :D  Maybe not so useful for kids older than mine, but then again, chocolate is a great motivator even for me.  
• Poetry is saved until the end of our meeting, since it's everyone's favorite and can be dangled like a carrot when behavior issues make it necessary.  I might also throw in a short real-aloud after poetry, since everyone is together anyway.  

 

 HTH!  YMMV, but adding Morning Time (and Tea Time) this year has transformed our school days.  So much more has been accomplished, and it's been so enjoyable!   And no basket is needed if you can organize your supplies some other way… though logistically that's really helpful for us.  

[lots of little ducklings]

We LOVE our Morning Meeting time!

 

Here's a blog post on the how and why of our Morning Meeting: Morning Meeting Makeover

 

Here's a blog post on the what of our Morning Meeting: Morning Meeting Resources for 2014

 

Yes! We posted simultaneously so you can ignore everything I said and just read Chelli's blog.  (Thank you, Chelli, for helping me figure this all out too… really appreciate your blog!)

[Angelaburke1000]

It's a favorite cornerstone around here too . . .

 

Every day:

Bible

Memory work

 

Loop:

My Book House - I alternate between the nursery rhyme book (2yr old loves it), and the others, working our way through.

ELTL

Beautiful Stories From Shakespeare

Hymn Study

Bug of the Week

Artist Study

Mad Libs

 

 

Loved it so much that I filled a basket by the couch with our current read aloud books to create a "couch time" after lunch.  We aren't as consistent with this yet, but love the looping, and the easy lovely focus on good books.  I keep lots of history books related to our current studies, a living science book, a beautiful atlas, and something math-y (a board game, a living book, a set of dice) on hand.

[Mrs. A]

So funny that you brought this up today since I literally just finished blogging about it. :) There is so much I didn't say there... I may have to do more posts, but we'll see... 

[Coco_Clark]

We do everyday: prayers, bible, memory work (right now our major bones), a poem (right one AA Milne), a read aloud chapter (Pinocchio), and each kid gets to pick a picture book (so three books). The last keeps the 2 yo somewhat out of mischief, because if he wanders too far he'll miss the cue to bring me his book, lol.

 

We pick one saint a week to honor and read about them on their Saint day (it replaces bible that day) and Fridays we read about a composer, listen to classical music, and have nature study but that's our only "rotation". Last year I rotated more but those subjects all got moved to the afternoon this year.

[IsabelC]

Loving all the ideas.

 

How do those with older kids keep them interested? Both my girls (9 and 6) have asked to do Circle Time like we used to do last time they were home schooled, but Mr. 11 is really against the idea. I think it would be good for him, but I don't want him there if he hasn't got the "happy heart", so maybe I should let that go and just give him something else to do during that time?

[rimk3]

Loving all the ideas.

 

How do those with older kids keep them interested? Both my girls (9 and 6) have asked to do Circle Time like we used to do last time they were home schooled, but Mr. 11 is really against the idea. I think it would be good for him, but I don't want him there if he hasn't got the "happy heart", so maybe I should let that go and just give him something else to do during that time?

I don't have a child resistant to morning time or an 11 year, so I'm not sure how helpful what I have to say actually is. I do however have a child who can be grumpy and a little pessimistic. We do our morning time while we eat breakfast together. So, you could just start in with whatever you want to do and he can listen along at least while he eats. He may come around after while. Also, we incorporate jokes books into our morning time. Maybe he would find that fun. Does he still listen in on read alouds? Maybe start with a read aloud to hook him?

[Chelli]

Loving all the ideas.

 

How do those with older kids keep them interested? Both my girls (9 and 6) have asked to do Circle Time like we used to do last time they were home schooled, but Mr. 11 is really against the idea. I think it would be good for him, but I don't want him there if he hasn't got the "happy heart", so maybe I should let that go and just give him something else to do during that time?

