Creating a homeschool morning basket is so easy and has endless possibilities. They are a great way for families to read and study together, starting the day with a lovely, peaceful activity.
Homeschool Morning Basket
If you haven’t heard of a morning basket before, they are a collection of books that you read or study and activities that are done as a family each day. This is a time that your family can be reading and learning together before heading off onto their own individualised learning. You will find that these baskets are easily adaptable to suits the needs of all children. How these baskets are created and used, will also be very different for each family. You just need to find and create a morning basket that works for you.
Creating a morning basket
Think about what you want your kids to learn during this time. There are many subjects or topics that can be included in your morning basket:
- Poetry
- Fairytales
- Puzzles
- Writing Practice
- Bible Reading, activities and Prayer
- Drawing activities
- Songs and hymns
- Flashcards
- Life skills such as tying shoelaces, learning important phone numbers
- Science studies
- The National Anthem
- Fitness or stretching activities
- Learning a different language
- Nature studies
- Journalling
- Music or composer studies
- Literature studies
- Map or geography work
- Memory work such math facts, countries and capitals, Bible verses, poetry, vocabulary facts
Not every subject has to be done every day. Incorporate topics that interest your children to help make this an exciting time of fun and learning for them. This is also a great way for homeschool families to study many subjects together, which simplifies the homeschool day.
Monthly or Themed Baskets
Create a monthly basket where each month, the activities in the basket revolve around a different theme. Ask your children for input on what they are interested in, and choose to read and study that theme for the month.
Looping Baskets
Looping baskets are another fun way to encourage reading and learning. Looping is another way of saying ‘rotating.’ For this basket, you rotate through books or subjects such as on Monday, you study art, Tuesday – poetry, Wednesday – history and so on.
Seasonal Baskets
Change up your baskets every season, incorporating books and activities that relate to each season. For a winter study, you could include snow, ice, robins, polar bear and Antarctica related activities, while for spring, incorporate studies about baby animals, flowers, and rain.
Using a morning basket
Morning baskets can be done as soon as your children wake in the morning or after everyone has eaten breakfast and are ready to start the day. If it works better for you to do at night before bed, or after a nap time during the day, then do it then. This basket can be used a couple of days a week, every day, weekdays or even just the weekends. Whatever works best for your family.
Another thing to think about when organising and creating your homeschool morning basket, is to consider the time the amount of time it will take to complete each subject or topic. This will come down to the ages of your children. The time you spend on your morning basket may only be 15 – 30 minutes each time or even up to 2 hours. A great way to test this, is to start off slowly and gradually add more time until you find something that works for you. Typically, we try to spend no more than around 15 – 20 minutes on each subject, though this is totally up to you and will of course, depend on the ages of your children.
Who is a morning basket for?
Morning baskets can be used for children of all ages. It is a positive time in the morning for everyone to gather together, using materials that are interesting for everyone. Older children may prefer to learn and discuss current world topics. They may enjoy sitting down with a warm beverage and a couple of biscuits and chat about their views of the world or life skills that they are interested in learning about or ideas for what they would possibly like to do in the future. Prayer and reading the Bible is something that everyone in the family can participate in.
Morning baskets are so much fun to plan! Creating an interesting basket that suits your needs, so you can start your day out calmly and peacefully will be such a huge blessing to your family. You will also enjoy creating wonderful memories with your children that will be treasured forever.
Pam Barnhill has a great book for those who would love to read more on morning time called Better Together.
Grab a copy of this morning basket planner to help you with planning your morning basket.
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