I’ve checked out all those morning basket resources I told you about, and have been prayerfully considering changes to our own collective learning experience. After lots of pondering and lots of reworking, I finally have gotten the puzzle pieces to fit together.
Morning Basket while using a boxed curriculum…
While switching to Mother of Divine Grace (MODG) has ironically freed my homeschool creativity, it also provides an interesting challenge in planning our collective learning experience.
Before the switch, I had combined many subjects into our morning basket time, but now many of those are laid out in the MODG syllabus. So the challenge becomes: how do I stick with the basic outline of MODG, yet maintain some collective learning in our day?
I tried to avoid veering off course from the MODG syllabus (after all, that is the whole reason we decided to go with MODG!), but also was reluctant to add more to our already full work load. Instead, I opted to combine the fine arts section of MODG and incorporate portions of it into our morning basket time. I still find these portions of the syllabus valuable to my children’s overall education, but I felt this was a great place to work together and avoid more individual one-on-one time with mom.
The subjects I choose to combine into our morning basket may change year to year based on where we are in MODG, but, for this year, it will work.
Morning Basket Sketch:
- Prayer
- Loop Subjects (Art Appreciation, Poetry Recitations, Art Lessons and Drawing Time, and Hymn Study)
- Daily Overview
- Closing Prayer
Prayer:
Our prayers are very simple. We usually just ask for the Holy Spirit to help us hear God’s voice, ask for help, intercede for others, listen in stillness for God to speak, and recite a rote prayer. We’ll still turn to the feast table for this time.
This is where we dance the liturgical rhythm (highlighting feast days and saints) and turn our day over to the Lord. If this is all that happens during our morning time together, I’m good with that. Just setting that example of turning first to the Lord is my main priority at this time.
Loop Subjects:
Loop Subjects:Instead of trying to cram a whole bunch of subjects in to our morning basket time on a daily basis, we are going to highlight one subject a day. We’ll be looping through the following.
1-Poem Recitation
In MODG, each grade level works on memorizing a list of poems. While we will work on poem memory work daily, we will have recitation of poems on our loop schedule as well. It will be an opportunity for each child to recite the current poem they are memorizing (as far as they know it) and to review one from the past. Doing this together will be good review for all of them over the years since they will all work through the same list of poems.
Not into MODG? You can find the poems in The Harp and the Laurel Wreath.
2-Hymn Study
We’ll be using 36 Traditional Catholic Hymns for Voice and Piano suggested by the MODG kindergarten syllabus. I think it will be a meaningful family project. We’ll listen to our current hymn throughout the week, but this will be a special time to highlight and discuss the hymn.
3-Art Appreciation
MODG has art appreciation contained in its syllabus for each grade level, but it just makes more sense to me to study this together. We’ll be using art cards from Mommy, It’s a Renoir and other postcard artwork we have on hand to study various artists and artwork.
4-Art Class and Drawing Time
This is where I hope to give them some instruction in drawing. We will work through some of the techniques in Drawing with Children as well as The Drawing Textbook (suggested by MODG for 4th Grade).
(Maybe this year I can get him to draw something besides trains!)
Following our art instruction, we will move right into putting it into practice. MODG has the children illustrate many of their narrations. Instead of pulling out our art supplies every day, we’ll try to accomplish the majority of our art work during this time. I’m hoping the result will mean one clean-up a week instead of many!
Daily Overview:
This is where I tell the kids what they need to know before we disperse to our independent learning. There always seem to be a few line items I need to talk about before we go on with our day. I’ll also be using this time to give them little challenges for their day in regards to the virtue we are studying (see more of that below).
That’s it??
I know…super simple right? The thing is, I don’t want to be tempted to skip our morning basket because I see it as just another insurmountable to-do on those more difficult homeschooling days. Instead, I want this to be a time where we orient our hearts to God and come together before starting our day.
Many of the morning basket time plans I see online are so elaborate and beautiful, but in my heart of hearts, I know that would not work for our family. I know my nature and the natures of my children best, and so I’ve let go of what others may deem the perfect morning basket design. Instead, I’ve created what will work for our family, and I’m at total peace with that.
But of course…there’s always more…
Read Aloud Time…
Morning basket time isn’t the only time we grow together; there will be other opportunities to learn together throughout our day.
Instead of incorporating read aloud time into our morning basket, we take an hour to read together before afternoon quiet time. I read several picture books to the younger kiddos and then switch to chapter book for the older ones. I alternate more difficult reads (Peter Pan, Treasure Island, Shakespeare) with much easier chapter books (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sarah Plain and Tall, Little House Books) for some variation. We often read together before bedtime as well.
Growing Together in Virtue…
I’ve always felt the call to do some proactive character training, but have struggled to find materials I was excited about. I was planning to discuss virtues with my little ones during our morning basket time this year, but when my husband approached me about this same calling on his heart, we decided to incorporate it into a family discussion during our evening meals.
We’ll be making it up as we go using the following resources: character qualities from this chart, pertinent Bible verse memory, Angel Food for Boys and Girls, the Moral Compass, The Book of Virtues, and Aesop’s Fables. We’ll introduce the virtue using these resources, but the bulk of the training will come through our family discussions over the kitchen table. There may even be some fun role playing practice sessions following supper. We intend this to be a light-hearted, but focused time to train up our children’s hearts.
I look forward to having Daddy there for this portion of our learning together. In my experience, having Dad involved with something adds a lot more weight and importance to the subject matter.
Liturgical teas…
I’m looking forward to having a lighter fifth day in our week this year as outlined by the MODG syllabus. In MODG (at least in the elementary grades) the bulk of the work is done on four days each week. Math is taught five days a week.
I’m hoping the fifth day can be an opportunity for some writing, interest led learning, and liturgical teas/meals. The kids have so enjoyed these when I have made the effort in the past – I just want to be more consistent!
Do you do morning basket time? I’d love to know what has worked for your family!