 

When we first started Morning Meeting, my oldest (dd10) was very resistant. However, I told her that we were going to do it, she had to be there, and she had to be respectful. It took about a month, but now she's the biggest backer of Morning Meeting and gets upset if we have to skip any part of it. My advice would be to make MM a line in the sand and persevere. I would also specifically choose at least one thing to read or do that he would be interested in. For my dd that was mythology, so we always read from a variety of mythology, fables, or tales as the last thing in MM.

[Mrs. A]

Loving all the ideas.

 

How do those with older kids keep them interested? Both my girls (9 and 6) have asked to do Circle Time like we used to do last time they were home schooled, but Mr. 11 is really against the idea. I think it would be good for him, but I don't want him there if he hasn't got the "happy heart", so maybe I should let that go and just give him something else to do during that time?

 

 

I've seen recommendations for those with older kids to have them be there for the most important parts of your time, whatever those parts might be - that's your call, and then allow the olders to go and get started on independent work while you finish with the younger kids. 

[prairiegirl]

I've seen recommendations for those with older kids to have them be there for the most important parts of your time, whatever those parts might be - that's your call, and then allow the olders to go and get started on independent work while you finish with the younger kids. 

 

I was just going to suggest this.  This is the first year that I have had to deal with a child that didn't want to be included in all of Morning Time.  My 15 yr old asked if she could be involved in half of MT and then leave to  on do her own work.   This has worked out well.  She stays for Bible, poetry, Shakespeare and discussion then leaves.

[DesertBlossom]

I can't decide if I should hijack this thread or start my own... maybe I'll do both. 

 

I've read the above links and all the responses.  I've been adding books to my library lists and I'm getting excited about adding some of these things to our morning meeting. But how do you decide what? I feel like I get overwhelmed with all of the options and all of the things that.I.absolutely.must.do.right.now and then I don't do any of it. I mean, poetry. How do you decide what poems to study? Where do you even start? (Shel Silverstein is about the only poetry I ever read as a kid... that's probably most of my problem)  And if you're homeschooling multiple kids across multiple years do you go back and reread things or are you always doing something new? For memorization, how do you decide what?  Are you memorizing mostly poems? Scripture?  How many thing are you asking your kids to memorize in a week?

 

Do you keep track of books you've read and things you've memorized? 

 

 

I need fewer options apparently.

 

[DesertBlossom]

Ours is an afternoon basket, because that's when we homeschool, but anyhow....

 

a book of stories/folktales/etc. for the region of the world we're studying (daily)

a mathematical read-aloud (1x weekly)

a science/nature read-aloud (1x weekly)

a historical read-aloud (1x weekly)

our rotating language arts books (grammar, word roots, literary elements, poetry)

A Shakespeare story (1x weekly)

whatever good book/literature we are reading (daily)

 

So I'll give you our current titles to give you a better idea of what we cover...

The Girl Who Married a Lion & Other Tales from Africa

The Man Who Counted

Swampwalker's Journal: A Wetlands Year

Poop Happened! A History of the World from the Bottom Up

The Tempest (story version)

The Marvelous Land of the Snergs

 

Our language arts books are The Giggly Guide to Grammar, The Word Snoop, Figuratively Speaking, and currently Emily Dickinson's poetry, which will be switched out for Edgar Allen Poe in October.

 

Sometimes short stories/picture books still sneak their way into the basket too! I don't think anyone is ever too old for a beautiful book.

 

I don't know anything about this book (bolded), but judging by the title my boys would be all over morning meeting if we started reading that.

[scrapbabe]

Just following.

[scrapbabe]

Just discovered the idea, implemented it this week (after reading the ebook Teaching from Rest...) and I am AMAZED at how much better our homeschool day goes! How did I not know about this before?

 

Just curious....what's in your morning basket?

Can you link to the ebook?

[Angelaburke1000]

 Such good questions - I hope you do make these questions their own post!  I'd love to see others answer!

 

I relate to feeling overwhelmed!  There is so much wonderful, beautiful content in the world I'd love them to know by heart.

I can't decide if I should hijack this thread or start my own... maybe I'll do both. 

