Making Homeschooling Work For Us - Morning Time

Monday through Friday we have Morning Time, a 30-50 minute gathering of all the kids learning together. We anchor it to breakfast because (a) everyone is already in one place and (b) it ensures that we make it happen every day of the school week. Prioritizing Morning Time means that I do not prioritize breakfast. In order to have the energy and good humor to make Morning Time what I want it to be, breakfast has to be simple and easy. For us, that means that I cook up oatmeal every morning to which I add brown sugar and peanut butter. I find that this sustains them more than cereal and also packs a bit of protein. If I were to whip up a sausage and egg breakfast with toast and orange juice, Morning Time would rarely happen.

 Once the oatmeal has been scooped out in bowls, I call the kids to the table. I shoot for this to start at 8am. Before we eat, Owen Ray leads us in a hymn and Chandler prays for us. This is reversed at lunchtime so that they each have a turn to lead the hymn and lead the prayer.

Morning Time includes:
1. Hymn
2. Prayer
3. Bible
4. Catechism
5. My Book House (read-aloud/narration)
6. Geography
7. Timeline
8. History
9. Science
10. Math
11. English
12. Latin

Next comes Bible and Catechism. I read them a story from the Bible and ask Owen Ray and Chandler to narrate it back to me. It works well to have my older one narrate and then have the younger one fill in any details that he can recall that big brother may have omitted. To make sure my 3 year old feels included, I ask her a question and then have her repeat the answer back to me. She does this every morning, so she repeats without hesitation. It moves very quickly. At the end, each child gets a chocolate chip. Yes, chocolate chips for breakfast. If you're wondering, it tastes excellent mixed into their peanut butter oatmeal. Next up we review catechism questions from past weeks and then practice our new question with lots of repetition. Even though learning about God is reverent business, I also want it to be tied to joy and laughter. I freely dispense the chocolate chips, and I am willing to practice the catechism in silly voices of their choosing because it means that learning about God and hiding truths in our heart is guarded from being thought of as drudgery.

Up next is "My Book House" a 12 volume series of short stories and poetry that we are slowly working our way through. Right now we're in volume 3. I read through a short story or a few poems and then have the kids narrated back to me for... more chocolate chips.

 









We quickly move from narration to our week's grammar. This includes geography, timeline, history, math, English, science, and Latin. If the kids are still eating, we'll do this at the table. If they are done eating we will dance and sing our new grammar around the house with toy instruments. We use the Classical Conversations curriculum which outlines what the kids will be learning for that week. In our case, we are on week 13 which means that we are learning about the function of a helping verb, liquid equivalents, parts of the earth, etc. As much as possible, we use music or movement to help us learn and memorize this new material. This makes such a difference in the kid's ability to recall information they learned 3 months ago.

Once our morning time is done (it takes between 30-50 minutes) then I dismiss the kids. They can build with their Lincoln Logs, play doll house, or dig holes in the backyard. I can start with some of my chores like laundry, dishes, etc. Morning Time does several things for me. It starts my mornings off on the right foot. This morning, I got to start my day hearing the voices of my 7, 5, and 3 year old all joined in song and praising God because "in every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the vale." By 10am each day, I already know that my kids and I have been fed. We've feasted on beautiful truths and beautiful words. I can now go through the rest of my day confident that even if this is the only formal "teaching" I do all day, my kids are being educated in the best sense possible. If we have a doctor's appointment or something unexpected pops up and we never get to sit down and do our afternoon work in skills subjects like handwriting, phonics, and math, I'm okay with that. In just this small time period, we are creating a shared family culture of hymns, stories, and memories.