When I did my last Day in a Life post, some of you noticed that our morning basket time only lasted for 5 minutes. That is our average time.

For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of a morning basket, it's essentially a set of things at the beginning of the day that starts your day with beauty, goodness, and truth. Exactly what that entails will vary drastically between families, and within the same family at different times. I encourage you to tailor your morning basket to what works in your family.

Our morning basket time consists of:
Bible
Music
Poetry
Art

Bible: we read a page or two from our children's Bible. We use this one that is on the MODG syllabus.

Music: listen or sing along to a hymn. Catholic Chant has a great list by grade level with tracks and lyrics. We also listen to the local classical station in the car.

Poetry: This will likely expand as more kids age into our homeschool, but the schooling kids are working on memorizing poems. Even if you don't use MODG, I highly recommend Laura Burquist's The Harp and the Laurel Wreath as a great resource for finding poems. Kindergarten is all Robert Lewis Stevenson, so that's who we visit every morning!

Art: This is very basic right now. We either do a little activity with our art cards (I have these, but I also picked up a pack of postcards from various art museums at a homeschool conference for a dollar) or a simple art project. This normally starts the preschooler on her work for the morning while I start the Kindergartner on things like math and handwriting.

This is meant to be short and sweet, but it will vary on time when we're doing something different (like starting a new poem or doing a more involved craft during art). Here's how we keep morning basket a simple part of our day, instead of a dreaded add on:

Don't be a perfectionist

Kids don't automatically show appreciation for these things. Learning how to memorize a poem is work. Bible stories have weird names in them. Gregorian chant can be tricky.

If I don't stress out about doing something perfect the first time, it's much better for all of us.

However, don't take this to mean never press kids to try again! I have my kindergartner repeat phrases that he missed the first time in poetry, and I remind him it's much easier to correct a mistake right away than to fix something learned incorrectly. 

But do I make them re-sing a song where they jumbled the Latin pronunciation? Nope. Because exact pronunciation is not the goal of music time.

Goal is exposure and steady embodiment

The point of doing a morning basket is to start the slow and steady trickle of goodness and beauty that will become ingrained in the kids, and will become part of their database of things they recognize. When they hear Tantum Ergo at church, it's not something completely over their heads. They know the tune, and they can sing along a little. Starting that basis of understanding is huge!

Have everything in one place

Maybe it's not a literal basket, but do keep everything you need for your morning basket time in one place. You are far more likely to do it if you're not running around the house trying to find a book, or if the art cards are perpetually going missing.

All Together Everybody!

I believe strongly in whole family learning, and the morning basket is a great place for everyone to work on something together. Everyone, from a toddler to a high schooler, can find something in a work of art or piece of beautiful music that is meaningful and interesting. It is almost certainly not the same something, but I find most children enjoy participating in a group and having something that clearly begins the school day.

Short and Sweet

Really try to keep what you consider to be morning basket time between 5-10 minutes. Longer than that and it's not reasonable for the little ones, shorter and it basically never happened for big kids.
This might mean that some subjects get shifted to other times. When we get to the grammar stage (about 3rd grade) poetry might be introduced in morning basket, but we will need more time to work on the poems than in the 5-10 minute time allotted.

Be Flexible

You might find that you need to mix up the subjects in your morning basket. There are weeks, like when we have just started a new poem, when I will shift art to be in the afternoon. I know that the poetry will take up more time right then, but it needs to be in the beginning of the day to make sure it gets done.

There are no hard and fast rules about how you have to do, or what to include in, a morning basket!

Follow with Focus or Letting Off Steam

Depending on the kid, and the day, I will follow morning basket with either a focus (moving onto math) or letting off steam (10 minute outside recess!) It's very apparent in the 5-10 minutes of morning basket time if each kid is ready to start their day or not. Some times one, or all, of us need another chance to start again. In that case, we take a 10 minute break (I set a timer) and everyone can disperse until the timer goes off. Then we come back and I hand out assignments.

Do you do morning basket in your house? What does that look like? Those the idea of a morning basket intrigue you?

The 2017-2018 Homeschool Plan

John (Kindergarten)

John is starting for real school this year! He will be using Mother of Divine Grace. We did enroll this year and I've been very impressed with how quickly our consultant responds to questions. It's very comforting to have someone experienced in our curriculum on call!