 

I've read the above links and all the responses.  I've been adding books to my library lists and I'm getting excited about adding some of these things to our morning meeting. But how do you decide what?

 

The book Living Memory is a great start for content.  A treasure trove!  I went through and printed out my favorites across subjects:  Poems, Hymns, folksongs, history, geography, science.  I then prioritized them by subjects we're studying this year and stuck them in my giant 3 ring memory binder.  We used to use a recipe card holder, but as memory work takes on importance in our homeschool, and as the length of our selections grows a binder seems to work better.

 

The current work is in the front of our binder, followed by a review section, followed by all the new content separated by subject.  

 

In addition to selections from the book I've made a section for scripture memory work, and Shakespeare has a section, there's also a random selection of things they should know (my phone number, our address, months of the year).  I'm constantly adding poems too . . . can't ever resist them!  

 

 

I feel like I get overwhelmed with all of the options and all of the things that.I.absolutely.must.do.right.now and then I don't do any of it. I mean, poetry. How do you decide what poems to study? Where do you even start?

 

 We also use Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization.  It almost feels like it's own subject since we use primarily the cd version in the car and don't memorize those poems with the rest of our morning time memory work.  We don't  do math facts during morning time either, those happen during math lessons.

 

 

(Shel Silverstein is about the only poetry I ever read as a kid... that's probably most of my problem)  And if you're homeschooling multiple kids across multiple years do you go back and reread things or are you always doing something new?

 

I'm not sure . . .  mine are still so young (7.5, 6 and 2).  I tend to think we'll keep moving onto new things, but who knows?  We have been teaching the 2yr old my phone number and the days of the week song . . . so I suppose there will be at least some practical repeats?

 

For memorization, how do you decide what?  Are you memorizing mostly poems? Scripture?  How many thing are you asking your kids to memorize in a week?

 

 

I prioritize scripture and poetry, and I never worry about a certain amount per week.  There is far more in my binder than we'll ever get to this year, and I'll just keep adding!  We just work on a selection until they have it, and I pull out review items at random.  Cindy Rollins once mentioned on her blog that one of the very first selections they memorized was:

 

"Little drops of water, 

little grains of sand, 

make the might ocean

and the beauteous land."

 

Hymn by Julia Carney - probably public domain, but not a complete quote in light of new forum rules! The point stands though, every bit of soul formation yields results. 

 

Do you keep track of books you've read and things you've memorized? 

 

Only if you count the review section of our folder.

 

 

 

 

 

[Mrs. A]

I can't decide if I should hijack this thread or start my own... maybe I'll do both. 

 

I've read the above links and all the responses.  I've been adding books to my library lists and I'm getting excited about adding some of these things to our morning meeting. But how do you decide what? I feel like I get overwhelmed with all of the options and all of the things that.I.absolutely.must.do.right.now and then I don't do any of it. I mean, poetry. How do you decide what poems to study? Where do you even start? (Shel Silverstein is about the only poetry I ever read as a kid... that's probably most of my problem)  And if you're homeschooling multiple kids across multiple years do you go back and reread things or are you always doing something new? For memorization, how do you decide what?  Are you memorizing mostly poems? Scripture?  How many thing are you asking your kids to memorize in a week?

 

Do you keep track of books you've read and things you've memorized? 

 

 

I need fewer options apparently.

 

 

It can be overwhelming, but it's also lots of fun to choose what will be part of it. 

 

Ours sort of developed organically in the sense that I simply expanded on something we were already doing. We had been reading the Bible and lives of the saints daily at breakfast, then I saw the SCM scripture memory system and so decided to add in scripture memory. Then we branched out to poetry and once we started using SWR I added phonogram review to this time. After awhile it was getting rather long for breakfast time so I moved it to a bit later in the morning after breakfast was over. Now we start with morning prayers first. From there we kept what we'd been doing but also added in rotating content subjects using the resources I'd already decided on for the year. 

