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This week I’m sharing with you our homeschool plans for the year. We love learning together as a family and enjoy our morning basket time after our independent learning.
Morning basket is something we have gradually added to our homeschooling schedule. It started with Bible verse, poetry, and Baltimore Catechism memorization and has slowly grown from there. A light snack draws the kids to the kitchen table for Morning basket, but makes reciting and discussion quite interesting!
Morning Basket Plan (approx. 9:30-10:15)
- New Hymn (this year: Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee; Holy, Holy, Holy; Joy to the World; A Mighty Fortress is Our God; Jesus Christ is Risen Today; Take My Life and Let it Be)
- Opening Prayer (with Latin prayer review)
- New Latin Prayer (this year: Our Father, The Angelus, Apostles Creed)
- Bible Passage (Learn one, review two)
- Catechism Lesson (Baltimore Catechism)
- Catechism Questions (Learn new, review two)
- Hymn (review)
- Timeline Cards (Classically Catholic Memory-8 events every two weeks)
- Poetry (Learn one, review one)
- Picture Study (Monday-Wednesday, Friday; one artist every six weeks)
- Classical music(listen to one composer every six weeks from the Music Masters CD set)
Other family Learning
Art Once a week we get out the art supplies and I let the kids work on anything they want. We do some casual learning from Drawing with Children. Sometimes our art projects revolve around pertinent feast days of the Church.
Nature Study I love Nature Study in theory, but have a hard time implementing it in our home. This year, I’m aiming to get this done once a month.
Weekly Tea Time Again, this is something I’d love to accomplish regularly (once a week) this year. I’m hoping this will be a nice winter afternoon tradition for our family. I’d like to make a treat with the kids and talk with them over a nice cup of hot tea. I’ll have Shakespeare and a poetry book handy for this as well.
Lunch Time Our family has enjoyed reviewing manners using Manners Made Easy; we plan to continue doing so this year. It’s encouraging to hear them correct their parents and attempt to be the most polite at the table. I’ll also use this time to discuss some safety information my husband and I would like the children to know (stranger danger, how to call 911, fire safety, etc).
How does your family learn together in your homeschool? Do you have a cooperative learning time?
More 2015-16 Homeschool Year Plans
When we made the switch to Mother of Divine Grace mid-year, we ditched the morning basket plans and switched to a very simple time of family devotions revolving around my New Year’s resolution of a feast table. You can read more about our family devotion time in my post Catholic Family Devotions using our Feast Table.
