Our Morning Basket

A common term that you might hear among homeschool circles is ‘morning basket’, also known as ‘morning time’ or ‘circle time’. This is a time set aside at the beginning of each day where the entire family gathers together for shared learning. 

There's no wrong way to do morning time-it's a reflection of the shared values and interests of the family and children. The idea is to create a warm, bonding experience that sets a positive tone for the day while exposing everyone to rich literature, and meaningful content. 

Morning basket can last anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the ages of your children and the content that you plan to cover. Morning basket is a favorite of our entire family, and a true anchor point of our day. I started this habit when my children were all still very young, and I have been so impressed at the amount of information that we can cover, and the retention and connection that happens when we prioritize this part of our day.

I'm often asked for an exact recipe for a family that is brand new to the concept of a morning basket and I feel like a sweet grandmother standing over a favorite dish saying something like “just add seasoning to taste” :) 

I completely understand the desire to see an example before forming your own, but just know that this should be a deeply personal selection of resources that will enrich your family's learning. I love not having rules or guidelines that must be adhered to; there is freedom in this! You will make changes along the way-many components of our morning basket shift throughout the year, but the premise is always the same.

Rich learning, and pure connection.

What's In Our Basket

Note: My children do their individual devotionals first thing in the morning, so while this is an essential part of our mornings, I don't qualify this to be part of our morning basket that is done together. You can see all of our Bible resources here.

The kids are allowed to do anything creative with their hand while I read through the morning basket resources. They can work on a cross stitching project, fix a puzzle, color, draw, play with legos, or tinker in their dollhouse. They know that they are expected to be listening, and to participate when asked, and they love this time so much that I don't even have to remind them to pay attention!

Songs

I love incorporating traditional hymns during our morning time. I print the lyrics onto pages that I insert into clear restaurant menus. I usually stick to one song/month.

I also often incorporate folk songs using Ambleside's guide. 

Sometimes we just sing a verse or two, some days the entire song. Sometimes we sing a capella, and at other times we include music. Sometimes we use instruments! 

Faith & Theology

Every day we do a family devotional together. I have the kids open their Bibles to the book and find the chapter and verse. This gives them daily practice on the orientation of their Bibles. We read the devotional together, and then have a short discussion about how it applies to our lives. 

I also include books on theology, including some memory work using the Westminster Catechism questions. We also have scripture cards that the kids rotate through memorization of every 2 weeks. The kids have a bible curriculum that includes flash cards and we review these during morning time as well. The kids love to “compete” and see who can claim the most cards first. 

Literature

Morning basket gives us an opportunity to explore great literature together with regularity. We sometimes include our current read aloud in the morning time block (but some days we save that for after lunch or evening). Right now we're reading The Black Stallion, but we usually cover 1 book per month on average. 

I also include poetry (usually reading through those takes less than 3 minutes) which is fantastic for strengthening phonetics and phonology, gaining emotional intelligence, and expanding creativity. At the moment we are working through A.A. Milne's poetry (the author of Winnie The Pooh) and A Child's Garden of Verses. 

We also work through books on composers, artists, works of art, etc. It allows us to touch on so many different good and beautiful topics that we want our children to learn, but oftentimes cannot find time for in formal lessons. I usually like to start the year with a more high level book, like this artist compilation, and then once we finish, I will add in other nonfiction books on specific artists that we seemed to enjoy and wanted to know more about. It's a great way to engage in interest led learning.

I also currently have the children working through this Shakespeare collection. Once we finish, I'll grab some smaller books that will deep dive into some of their favorite plays from the book-I hope you see the pattern here!

I include a lot of science and nature in the literature as well, such as The Burgess Bird Book. 

Hobbies & Citizenship

My kids love when we include challenges in the morning basket, like Brain Quest. I go through 1 or 2 cards/day. 

Sometimes, if we are reviewing a certain geographic area, I'll pull out a Geo Puzzle on that region and let the kids complete the puzzle while I read. 

I include something related to American History most days, right now we are working through The American Patriot's Almanac which often leads to expanded and interest driven learning.

I include survival skills, life skills, and hobby specific learning in their morning basket as well. We might practice knots, apply tourniquets, discuss “what if” scenarios, or work through memorizing things needed for their extracurricular activities. 

I also include World Watch at the very end of our morning basket time! It's a great pivot point where we transition from book after book after book to 10 minutes of rich digital news delivery!

My kids love hearing about their world. They love seeing good people doing brave and interesting things. They love to see mature adults speak life over topics that would otherwise be ignored, swept under a rug, or have topics spoken to them or around them through an uneducated bias I love how World Watch expands ALL of our worldview, and reminds us every day that, ‘no matter the news, the purpose of the Lord will stand’. 