 

For poetry I randomly picked poems I liked from The Harp and the Laurel Wreath and as the kids have developed a taste for it they sometimes request poems that they'd like to learn as we come across them.

 

We learn one poem/scripture passage at a time. We say it together every day (actually it's usually me reading it aloud and them listening) until they can recite it back to me perfectly. Sometimes this takes a very long time, other times they learn quickly. It really depends on the length of the piece and how well they are paying attention. I give it plenty of time to really sink in. Then it moves behind the next tab based on the SCM system linked above. 

[Mrs. A]

Can you link to the ebook?

 

 

Teaching from Rest 

[lots of little ducklings]

I can't decide if I should hijack this thread or start my own... maybe I'll do both. 

 

I've read the above links and all the responses.  I've been adding books to my library lists and I'm getting excited about adding some of these things to our morning meeting. But how do you decide what? I feel like I get overwhelmed with all of the options and all of the things that.I.absolutely.must.do.right.now and then I don't do any of it. I mean, poetry. How do you decide what poems to study? Where do you even start? (Shel Silverstein is about the only poetry I ever read as a kid... that's probably most of my problem)  And if you're homeschooling multiple kids across multiple years do you go back and reread things or are you always doing something new? For memorization, how do you decide what?  Are you memorizing mostly poems? Scripture?  How many thing are you asking your kids to memorize in a week?

 

Do you keep track of books you've read and things you've memorized? 

 

 

I need fewer options apparently.

 

Hmmm… so this may give you even more options than you want, but i found it really helpful, myself.  It's Cindy Rollins' 31 days to Morning Time (originally on Ordo Amoris… still choking up over that loss.  :sad: ) 

 

I know nothing about poetry, never read Homer or Plutarch, haven't ever studied Latin, and was almost never expected to memorize anything in ps growing up.  So all this was rather intimidating to me too.  Honestly, though, diving in and just doing it taught me it wasn't really all that scary!

 

For memory, we do a memory verse program through my children's Sunday School.  We also started with Classical Conversations memory work last year (at home, not part of a group), but didn't get very far then. However, incorporating it into Morning Time this year has made all the difference. CC happens to be an easy go-to source for memory work ideas (it is Christian, though that really only impacts the choice of some timeline events), but there are lots of other sources out there too (like Living Memory).  Just start slowly and make it fun and enjoyable.  A little bit each day; not the occasional cram-session. 

 

The children's versions of Homer, Shakespeare, Plutarch, etc, are also not very daunting. Loop them, or just pick what you think your family will like best right now.

 

And picking poetry? I literally just started reading from one of my newly acquired colorfully illustrated children's poetry books.  My dc were fascinated, begged for more, and so (again on a last-minute whim) I picked a relatively short Dickinson poem on autumn to memorize.  Three weeks into our year they've got the whole poem (plus another) memorized, and we quote lines about berries with plump cheeks as we wander in parks.  It's great, it's easy, it's not so frightening after all.  

 

Have fun, and read this. (it's not really about morning time, but was just the kick-in-the-butt I needed, so, I share! :001_smile: )

[lots of little ducklings]

Loving all the ideas.

 

How do those with older kids keep them interested? Both my girls (9 and 6) have asked to do Circle Time like we used to do last time they were home schooled, but Mr. 11 is really against the idea. I think it would be good for him, but I don't want him there if he hasn't got the "happy heart", so maybe I should let that go and just give him something else to do during that time?

 

Mine are all little so I haven't faced this, but Cindy Rollins talks about it here.  

 

HTH!

Rebecca

[FairProspects]

Loving all the ideas.

 

How do those with older kids keep them interested? Both my girls (9 and 6) have asked to do Circle Time like we used to do last time they were home schooled, but Mr. 11 is really against the idea. I think it would be good for him, but I don't want him there if he hasn't got the "happy heart", so maybe I should let that go and just give him something else to do during that time?

