Morning Time with older kids

[jjeepa]

Does anyone do Morning Time or something similar with their older kids?  If so, how do you fit it into your schedule and what do you cover during that time?  I have a 7th and 11th grader and they both have their outsourced classes in the morning and I'm teaching separate subjects in the afternoons.  It's tough to make time together happen and when I do, my oldest is stressed about the work that's waiting for him.  I might need to add some spark to draw him in  - help!

[Faithr]

I do morning time with my two teens.  But this semester sometimes it happens at lunch or dinner!  For us it is also a gathering time to figure out what's going on each day.  We usually do it over meals.  

[MerryAtHope]

Our morning time is going over the previous day's work or discussion (I tend to rotate the subjects we discuss--science, a literature book, history or other subject etc..., so we're not trying to cover everything in a day), and then Bible reading. It's our time to connect and set up the day, touch base etc...

[jjeepa]

 

I do morning time with my two teens.  But this semester sometimes it happens at lunch or dinner!  For us it is also a gathering time to figure out what's going on each day.  We usually do it over meals.  

Faithr, I've never tried meeting over a meal.  They consider themselves on a "break" while eating.  They might roll with it though - something to try.  Thanks  :001_smile:

[jjeepa]

MerryAtHope, do you meet first thing in the morning?  My biggest obstacle is that they get up at different times.  My daughter is a gymnast and spends over 25 hours in the gym each week so I let her sleep later.  It's tricky finding a good time.  I am starting to think that maybe meeting together at the end of the day, or at dinner, might work . . . more of a wrap up than a day planning meeting.  Hmmmm.

Edited January 17, 2016 by jjeepa

[dhudson]

I do a morning time but it's generally mid morning. We pray, talk through the day, read poetry, have history discussions, and then we are reading SWB's, "Story of Western Science".

 

We usually have a hot drink, a treat or a snack while we are doing it.

Edited January 18, 2016 by dhudson

[MerryAtHope]

MerryAtHope, do you meet first thing in the morning?  My biggest obstacle is that they get up at different times.  My daughter is a gymnast and spends over 25 hours in the gym each week so I let her sleep later.  It's tricky finding a good time.  I am starting to think that maybe meeting together at the end of the day, or at dinner, might work . . . more of a wrap up than a day planning meeting.  Hmmmm.

 

When I was homeschooling two, I used to do a one on one time with one of mine while the other did history, then we met together for Bible, and then I did one on one with the second. My oldest has graduated, so I'm only homeschooling one, so I just do it whenever she's up!

[AimeeM]

We do Morning Time with my oldest (DD14), but I have younger kids as well, so not exactly your situation.

Morning Time is, hands-down, her favorite part of the day. She still loves recitation and read alouds :)

[Homeschoolmom3]

I agree it can be tricky when you have several kids to juggle.  This year the time has varied depending on the day.  Usually it is right after lunch or right before dinner because my kids schedule varies.  However one day a week it is after dinner!  We do Bible, some memory work, different readings (varies on the day from poetry, artists, composer, Shakespeare, science reading, etc.) It lasts about 1 hr. we are also going through Pillar of Iron this year (we are finishing our Roman study and the kids are really into it)  I still make it a priority, I enjoy being involved in their learning and it is nice to have some time set aside that we are all learning together.  I'll be doing morning time until they leave the house!  :)

[Faithr]

I recall that when my oldest was in 12th grade, she was taking an early morning Spanish class a couple times a week at the community college plus working shift work part time at Starbucks, so frankly I only included her in our morning time when she happened to be home, otherwise I just focused on the other 4 kids.

[katilac]

Are you using Morning Time just as a name for 'time when teacher and all students are together?'

 

I think it's very difficult to make happen on a daily basis when one or more of the students is in high school, because there IS a lot for them to do.

 

It helps if the students are studying at least one topic together - for instance, they may be doing different levels of history, but both studying the modern era. In that case, you can use the time for discussion, reading a short work, quizzing, and so on. You definitely want it to be part of the work the high schooler already has, not additional work or enrichment (although I'm sure some manage this!). The exception to enrichment is when you can pull it off outside of the normal school day or homework time. 

 

Even then, daily is not easy, and varying schedules only make it harder. 

 

To truly make it part of the school day and not have the busy student rebel, you need to plan ahead of time and incorporate it into their ongoing work, so it's best to center it around subjects they study at home. Reading and/or discussing short works counts toward the English credit; don't plan an entire English credit and then add on 'morning time' discussions. Same for history: discussion, short readings, watching documentaries or youtube videos of events needs to be part of the planned credit.