Seasonal Learning

I love switching up our morning basket to include more seasonal focused resources at various times throughout the year. It adds in a refreshing element, and it ties us closer to the intention of the moment. It also allows for so much learning around the meaning of, history of, and cultural significance of these holidays that we would otherwise just brush past. 

My Unconventional Additions

As a mother, the topics that I've wanted to be able to teach my children seem to bubble up and take root in my mind at every turn. I remember the late nights up nursing my first little one left me with a notes section in my phone dedicated to all of the things I dreamed of my children being taught-everything from classic literature to family recipes. 

The days can be long, but the years are short, and I quickly realized that unless I had a plan for implementing all of these hopes and dreams, those desires would remain just an iphone list. Morning basket has given me the daily time to rotate in many of these teaching topics, allowing us the frequency and concise teaching needed for true learning of the “important stuff”. 

So, at the risk of winning most eccentric mom, here's 3 unconventional topics I'm so grateful to have in our rotation.

1. What If?

The beauty of the regularity of morning baskets means that you can get through a lot of material in a long expanse of time, delivered in smaller doses. So often when I discuss ways to empower and train children in preparedness, parents feel excited at the concept, but then fail to execute or find the time for what they feel will be a larger lesson. The key is to break it up-make it bite sized. Do it often-they'll remember it more deeply.

Playing the What If game is an open ended critical thinking exercise. I'll rotate this in 1-2 times/week, and I simply ask the children a “What If” question that pertains to either our current season or life, or something we learned about on World Watch or in our lessons in the days prior. The kids take turns answering with their own ideas, and I can direct the conversation with whatever questions I find necessary to have them continue thinking critically. 

Example script: 

What if a hurricane knocked out our power, blocked our road with fallen trees, and left us with a boil water advisory - but we don't have electricity to boil water?

T: “We can't drink the water!”

Follow-up: "Right, the water might have germs. How could we make it safe to drink without electricity?"

H: "We could use the gas stove to boil it!"

T: “We don't have electricity though”

E: “Mom said you can use the stove without electricity we just have to use a lighter to light the burners, remember?”

Follow-up: "Great memory! But what if we run out of propane? What other ways could we purify water?"

H: "Those water purification tablets, or that bleach that you have in the pantry room"

T: "Our Sawyer water filter!"

Follow-up: "Good thinking! Now we're stuck because of the trees-what if we ran out of food and couldn't get to the store?"

T: "Eat what's in the pantry first, because you have a ton of dried foods in there"

Follow-up: "What if the frozen food starts going bad without power?"

H: "Cook it all on the bbq pit outside before it spoils"

E: "Or share with our neighbors so we all have good food!"

Follow-up: "Smart! What if someone needed medicine but the pharmacy was closed?"

H: "Check if neighbors have any?"

T: "Or flag down emergency workers when they come through"

This conversation all in all takes about 2 minutes, and when we give light, words, and space to the unsure an unnamed feelings that children feel when looking at the world around them, we create opportunities to learn deep and lasting lessons about real world events and our ability to discern and decide our way through life's circumstances. 

2. Mom's Medics

This is a training segment that I rotate in only once/week, but it's a good one! I switch up the scenarios but I always include real or training gear for this! It could be something as simple as bandaging a scrape to applying a tourniquet. I sometimes also just have the kids unpack, identify, and re-pack our medical kit. The point is always to familiarize them with medical equipment, critical thinking, and practice their skills. Even if you don't feel equipped to teach medical skills, it's a beautiful opportunity to learn together! Watch videos, check out medical books from the library, and get comfortable with searching for answers together! 

I recently shifted my primary medical load-out to an Adventure Kit from Refuge Medical  and I have loved not only the quality and functionality of the kit components, but also the organization and labeling of all of the different categorized bags. Having the kids unpack, identify, and repack the bag has been so helpful in their own confidence when it comes to medical contingencies. Use code AMBERELLE at Refuge for a discount on your kit orders! Love this American owned small business and their products!

3. Family CFOs

Teaching financial literacy to my kids is incredibly important for me. I include a variety of challenges and lessons in rotation once/week on finances, including a new resource that I'm adding this year through these flash cards.  Sometimes I include critical thinking questions, or I give the kids a sample problem with specs that they use to create a “budget” or a financial plan around. Each of my children also has their own Greenlight debit card and account, so I let them do a weekly check-in for them to familiarize themselves with their account balance, and savings. 

Your Turn...

I hope that this email leaves you feeling inspired and excited to set aside even a small window of your morning to your own version of a morning basket. I personally think that this would be an amazing anchor of the day even for children in conventional schooling before everyone heads out for their morning!

Gathering the supplies is the easy part (I use the library for a lot of my non-fiction book needs), but dedicating yourself to the daily discipline of sitting down and working through your collection of morning basket supplies is the true work-but what good work it is!

You can shop my morning basket idea list here!