 

My boys are allowed to make hot cocoa or hot cider and get comfortable for Morning Meeting. Sometimes they also get Legos to build while they listen. Otherwise we do not have food or treats in the school room so that is a big incentive to relax and enjoy it. I also pick books I know they will like. I'm not sure what you used to do for Circle Time, but maybe changing the name to be something older sounding and using resources more geared to older children and not requiring output would help? My boys know they will not be required to do anything other than listen, question, & discuss so they want to participate.

[DesertBlossom]

Hmmm… so this may give you even more options than you want, but i found it really helpful, myself.  It's Cindy Rollins' 31 days to Morning Time (originally on Ordo Amoris… still choking up over that loss.  :sad: ) 

 

 

 

Okay, wow. I get that she's been doing this for 25 years and that her youngest are now teenagers. But sheesh, her morning times are certainly impressive. Most of the time I had no idea who or what she was talking about. (apparently my public school education was lacking) Can we go back to the poop book for my 8, 7 and 6 year olds? :P

[SemiSweet]

Teaching from Rest

I just downloaded the sample, I'm excited!

[Mrs. A]

Okay, wow. I get that she's been doing this for 25 years and that her youngest are now teenagers. But sheesh, her morning times are certainly impressive. Most of the time I had no idea who or what she was talking about. (apparently my public school education was lacking) Can we go back to the poop book for my 8, 7 and 6 year olds? :p

 

 

 

If you read through the whole series you'll see that she talks about how it started and how it evolved over the years. You don't have to start with Shakespeare and Plutarch. :) Just choose things that your family will enjoy and then you can gradually broaden their horizons. 

[momto2Cs]

My basket contets and approach have definitely changed over the years as my kids have gotten older. I gear the books I choose now to be enjoyable by noth my children, who are 11 and 13. We now alternate the contents into our regular studies, so it goes something like this...

 

short story (tied into our geography studies)

 

Then I read our focus of the day (history, science, etc.)

 

They go off and do math

 

We come back together to do our language arts focus of the day

 

They go off to do writing, reading, etc.

 

And we finish up with whatever literature we are reading at the moment

 

So for us, it is not really Circle Time anymore. I use it more as a way to cover topics we might not get to otherwise. When they were younger, it was definitely more of a circle time type approach, but now that they are older, this seems to work well.

[tjlcc]

Our current resources for Morning Time include:

 

The Story of the Middle Ages

SCM's Geography (Europe)

Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream (Aliki's picture book of Shakespeare, then picture books, then Lamb's version, followed by audio)

Beautiful Feet's Teaching Character through Literature

Nature Friend magazine

100 Classic Poems

Favorite Childhood Poems

Heaven for Kids

SCM's Picture Study

Hymns (youtube)

Mozart (audio cd and youtube)

Genesis 1 (memorizing)

 

When we finish Midsummer, I'd like to try Plutarch using AO's guide.

 

Off to check out all your resources and links.  Thanks.

[Chelli]

Our current resources for Morning Time include:

 

The Story of the Middle Ages

SCM's Geography (Europe)

Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream (Aliki's picture book of Shakespeare, then picture books, then Lamb's version, followed by audio)

Beautiful Feet's Teaching Character through Literature

Nature Friend magazine

100 Classic Poems

Favorite Childhood Poems

Heaven for Kids

SCM's Picture Study

Hymns (youtube)

Mozart (audio cd and youtube)

Genesis 1 (memorizing)

 

When we finish Midsummer, I'd like to try Plutarch using AO's guide.

 

Off to check out all your resources and links.  Thanks.

 

How do you like the bolded? I've been thinking of using SCM's geography series in our Morning Meeting, but I wasn't sure how it would work.

[tjlcc]

How do you like the bolded? I've been thinking of using SCM's geography series in our Morning Meeting, but I wasn't sure how it would work.

 

So far, so good.  I think we've completed about 9 lessons.  My oldest enjoys the map work, my 2nd is tolerating it.  We are all enjoying the books Material World and Hungry Planet even though they are outdated.  It's more real when we can see actual European families.

