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Kristie 4
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With your kids!
This is our area of weakness right now, obviously so after a summer of fun and too few routines!
But with 4 now being taught I need some fresh inspiration...!!!
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Kristie in Canada
Mom to 3 boys and one spunky princess!!
A Walk in the Woods
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Angie Mc
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Kristie, I'm happy to report that mine is holding up strong since last year. The main adjustment I've made is to add Morning Mass which I attend on some mornings and I rotate the older children to come with me one at a time.
Oh...I've added a breakfast meal plan that lists foods the children make for themselves, except for Wednesdays when we make a big hot breakfast together (we love big breakfast!)
Love,
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Angie Mc
Maimeo to Henry! Dave's wife, mom to Mrs. Devin+Michael Pope, Aiden 20,Ian 17,John Paul 11,Catherine (heaven 6/07)
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Mimip
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Kristie,
What has worked for us is adding our Morning Basket. We still do morning chores but very basic (make bed, get dressed, breakfast, brush teeth and each child has 1 chore) and then we sit down to our tweeked Morning Basket. We have combined Jen's idea and Meredith's Morning Devotions for Children. It has changed our morning!!! We start with prayer (with daily saint or bible rotations) and then dive into the Morning basket ideas of Catechism, Nature study, poetry, Composer, Artist and Little Flowers Virtue. Of course it is not done everyday but with my trusty ical going I can change them with the daily needs of our family.
After we finish with the Morning basket at about 9:30 they get 15 minutes to stretch, use the restroom get a drink of water and then we start our workboxes. The routine has really helped get out mornings to a positive start.
BTW, this schedule was completely and totally made after a summer of coming and reading posts and blogs provided by the ladies on this forum. So, thank you ladies who will be reading this entry!!!!!!!!!
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In Christ,
Mimi
Wife of 16 years to Tom, Mom of DD'00, DD'02, '04(in heaven) DS'05, DS'08 and DS '12
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JuliaT
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My kids wake up at 7:30. We have a big breakfast, then change, brush and make beds. They then help me straighten up the kitchen and the bathroom. It is 8:30 by this time, usually, and we start our Morning Time Basket a la Jen (thank you, Jennifer. The basket helped organize my books and allowed me to be more consistent with our Morning Time.) It takes us about an hour to do MT then we move on to our workboxes.
I should probably say that this was our routine for last year. This year we don't have any set routine due to my cancer diagnosis. Routine just seems too claustrophobic for me right now. I am hoping, though, that after my surgery (in two weeks) and recovery time that we will be able to get back into a routine.
Blessings,
Julia
mom of 3(10,8,6)
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melmc
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We get up, eat breakfast, say a decade of the Rosary and the Morning Offering. I then read about the Saint of the day. If there are extra books I have to go along with that saint/feast day from Catholic Mosaic or another source, we do that reading here. The kids run off to do their chores. Then we start our school day once that's finished.
This has worked well the past couple of weeks, but my son was just asked to serve at daily Mass so we'll try getting up earlier to fit Mass in between chores and starting school. But we may just end up starting later! Time will tell.
Melissa
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Paula in MN
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We also do a morning basket. First we get up, do chores and eat breakfast. Then the morning basket which encompasses prayers, catechism, poetry, music, nature and a mom read-aloud. And everything is done by 7:45 am so we can take ds7 to public school.
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 Paula
A Catholic Harvest
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Meredith
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We usually gather around 8:45am, mostly by 9:00am with prayers, devotions and our morning basket rotation. On a good day, it's a 45 minute period, on other days, it's only 15-20 minutes of basket reading time. Which unfortunately means that my 4 yo was too disruptive and we had to move on to individual work and he had to be "re-directed" 
We really like starting our day with read-alouds, it's mostly peaceful and a nice transition from breakfast-to-chores-to-school time-to-math 
"When in doubt, read or sketch/draw/paint/color a picture" is my new school room motto for those wondering what they are supposed to do next. It has worked better than any yelling and screaming I might do (rarely of course   )
Happy mornings to you all!
Love,
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Meredith
Mom of 4 Sweeties
Sweetness and Light
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ekbell
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My husband works evenings and I have one dd who isn't fit to live with before breakfast, which influences our morning routine. With my husband not back from work until half past midnight at the earliest, I don't try to get the household up to start the day until after eight as otherwise it gets too noisy for him to get enough sleep.
I start the night before by organizing material into morning devotions, essential seat work, 'couch time' and fun but not essential projects.
I nurse the babe and get up start porridge in the microwave (our school day breakfast -everyone likes it, it's easy to prepare and it reminds them it's a school day) and say my prayers. My husband normally makes the coffee while I'm getting the porridge started. Some of the children will be up and about and some won't be.
I then call the children down to breakfast and we eat. They clear off their dishes and disappear (ideally, dealing with bedroom tidy-up- the one dd will be getting properly dressed).
