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Wondering about morning time? This time of day is my favorite part of homeschooling. I am sharing what, why, and how of morning time in your homeschool.
When I taught preschool one of my favorite parts of the day was circle time. The kids loved it! Years later, when I started my own daycare and we “did” preschool I added it to our schedule as well. As my children got older, and my daycare children moved on to public school, circle time changed. I learned more about what this looked like in a homeschool environment. Many families call this morning time or a morning basket. This time of day is still my favorite part of the day. We love coming together and starting our days off in the Lord.
Why should you implement homeschool morning time? Here are a few reasons why morning time is our favorite part of the day.
We Model the Importance of Prayer and Bible
A few months ago I interviewed Pam Barnhill on the podcast. I am still floored by Pam’s thoughts on her morning basket schedule and I have to say since I interviewed her I have been more diligent about our morning time. I got to thinking about it and wondered what kind of example I was portraying when we pushed morning and bible time aside on those rushed days. It honestly wasn’t a very good one.
Honestly, by starting our mornings off with bible, prayer, and the morning time routine our days just flow so much better. As Christians, we want to raise our children to know Jesus, His word, and the importance of worship. So, by implementing morning time and ensuring we make it a priority we are modeling the importance of honoring the Lord with our time.
“Morning Time is very much like a big group hug at the beginning of our school day. It sets the tone and atmosphere for learning. It gives us something to contemplate and mentally gnaw on for the rest of the day. And most importantly, it puts us in a right relationship with each other and with God.” ~Pam Barnhill
I also love the discussions we have during morning time about the Bible, our Christian worldview, struggles we are having, and how we can pray for each other. Morning time allows us to grow in the Lord with each other. Plus, as a bonus? I have to say it’s harder to fight with your siblings right after you’ve prayed together 😉
Our Kids Come Together Regardless of Age
One of our favorite things about morning time is that we are able to learn together. Despite my kid’s broad range of ages. Being together is a huge bonus of homeschooling. It allows our kids to grow together in their relationships with each other, and to be more than just siblings. They are friends. Because of morning time, before the kids all scatter off to study on their own, they are able to come together and learn alongside each other. I am able to watch my kids work together, laugh together, pray together and lay that important foundation of a family. I never want to take that time for granted.
It Allows Me to Add in the Extras Without Extra Time
During the morning time we have been studying different countries, the missionaries that live there, and the history of that time period. We have also been focusing on different artists from the country and their famous works of art. In just an hour we can tackle the bible, history, geography, and literature. Not bad in my opinion! Of course, the kids also study these topics on their own, but, if we get nothing else done except morning time, we have accomplished a lot.
What is a Morning Basket?
When we were younger we did all the fun things, like songs, calendar time, play-doh, and more. Now that our kids have gotten older, our time together looks different. Here is what our current morning time looks like and check out what is in our morning basket here.
Sample Morning Basket
- We read a missionary story
- Complete some fun exercises and brain break activities
- We come together for bible time
- We rotate out studies on geography, art, fun trivia facts, etc
- We write down prayer requests and testimonies in our prayer journal.
- Break apart after prayer for our school day
Morning time schedule can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour depending on the study and what we begin discussing. I have a few posts about morning time on the blog, but, I also want to share some of the resources we are currently using in our homeschool.
- Our favorite resources for morning time
- Current missionary study we are using for bible
- As I mentioned before, I interviewed Pam Barnhill on the podcast and her thoughts on making morning time a priorityfloored me and helped me realize how important this time is to our homeschool.
- A few years ago I shared a blog post with some of our favorite circle time activities. These were great for when my kids were all young!
If you have not implemented circle or morning time into your homeschool day and are having a hard time getting the kids “going” in the morning, I recommend you give it a try! It may make your homeschool mornings a little more joyful!