 

I didn't purchase any of the other recommended resources, and each lesson is done very simply.  We do any map work, review learned countries and introduce new ones, then read in Material World or Hungry Planet.  We aren't writing in the SCM guide as I want to use it with the younger children.

 

We also look at each country learned on our world map and play 10 Days in Europe often.

[SemiSweet]

Okay I read the sample of Teaching from Rest last night. I am atheist, is it worth it buy? As in, is there information that would be useful to me or more geared toward using bible verses to help one be more restful? The sample was pretty much only bible verses with a little bit of background.

[ajfries]

Okay I read the sample of Teaching from Rest last night. I am atheist, is it worth it buy? As in, is there information that would be useful to me or more geared toward using bible verses to help one be more restful? The sample was pretty much only bible verses with a little bit of background.

I'd pass. Even as a conservative Christian (though a verrrry different denomination than the author) I found it overly....preachy. I liked tidbits but found myself skipping VERY large portions of the ebook. She kind of has a habit of reaching to apply biblical accounts to education. I really loved the audio files though. I think one is available free on the Circe website.

[Chelli]

I'd pass. Even as a conservative Christian (though a verrrry different denomination than the author) I found it overly....preachy. I liked tidbits but found myself skipping VERY large portions of the ebook. She kind of has a habit of reaching to apply biblical accounts to education. I really loved the audio files though. I think one is available free on the Circe website.

 

I agree with this. I found the audio files to be the best part of the entire thing!

[SemiSweet]

I'd pass. Even as a conservative Christian (though a verrrry different denomination than the author) I found it overly....preachy. I liked tidbits but found myself skipping VERY large portions of the ebook. She kind of has a habit of reaching to apply biblical accounts to education. I really loved the audio files though. I think one is available free on the Circe website.

Okay, thanks, that's kind of what I thought. I don't usually do audio anything, because I don't retain things I hear, but maybe I'll give the free one a try.

[Chelli]

Okay, thanks, that's kind of what I thought. I don't usually do audio anything, because I don't retain things I hear, but maybe I'll give the free one a try.

 

I sat and took notes because I don't remember things I hear either, but there was such good information in those three audios that I wanted to jot it down.

[ajfries]

And to the OP...our morning time is crazy laid back. We do it at the kitchen table while the kids eat. We are currently memorizing the books of the bible, and we just completed our phone number & address. For books, we have Come Look with Me (an art book--we have the animals one. Love it!) We also have Children Just Like me, we have an Aesop's Fables (though I'm not thrilled with our version), this book of poems, a joke book (a big hit around here!), SOTW (and the Usbourne encyclopedia to go with it). Some times we'll consider a scripture that is extra pertinent :) What we really need to do is include a prayer.  Things start unraveling towards the end, so we really should do it at the beginning (that just occurred to me--duh).

 

Honestly, I just grab what inspires me on that particular day. There's no latin, no Shakespeare, no composer study (maybe when they're older)...it's nothing that would inspire Cindy Rollings, I'm sure :). Our morning time doesn't last more than 10-20 minutes (MAX!) but it does set a good tone for the day, and I like to think that I'm laying the groundwork for amazing things to come.

[Mrs. A]

 

Honestly, I just grab what inspires me on that particular day. There's no latin, no Shakespeare, no composer study (maybe when they're older)...it's nothing that would inspire Cindy Rollings, I'm sure :). Our morning time doesn't last more than 10-20 minutes (MAX!) but it does set a good tone for the day, and I like to think that I'm laying the groundwork for amazing things to come.

 

 

My guess is that she *would* be inspired because you're wise enough to be teaching the kids you have in front of you rather than trying to make them for some preconceived notion of what a "good" morning time is supposed to be. 

[ajfries]

My guess is that she *would* be inspired because you're wise enough to be teaching the kids you have in front of you rather than trying to make them for some preconceived notion of what a "good" morning time is supposed to be. 

