ktgrok Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 Ok, so I've got the 3 Rs down with my kindy girl. Looking to the future and trying to add in some "content" stuff, I've put together a box of stuff that I can grab and go from. Has a book of poetry in it, A Child's Book of Virtues, a book of Nursery Rhymes, and a story book (Uncle Wiggly). Most days..okay, some days, I grab it after lunch and read from that box, grabbing what strikes my fancy. I'm starting to realize this is KIND OF like the idea of a morning basket time, maybe? Except in the afternoon, lol. So, can you talk to me more about this? We are also working on memorizing the Lord's Prayer, (often while in the car), and trying to fit in more religion. Some Saint's Stories and some stuff from Telling God's Story. What I'm thinking is, I could take all this random stuff and make a loop schedule for it maybe? So: Telling God's Story Bede's History of Me (just got this yesterday, it's adorable) Poetry and Nursery Rhymes CLP Nature Reader (ordering today) Uncle Wiggly Saint's Stories A Child's Book of Virtues And just do one each day? Rotating through them? Maybe say the prayer she's working on first, then do one of the above? For art we do a lot of drawing, and we watch Rick Steve's Documentaries that touch on the art of each country. For music I want to get some CDs to play in the car with folk songs and such. Does that seem kind of in line with Charlotte Mason style work? We are kind of Charlotte Masonish, kind of 1 room schoolroom ish . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
73349 Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 Sounds about right to me! Our basket currently contains our memory work booklet, a children's book of Bible stories, SOTW 2, The Forest Unseen, Busy Times, Social Rules for Kids, The Children's Treasury of Classic Poetry, and Q & A a Day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted October 25, 2015 Author Share Posted October 25, 2015 Ok, somehow I thought I was supposed to be doing ALL of these things every day...history, science, religion, poetry, stories, etc etc. I'd rather right now do the three Rs, memory work, and then one or two of the above, not all of them. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lea_lpz Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 I think most moms feel you have to do it every day (at least I did). I probably made my dd listen to much more than was appropriate for k/1. My k'er this year has a much lighter load ;). Anyhow, I would try to gauge how long they can listen without zoning out. You might need to break up what you read into smaller chunks throughout the day. We tend to do a a schedule of 3 R's plus Bible, read alouds and Spanish 3x a week. Then we add in one more subject area for study---Monday art & music, Tuesday science, Wednesday history, Thursday library, nature journaling, handicrafts & cooking, Friday park day or field trips. Our read aloud schedule usually looks like this (my kids are in 3rd & K)--- Bible story in AM right after breakfast (both) 10 min K book basket after his seat work for about 10-15 min. (Picture books on our k unit theme) Historical fiction chapter book and nonfiction biography or living history type book after lunch for 3rd grader (optional listening for k'er) usually 20 min (if we don't get to this after lunch I do it before bed). Text book or reading non fiction books related to subject I do on that subject day---typically science or maybe more reading on history day, etc. This is maybe 10-20 min and optional for my k'er. So my k'er has about 20 min of "required" read aloud time. My 3rd grader about 40-60 min a day. She also does "book basket" for about 15 min a day were she reads books I gather from the library related to topics we're studying at her reading level to herself (picture and non-fic.) and free read time for 15 min where she can pick any book she likes to read for fun (beginning chapter books, magazines, etc). Thursday we substitute or library trip and nature walk journaling for 3 R's plus Bible and Spanish in the morning and do crafts and cooking in the afternoon. Friday we don't usually do anything but prep for park day or a field trip unless we are behind. I have an 18 month old and am expecting twins. So getting everyone dressed, fed, house tidied, lunch packed, and car loaded is about all I can handle in the AM. When we get home we're all ready for a nap! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
73349 Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 I think the kid's age is important for choosing how much we do a day. If she's listening well for 15 minutes, do 15 minutes, however many books that turns out to be, and loop them so they all get done. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
purplejackmama Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 We go the following daily: Singing Short devotional 2-3 poems from The Harp & Laurel Wreath Bible memory work The rest we rotate: Nature study with watercolors Famous artist/artwork study Shakespeare Composer study We have followed this schedule for years. It's a great way to start our mornings. It's fun to see the big kids teaching the little ones poems they know. My oldest joined a co op (epic failure, but that's another post ;) ) this year and was too busy for circle time. He came to me a few weeks ago telling me how much he missed it and asked to please join back in. Well that made me smile. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Targhee Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 Yes, that's the general idea. Our morning basket has daily and rotated components. The rotated components are usually one piece of art work (Mon) and one music selection a week (Tue), and the others are once a week. ish. Usually 2-3 things from the rotation. I try to not have the content too heavily scheduled - since the content is already there was n the basket ready to go, and our time is blocked for this purpose I feel more comfortable going with the flow. Daily: Scripture devotional Marie's Words vocabulary card Read aloud fiction Currently in rotation: poetry memorization (they now have individual memory work daily, this is just a family selection) Composer study (by Mom) Building Poems Figuratively Speaking MP Art study cards Book of Virtues The American Story The Children's Plutarch Fairytales from Around the World (Lang anthology) 365 Manners Kids Should Know Value Tales story books Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByGrace3 Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 I think morning basket can be anything you want it to be! We just started this year, and my goal is the "pursuit of truth, beauty, and virtue" so that is how I set it up-- Pursuit of Truth: I divided this into-- Knowing the Word: Bible reading, Scripture memory Knowing about the Word: catechism, BSGFAA's Bible summary cards. Handling the Word: books of the Bible/ Bible drills Pursuit of Beauty: Poetry memorization. I just made a list for the year and we are slowly working through them. (Art and music will find itself here eventually). Pursuit of Virtue: We are using the We Choose Virtue cards and memorizing character traits and working on those. ETA: we finish out the time with our read aloud. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbes Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 We have what we've always called "Bible Time", but it's actually that plus a bunch of other stuff. I currently have Gr. 1 + 2 and a toddler. We eat breakfast, which I always finish long before the kids do. So while they finish, I read a Bible chapter. Then someone prays (using a little photo album I put together to remind them of prayer requests). (10-15 mins) We then have memory work - some "facts", a longer Bible passage, a new poem, and a review of a previous poem. (10ish mins) Then they pull out journals and either dictate something to me (on a topic I suggest, generally), write something brief, or do a piece of copywork. While they illustrate their journal entry, I read aloud. (25ish mins) After that, we switch to individual skill work. I've found that if I start while everyone is happily captive around the table, we are much more consistent about doing this daily. The toddler sits through Bible and prayer (often still eating) and then either listens or roams and then comes back to 'write in his journal' (super cute!). He seems to love the rhythm of listening to the memory work... possibly because of voices in unison? So... what I mean by all this is that it's worked well to keep some elements consistent (Bible, prayer, memory) and rotating other things I want to include. So the read aloud, for example, could be a composer bio, a chapter from our current book, poetry, etc. The journal time could be telling about something they did, doing copywork (in the journal, often from memory work), etc. I'm mixing that up more, inspired by Brave Writer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tea 4 Three Posted October 26, 2015 Share Posted October 26, 2015 We have been using this virtue program for the past two years and we all really like it. It is explicitly Catholic. (I assumed that is okay from your post since you mentioned Saints.) We focus on a virtue for 2-3 weeks and then switch to another one. Some of the cards are oriented towards a school setting, but we easily apply them to home school and discuss. It was a little spendy, but it gets used everyday because it is laid out so nicely for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest snappymilli Posted October 26, 2015 Share Posted October 26, 2015 I think the kid's age is important for choosing how much we do a day Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted October 26, 2015 Share Posted October 26, 2015 These are good if you can find them for a reasonable price: http://www.brainbox.co.uk/brainbox-range/age-3-6We're currently using a countries of the world set at a rate of one card per day. Last year we used one on kids lit, mainly fairy tales. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momto6inIN Posted October 26, 2015 Share Posted October 26, 2015 I think morning basket can be anything you want it to be! We just started this year, and my goal is the "pursuit of truth, beauty, and virtue" so that is how I set it up-- This is what our goal is too. We all sing a hymn together first, then I put things in the rotation that don't fit neatly into any other of the "subjects" we do regularly ... devotionals, apologetics, art and music appreciation, poetry, manners, etc. Some of the materials we're currently working with are: Who Is God? series Philosophy for Kids Children's Book of Art Harp & Laurel Wreath & misc Poetry for Young People books 365 Manners Kids Should Know Story of the Orchestra 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted October 26, 2015 Author Share Posted October 26, 2015 Ooh, we have Story of the Orchestra...I should add that into the rotation. Daily we will work on memorizaton (currently the Lord's Prayer, not sure what we will do next), and next year add in some Catechism work. Poetry might end up daily as well, just because poetry is awesome :) Then rotate the rest. I like it :) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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