I cleanup after the littles and take a half hour walk while dad is around to keep an eye on things.
After I get back (it's normally around ten by this point), I collect the material for our Morning Devotions and we start school .
We have our Morning Devotions (generally 1/2 hour),
then the essential seatwork (daily work) [while dad runs errand, keeps the littles out of trouble or adds his two cents to the history or science discussions]
Dinner is at one; normally my husband makes it or I prepare something in the crock pot and he starts it cooking before going to bed.
After dinner is my time to tidy up the kitchen and talk to my husband so any further school doesn't happen until he's left for work at 2:30 [ideally the children are doing their chores after dinner]. Normally I'm done with the youngest but if I'm not they are normally happy to pull me back to do couch time and project time.
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TracyFD
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Something that seems to help our mornings be productive (not always) is to post the daily cleaning chores and laundry schedule in the upstairs hallway. The children do their "morning routine", check the chart and start cleaning and bringing down laundry before breakfast.
Downstairs in the kitchen I have the daily jobs posted on the three week rotating schedule. This includes: feed the cat, empty the dishwasher, meal helpers, zone cleaning, etc.
When I come down I start the laundry and help get breakfast on the table. My husband is usually already in the kitchen making coffee and supervising. We clean up, kiss dad goodbye and start school.
But even with all the charts it still can be difficult to get the kids motivated. They have a tendency to hide out in their rooms and play while I am in the shower.
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Tracy
Mom to 3 girly girls,
1 absent-minded professor, and one adorable toddling terrorist.
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Paula in MN
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I wanted to add that one thing really helping with our morning routine this year is slow-cooker breakfasts. I get up first, and it is wonderful to have breakfast ready to go!
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Paula
A Catholic Harvest
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Becky Parker
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Well, first, I have to turn off the computer! I say that because I like to go online in the early morning hours, and if I'm not careful, I stay there too long and the kids turn on the t.v. or, lately, get out some board game and the baby is fussy and no one has had breakfast and it's just a really bad way to start the day  ! But, here's how it runs on a good day:
5:00 - I wake up, shower, make tea and sit down to pray.
6:00 - I wake up my oldest son, make his lunch and his breakfast. Then I put in a load of laundry and unload the dishwasher from last night. I also do what is necessary to help my husband and son get ready to leave for the day.
7:00 - My DH, DS, anyone else whose awake, and I all say an Our Father and Prayer to St. Michael and my DH and DS leave.
Then I jump on the computer for a bit while I eat my breakfast (this is where I have to be careful - I'm already 5 minutes over time!  ).
7:30 - I make sure all the other kids are up and doing their morning chores (just the basics here - brush teeth, get dressed, one bathroom chore, make beds)
8:00 -Breakfast for the kids and we talk about the calendar, feast day, etc.
8:30 - Morning prayer in the sunroom, followed by a Catholic Mosaic book (or similar) and Religion lessons for all. The kids do some sort of simple art - like drawing or coloring - while waiting their turn to do Religon with me one on one.
Then we head down to the school room to start on our workboxes.
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Becky
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mom2mpr
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Our morning routine has changed this year as I have given in to the late bedtimes at my house. I decided I will take care of myself and then be better for the kids.
I rise at 7-ish and do my prayers, spiritual reading, exercise and shower. I also, somewhere in there, send dh off to work with his lunch. Then I do one morning chore and wake the kids. They are slow moving in the am so getting them dressed, beds made, a quick pick up and upstairs chore, takes a while. They love to snuggle in bed so sometimes we will read a Treasure Box or read aloud for a little (but I find they move even slower if I do that ). I try to offer them breakfast but it is usually declined. Then we move to the basement for schoolwork. We do our prayers before lunch at noon to 1pm.
Anne
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So Blessed
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| Posted: Sept 15 2009 at 12:19pm | IP Logged
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Paula, other than oatmeal, what other slow cooker breakfasts do you make? This sounds wonderful! 
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Paula in MN
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These are some of the recipes I've been using:
Overnight Breakfast Potatoes with Sausage
French Toast
Hashbrown Breakfast Casserole
I found all of them on A Year of Slow Cooking.
I also make an Overnight Brunch Casserole, which is not made in a slow cooker. I think that recipe is from my mom, I'm not sure. I know I've done searches for similar recipes on the 'Net and there are many.
I recommend the slow-cooking website. She has some great recipes, and is very honest about the cost and the taste.
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Paula
A Catholic Harvest
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DominaCaeli
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Thanks for sharing, Paula--these look delicious. My two older children (3yo and almost-3yo) have never been much for breakfast, but they're starting to be hungrier in the mornings now. We usually do oatmeal, which I love, but it would be fun to mix it up a bit...and I never have time to cook in the morning while caring for them and the baby (hence, the oatmeal!).
