We finished up a few of our morning basket activities from last semester and realized that a few others, while great resources, were not working with our current dynamics. Therefore, I spent some time streamlining and revamping our plans for this semester to make sure that we could successfully accomplish our morning time without overwhelming me.
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First I considered my priorities. I knew Bible was the most important so I put that in place. Then I determined what other items I really wanted to include and could include without overwhelming us.
I knew that Bible time together was my primary goal; it was the one thing I wanted to do each day even if we couldn’t get to anything else. Our church was starting a study using the book Core 52 and we decided to use that for our morning time Bible study. We are only one week in, but so far it is a great fit.
We all enjoy our hymn study time, but sometimes we have finished studying the hymn of the month and I was struggling to remember to find other options. This semester, I am choosing one hymn each month for our hymn study but my son is choosing one hymn or praise song each week to share with us. In this way, we can go in-depth into one song but also learn three or four other songs in just a couple minutes each day.
We will be using read aloud time to cover a variety of topics from missionary biographies, Shakespeare, economics (Tuttle Twins), and poetry. Instead of trying to cover multiple subjects in a day or even a week, we are going to have all of the books for the semester in a basket and read one at a time. We will read for a few minutes each day until we are done with that book and then choose the next book.
We will be continuing to do art with Nana over at ChalkPastel.com but have decided that it fits better in our afternoon time than our morning basket time. We are going to read about some artists during our read aloud time. Also, I am considering adding a bit of Simply Charlotte Mason picture study to our morning basket, but I want us to get in a good routine of Bible, music, and read aloud each morning before I add anything else to the mix.
I have included a list of the resources we are using this semester below and I would love to hear what you are using for your morning basket. Please share in the comments!
Morning Time Resources:
Tales From Shakespeare (Wordsmith Children’s Classics)
Better Together (a great book for moms to help you organize your morning time or get renewed inspiration)
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Deals and Freebies
Little Women is only .99 on kindle right now! (Amazon prices subject to change always check before purchasing.)
FREE Baby Yoda Art Lesson from Nana!
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Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.
Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)
Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)
Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!
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Some good resources. I wish a morning basket worked well for us but for our family, it just doesn’t with my girls older and more independent. Glad you have figured out a process that is smooth for your family and I enjoy seeing what you are using. – Lori
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I have often thought about a morning basket but I am not a morning person at all so we generally start with our schooling around mid-morning and work until our late lunch.
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We aren’t early morning folks either. We normally start between 9 and 10 am.
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It was great to see something that is working well for you. We used to have an “evening basket time” as it worked well for our family. HEY…I should do a blog post on that! 🙂
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That sounds like a great idea, if you write a post I’d love to read it. We enjoy using our evenings for some subjects as well.
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Great books!! Those tuttle twins books have been on our wish list!!
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They are really good books and they have some good sales that make them very reasonably priced.
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Recently I got a good Shakespeare resource but I haven’t worked it in yet. We don’t have a morning basket. We have a tote bag for when mama gets a burst of energy to get to it.
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Love the tote bag idea
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