 

Of course you're going to find cool things along the way you want to add in, and that's great, just make sure to judiciously trim from the rest of the week or semester. Even the most enthusiastic student can be dismayed when they are pulled away from required work to do something extra on an already-long day. 

 

If you're mostly wanting that educational connection and together time,you could also aim for something engaging and simple in the late afternoon or evening, once a week or so.  

 

This is what works best for us to pull that off: 

• Have a set date & time OR let them know ahead of time if you require participation; otherwise, I often just say "dad and I are going to do such-and-such if anyone wants to join in' and they do so more often than not
• Don't plan a time or bring it up unless you absolutely know you can have everything planned and ready to go 
• Keep it short, 15-20 minutes unless it's an exceptional activity 
• Everyone participating, including both mom and dad 
• Extra fun snacks go a long way towards building enthusiasm 
• If there's a TV show you watch as a family, do it right before that 
• TED talks or similar, tv shows or movies in the foreign language they are studying, games, quick updates on their week (again, including mom and dad) 
• Don't forget that fun activities and 'field trips' can be just as worthwhile, and often more enticing 
• Keep in mind that the time constraints of high school are very real, and respect what they have to get done 

[Rebecca]

I do this. I renamed it Circle Time (it was Morning meeting) because we meet in the afternoon or late morning this year.

 

I have 2 in high school and 4 younger students. Then three littles.

 

This year, we started meeting twice a week rather than trying for every day. Working much much better. Once wasn't enough. Twice feels good.

 

I have a printed agenda I follow in order (generally) each time.

 

We meet Tuesday afternoons and Friday at 11. I find it goes much better if I provide a treat of some sort.

 

This time, although often hard and not "fun", is some of the most precious of our week and I always feel strongly compelled to be faithful to it when we miss too much.

 

What we cover and is important to me:

Hymn Singing, Prayer requests/Prayer, Scripture Focus (longer passage like Psalm 121), Poetry Focus (current focus:The Tide rises, The Tide falls Longfellow), Poetry memorization (IEW), Our 24 Family Ways -one way a week, compliments (my kids write little praises for their siblings confidentially and I read them out loud - this is a "team" building, family strengthening tradition we implemented during a very intense season a few years ago and it is still serving us) gratitude journal (pass around with pen),Fine Art study(brief biography, pass around art, Composer Study(brief biography, listen to piece on Youtube), on Fridays we read an act of a Shakespeare play. My teens love this. We actually listen to a dramatized audio using the Simply Charlotte Mason kits. We are reading The Taming of the Shrew. They love it. I close with a Scriptural blessing.

 

We major on poetry because I believe it stretches the mind and language capacity/ability (as does Shakespeare) Plus I love it and this is a time when I give them part of myself.

 

I keep it short and sweet. Without Shakespeare, we can meet in 30 minutes. This keeps my 10th grader from completely stressing out about all his other work.

 

I hope this helps you! It can be done even during busy seasons.

[lllll]

nm

Edited February 2, 2016 by - 8 95

[Free Indeed]

We still do. I have 3 left in school (soon to be 2!) and we start at 9 with a daily devotion or Bible reading, and family read aloud. Then the highschoolers leave and my 7th grader and I do her history and a read aloud.

[theelfqueen]

My 9th grader and I start our day with morning meeting. We go over any appointments or schedule needs for the day. Then, We go over his assignment/to do list.

He assigns each assignment to one of his three "blocks" (ie. 8:15-10:15 is #1, 10:30-12:30 is #2 and 1:00-3:00 is #3) if I am needed for specific assignments (ie. I do Algebra corrections with him, Russian with him, Econ lessons some days) then we plan so that those are more grouped together or spread out or whatever suits my needs for the day. And then we're off and running.

[G5052]

Yes, more important than you may appreciate, depending on your family dynamics. We've always done something with breakfast, although it's gotten more informal over the years.

 

This school year I'm tied up MW from 8am-noon with work, and both of mine have said they miss me at breakfast. Yes, even the college guy. 

 

So next school year I'm not doing that. I moved everything later in the day.

 

Of course we may still miss each other with schedules and such, but it doesn't take long to eat a muffin and drink tea together most days of the week. In the old days I read to them, but they seem to want to just chat now. Yesterday one wanted to talk about his English professor, and the other wanted to talk about what she's studying next year. Both had some funny observations about zombies in modern culture. I think it's just nice to start the day together that way now that we pretty much are going our own ways during the day. 

[jjeepa]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone and sorry for the delay in response. I had a car accident just a few days after posting that resulted in a concussion. I've been slowly returning to computer/screen use. What an ordeal! The downtime did allow me to rethink our homeschool daily schedule and my goal is to meet with them both immediately after a shortened lunch break and see if we can keep that consistent for a while.