I only have littles, but our morning routine looks something like this:
5:50am - Out for a run or sleep until the baby wakes for her morning feed and then put her back out (my husband and I switch off running/baby care every other day)
6:50am - Shower, eat a snack (now that I'm pregnant), start the kids' oatmeal
7:00am - Get the toddlers from their room
7:15am - Wave goodbye to Daddy, set the kids up with breakfast, do my morning chores downstairs, eat
7:30am - do morning basket (thanks, Jen!) while the kids are eating (they're not even pre-K age yet, so this just consists of morning prayers, calendar, Mother Goose, etc.)
8:00am - read picture books with toddlers until baby wakes (usually around 8:30)
And then it goes on to free play until lunch, then nap, and so on.
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Blessings,
Celeste
Joyous Lessons
Mommy to six: three boys (8, 4, newborn) and four girls (7, 5, 2, and 1)
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Kristie 4
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Looks great. What was sort of confusing me was my different ages. For years we did the Morning Basket thing and are still doing it- but with the disparity in ages it seems that I have a younger who is not understanding and an older one that just wants to get on with things!
I reread an old blog post about 'Morning Times' and realised that if we do prayer and one our cm ish type things such as Shakespeare or Plutarch first than the oldest one can leave at that point and the little one, well, as long as he isn't interupting he can do what he likes!!
Thanks for all the great ideas! And, I must admit I blushed Angie when you linked back to me, 1 year ago, with the same kind of rant (but thankfully I am not there yet). It was a good reminder though- I will be trying to avoid that like the plague now!!!
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Kristie in Canada
Mom to 3 boys and one spunky princess!!
A Walk in the Woods
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Angie Mc
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Kristie 4 wrote:
| And, I must admit I blushed Angie when you linked back to me, 1 year ago, with the same kind of rant (but thankfully I am not there yet). It was a good reminder though- I will be trying to avoid that like the plague now!!! |
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Oh, Kristie, I'm sorry to be insensitive  , please accept my apology... it's just that I never saw you (see you) as ranting - really. What's funny is that I had just been reading that post this past weekend and had just popped it into my favorites file sooooooooooooo, I had it at my finger tips! I'm forever interested in fine-tuning routines, so am genuinely interested in this topic.
Since I'm blabbing, I'll add...I don't do any one-to-one or group work with my children until 9:00 (our morning peg.) As my children have grown older, they are eager to do their independent work first thing - not waiting on me .
Another simple idea I'm using to fine-tune our pegs, incluing the morning routine, is having a "Peg Binder." I've always had some sort of family management binder but this is a new and improved version . The idea is to have this binder on my chair so that when I come to the table for our peg times, I can't miss it! From there I open my binder and have page protectors which house study checklists, family schedule, index cards (cheat sheets to remind me questions to ask the children , habit formation, menu, and I'm adding....memory work (we had completely dropped the ball on this.) I also have my lined/lg post-its that we write out our appts. for the day (posted on our family management bulletin board) and our family notebook, where we write notes to each other and list things to do.
I'll be adding *this* topic to my favorites, too...I'm pondering adding crock pot breakfasts for the winter - yum. Thanks all!
Love,
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Angie Mc
Maimeo to Henry! Dave's wife, mom to Mrs. Devin+Michael Pope, Aiden 20,Ian 17,John Paul 11,Catherine (heaven 6/07)
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Kristie 4
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Oh no, you weren't insensitive at all. I probably just still feel a bit silly about the rant!
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Kristie in Canada
Mom to 3 boys and one spunky princess!!
A Walk in the Woods
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Kristie 4
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Julia, I am very sorry to hear about your diagnoses. (Had meant to start with that in my previous supply).
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Kristie in Canada
Mom to 3 boys and one spunky princess!!
A Walk in the Woods
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lambchopwife
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We have just started a new morning routine over here thanks to the beautiful inspiration from JennMack!
We have been using the Morning Basket idea from her and it has been working out quite well! I get all of the things in that have been lacking throughout or school years in the past. Some examples are nature study and poetry.
Here is our morning schedule:
Wake 6am-shower and get dressed
6:30 say morning prayers with dad
6:40 Breakfast
7:20 Chores
7:45 Morning Basket
~ Mass readings for the day (The St. Joseph Daily Missal, Latin Mass)
~ Singing (Our Musical Year)
~ Catechism follwed by an Angel Food Story
~ Poetry (IEW)
~ Catholic Mosaic or Mondays with Mary
~ Nature Study
On Fridays we add Art study and Music Study
We are usually done by 9am and on Fri. about 9:20
I wish I would have done this throughout our homeschooling time in the past, it has made our days so much brighter!!!!
God bless,
Cheryl
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~ Be not afraid to tell Jesus that you love Him; even though it be without feeling, this is the way to oblige Him to help you, and carry you like a little child too feeble to walk.~ St. Therese
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Topic: Tell me your morning routine...
