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pumpkinmom
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| Posted: April 25 2015 at 8:14pm | IP Logged
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Oh, how I love the Morning Basket idea and we have been doing it almost the whole time we have been homeschooling. Yet, it isn't a priority. I want it to be but if we get behind in the morning it is the first thing to go (which can be 2-4 mornings a week, eek!).
I want to start fresh next school year with some new ideas and activities. Things to keep my growing boys entertained while we learn together. I don't want it to be the first thing that is dropped.
ETA: I will have a high school student next year. I'm worried about how that is going to change our morning basket.
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Cassie
Homeschooling my little patch of Ds-14 and Ds-10
Tending the Pumpkin Patch
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Becky Parker
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| Posted: April 27 2015 at 7:23am | IP Logged
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Thanks for bringing this up, Cassie! I'm interested to hear the replies you receive. I could use a bit of revamping for my morning basket as well. The problem, I believe, with ours is I tried to do too much at a time. For some reason it takes us forever to get through the things I want to do and my boys get too wiggly (even with optional things to fidget with like Legos and clay). I need to decrease the items in my basket or somehow be more efficient with the time.
One other thought I'm considering for the coming year is making our morning basket more faith focused. Years ago, while I didn't call it "morning basket", I did start the day off with readings about saints, the Bible and other aspects of our faith and the kids often did little projects or colored a picture to go along. My kids say those were the years they learned the most, and learned to love our Catholic Faith more than ever.
I'm afraid my younger kids have missed out on that because I have changed the focus of our morning basket to other, worthy things. But I need to make at least one day a week faith focused.
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Becky
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pumpkinmom
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| Posted: April 27 2015 at 10:23am | IP Logged
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Becky, those are good points. I went wrong with scheduling too much and stuff that I would enjoy. Fine arts are a tough sale to my boys and I think I had too much. Now we hardly have any. We have just been doing a read aloud and catechism lessons using Faith & Life 5 book.
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Cassie
Homeschooling my little patch of Ds-14 and Ds-10
Tending the Pumpkin Patch
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ekbell
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| Posted: April 27 2015 at 4:05pm | IP Logged
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I've never called it morning basket but we do start the day together. Other then prayer we don't do the same thing everyday but rather a variety of things related to the liturgical year or our history study (history study includes picture study).
My high school student stays for faith related items (prayer, reading about a Saint, going over Sunday readings, liturgical year related readings), picture study and some history . She doesn't stay for our living book history read-aloud.
Given the age range (ages 3 to 16) in this house, most items are very short (so those for whom it's above or below don't lose focus) with longer items left to the end so that the children can start their independent seat work if bored.
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JuliaT
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| Posted: April 27 2015 at 6:26pm | IP Logged
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I have two teens and a pre-teen so our morning time (which is what we call it) is handled a bit differently because we don't have little people in our midst. In the past, I, too, have been guilty of squeezing too much in. This year, I have stripped MT to the bare bones. It is still 2 hrs. long but its because these things take a long time, not because there are a lot of things on the schedule.
We start MT with each child reading the Bible on their own and journaling. I then read from '50 Women Every Christian Should Know.' Every day, the next reading is different depending on the day. On Mon. I read a chapter from 'Whatever Happened to Justice' b Richard Maybury, Tues: poetry; we bring all of our poetry books to the table and each one of us pick a poem and we read it out loud, just read it, although last week, my youngest liked her poem so much, she copied it into her poetry notebook, Thurs.--(we don't have MT on Wed.) I read a short section from 'How to Read a Book' and Fri. is for a short reading from a Shakespeare play.
We, then, play a game, a card game (I play classical music while we play strictly for exposure's sake) and then we usually either do grammar as a group or we do Lost Tools of Writing. We do LToW with everyone because this is an excellent program to shore up thinking skills, so we do the discussion part as a group but my oldest is the only one who does the writing portion of the program.
Finally, I then read our read aloud.
That's it! It is simple even though it is a tad bit long but it doesn't have to be. We usually play 4 rounds of whatever game we play plus LToW takes us at least a half an hour.