 

Awww! That makes me feel all warm and fuzzy! You're probably right. Thank you, for pointing that out  :wub:

[mommymilkies]

I'd pass. Even as a conservative Christian (though a verrrry different denomination than the author) I found it overly....preachy. I liked tidbits but found myself skipping VERY large portions of the ebook. She kind of has a habit of reaching to apply biblical accounts to education. I really loved the audio files though. I think one is available free on the Circe website.

Thanks!  I was wondering this, too.  I wish there was a secular equivalent. :p

 

We do Circle time in the morning sometimes.  We do CC memory work from a book I bought, SSL, TPR French, seasonal songs and rhymes and movement, little geography quizzes, skip counting, etc.  

 

Then we also do a Morning Basket type thing before lunch.  Sometimes earlier, but I've been hugging my coffee for a long time lately because of sleeping issues.  Every day we read from history and literature and we rotate through geography, science, and language arts type books.  

 

Napoleon's Buttons is a great read aloud for middle school & high school science.  

 

Right now we are reading: Complete Book of Marvels (geography), The Mysterious Benedict Society (lit), History of US (history), The Blue Fairy Book, and a few books on plants and Japan for the younger kids.  A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe, Jousting Armadillos, and Giggly Grammar are up next in the stack. 

[Jyhwkmama]

I want to thank everyone for this thread. The last two days I have started our day by just reading to my son and it has made it easier to get him started on school. I plan on increasing the amount of time with some of these suggestions.

[jkl]

We call ours Read on the Couch time. When my 7 month old goes down for her morning nap, I pull out a big tote bag and spread the books out on the floor. The bag contains the Jesus Storybook Bible or Leading Little Ones to God, 2 living math books, any FIAR go-alongs, a Ruth Heller or Brian Cleary grammar book, High Five magazine (for my 3 year old), a poetry book, a history picture books, a non-fiction sciency book, and random picture books. Everyone (including me) picks a book, and we read the youngests selection first, then the next youngest, etc. When that round is done, we go around again. At the 45 minute mark,I read a picture book that goes along with my 3 year old's LOTW, and then I move to spending time with her. At meal times, we do our chapter book and nature stories and Aesop's Fables. Love it!

[Peplophoros]

Thanks everone for the posts!  

 

Here's my updated Morning Basket contents (obviously we don't do it all every day)

 

Bible

Devotional Stories for Little Folks/Baltimore Catechism

Morning Exercises for All the Year (what a find!!!!  short, daily readings with morals?  Yes, please!)

D'Aulaire Greek Mythology

Living Memory (just ordered this last night--haven't been doing any memory work at all, time to start!)

Atlas (we're constantly looking up places we read about)

Young People's History of Art

Real Science 4 Kids Astronomy

Couple volumes from My Book House series (LOVE these!!)

 

 

plus tons and tons and TONS of Jim Weiss stories on my ipod speakers.  

 

I love it!!  It makes our morning so wonderful, my kids less cranky, and me more relaxed.  I won't ever go back to checking off the subjects again!

 

 

[Peplophoros]

Thanks everone for the posts!  

 

Here's my updated Morning Basket/Morning Time books (obviously we don't do it all every day)

 

Bible

Devotional Stories for Little Folks/Baltimore Catechism

Morning Exercises for All the Year (what a find!!!!  short, daily readings with morals?  Yes, please!)

D'Aulaire Greek Mythology

Living Memory (just ordered this last night--haven't been doing any memory work at all, time to start!)

Atlas (we're constantly looking up places we read about)

Young People's History of Art

Real Science 4 Kids Astronomy

Couple volumes from My Book House series (LOVE these!!)

 

 

plus tons and tons and TONS of Jim Weiss stories on my ipod speakers.  

 

I love it!!  It makes our morning so wonderful, my kids less cranky, and me more relaxed.  I won't ever go back to checking off the subjects again!

To keep little hands busy while listening I have

 

puzzles

lots of Usborne coloring/activity books with markers

legos (theoretically, but my kids have been fighting over them, so not so much anymore)

wikki stix

lacing cards

random busy bags

chess set