At the beginning of each year I give my teens the option of opting out of MT and just getting on with their school work but they are enjoying this version of MT and both have decided to stay with us.
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Mrs. A
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| Posted: April 27 2015 at 8:55pm | IP Logged
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I try to schedule our Morning Basket time first before we do anything else. We say our morning prayers together after breakfast and that just leads right into our daily Bible reading and the Lives of the Saints. From there we do our memory work and a short section from the Sayings of the Desert Fathers and then we have a rotating schedule of family subjects (like history, art and music, Shakespeare, etc). But I think the key for us getting it done most days is having it hinged right onto our prayers. The days we skip prayers, for whatever reason, are the days it won't happen for sure.
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Erica Sanchez
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| Posted: April 30 2015 at 4:16pm | IP Logged
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I thought Pam at Ed Snapshots did a nice job summarizing what Morning Time is. I would like this to be a more consistent part of our day as well and am reading with interest.
Morning Time and How it Can Change Your Homeschool
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stellamaris
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| Posted: May 05 2015 at 10:20pm | IP Logged
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We kind of spread the "basket" type of offerings throughout the day. Two mornings a week, I will read from our nature book at breakfast, which is really before "school time" but no one cares! We are currently reading Wandering Through Winter, which will take us until summer because of our move and other craziness  . We also read aloud during lunch.
We combine hymns, some Bible reading (the daily Gospel and a psalm--we have more during our lesson time), prayers, and a book about a saint in our opening (which is really all the formal "basket" time we have). We are really enjoying our current saint read: St. Athanasius
I personally prefer to use picture study, composer study, nature study, poetry, geography, and Shakespeare to break up the "heavier" academic subjects of math, literature, composition, history, and Latin. Therefore, I tuck those "fun" subjects in between the harder ones to give a kind of mental respite during the day. I find that helps me as well as the children. Charlotte Mason recommends this practice of varying the types of mental effort as the student works through the day.
I tried once to add a lot more to the morning routine (like all of our read-alouds, poetry, picture study,etc.), but maybe I'm just too type A!  I found myself getting all antsy and anxious and pushing through the morning stuff to get on to the heavier academics--kind of defeating the purpose of a relaxed and interesting morning  . My mantra was: We gotta' do math, we gotta' do math!!!!!! This wouldn't be a problem for most people, but it was for me! So, for me, it works better if I can have a short opening and then get on to the difficult subjects, scattering the 'fun' stuff throughout the day.
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Caroline
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SallyT
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| Posted: May 06 2015 at 11:43am | IP Logged
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On that theme, Caroline, I know that some people like to start the day with math -- to do it while people are fresh. Copywork, too -- that's often been my day-starter.
So one option (if one feels rushed to get on to the "real" academics) would be to go ahead and start with something that you'd otherwise be rushing to get to, like math -- maybe a block where you have people doing math, copywork, and some other independent table work in rotation, so that you can help whoever needs help and not feel pulled in many directions.
Get those things done while fresh. THEN settle in for basket time. I know that's kind of counter to the purpose of starting the day in a particular way, but for some it might help with peace of mind, not to mention allowing kids to focus on math first, while they've got the energy.
Sally
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SallyT
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| Posted: May 06 2015 at 11:45am | IP Logged
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Ours, incidentally, eventually became "Lunch Basket." Worked better with older kids, when I had people rolling out at different times to go in different directions in the mornings. Now I just have the two at home any more, but our mornings are still kind of "start yourself . . . "
Sally
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stellamaris
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| Posted: May 06 2015 at 1:29pm | IP Logged
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I can definitely see that approach working for a lot of people, Sally. Thanks for suggesting it. For myself, I like interspersing the more "inspiring" subjects throughout the day. It gives me something to look forward to! But then, we work together on all the academic subjects, so it's not like they just go to their corners and work independently. I'm pretty involved with them throughout the morning. Things might change next year when I'll have another high school student.
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Caroline
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Morning Basket needs a make over