This year is a lot of reading good books, practicing phonics, math, exploring, and learning to see the beautiful with formal studies of art and music.

Therese (Preschool Year 1)

We do two years of preschool, so Therese is on year 1 of our normal preschool process. This year we use 26 Letters to Heaven as a loose guide to our year. Therese is more into arts and crafts than John, and I think she will very much enjoy the more crafty side of the curriculum. 

In theory she is spending this year gaining familiarity with letters, exploring her world, and getting introduced to numbers and simple math. The reality is that she is a second child who has been listening in on big brother's lessons for a few years now. Most of this will just be reinforcing what she has already heard introduced. I'm a big believer in going slow in these early years so I am not planning to fast track her at all.

She's very excited to officially join in our school time this year!

Extras

Preschool Busy Boxes

These are boxes for Therese to choose from when I need to do one on one work with John. They are designed to work on fine motor skills and hand strength and to be self-directed. I posted about these busy boxes in my 7 Quick Takes last Friday and a number of people requested to know what was in the boxes, so here it is!

Box 1: Playdough and plastic cutting tools

Box 2: Lacing cards, pony beads, and shoelaces

Box 3: Clothes pins, pom pom balls, and a silverware organizer. This one will get rotated around with different sorting containers we find around the house.

Box 4: Wikki Stix, various size craft sticks, pipe cleaners. This one is to go to town creating. I'm planning to stick some basic coloring pages in here for Therese to "color" the picture using the objects in the box. It will also get additional supplies throughout the year. 

Ballet

John will be joining the boys program at the Minnesota Dance Theater this September! He is very excited to be big enough for the "big boys ballet".

He's grown so much in just a year!

Therese is still too young for pre-ballet (life is hard with a late summer birthday) but she will likely start a more formal exercise activity this year too.

Homeschool group

Our parish has a fabulous homeschool group that we are joining this year. They offer various activities, field trips, and enrichment throughout the year. Specifically what is offered depends on volunteer power and interest so we'll see what is on the docket this year at the kick off picnic!

Little Lambs

We are continuing to use the Little Lambs Family Formation curriculum. This is the only year both kids overlap in Little Lambs, and I thought it would be nice to have a part of school be something they can do together.

Typical (planned) schedule

We only have a Kindergartner and Preschooler this year. Formal "school time" only takes 45 minutes to an hour. Tops. That leaves a lot of the day for exploring and adventures. But if I do not plan them they will not happen (fact).

Note: I say all this about to give birth around a month or two into this adventure so we'll see how this gets adapted!

Monday: Library Day! 
Every Sunday I request all the books will will need for the following week then I pick up whatever has managed to make it to the hold shelf on Monday. Our local library branch has great kid play areas and cool extras like hatching butterflies and ladybugs on the librarian's desk.

Tuesday: Flex Day

Both Tuesday and Thursday are flex days.
These are days when we can choose between options like going to the Nature Center or YMCA, do experiments on topics the kids are interested in, and have longer free play at home. Family DIY projects and extra liturgical year prep are options on these days too. The ideal is to stay a little closer to home and not have something we need to rush out the door for every day. These are all activities that can be done without specific time frames and at our own pace.

Wednesday: Children's Holy Hour and Ballet
Our parish has a beautiful children's holy hour every Wednesday morning. There are lots of prayers, songs, quiet prayer time, saint stories, bible stories, etc. You haven't lived until you've heard 15 kids lisping a decade of the rosary! Everyone gets some time with Jesus and if they keep it (mostly) together they get to join the daily mass crowd for donuts.

John has his Ballet class on Wednesday evenings so I am going to have to experiment and see what works best with Therese for that hour. And then figure out Therese + newborn for the hour.

Thursday: Flex Day

Another flex day so same options as Tuesday. One of these days often becomes "catch up on cleaning" day. Little kids really enjoy that day if I give them jobs they can accomplish. They are currently most helpful at: unloading the dryer into the laundry hamper, sweeping with hand brooms and dust pans from the dollar store, and cleaning up anything that can be put into a box or bin.

Friday: Adventure Day!

We only have formal school work Monday through Thursday, so Friday is completely free for getting a head start on adventures! It's a good day to make use of our historical society membership, check out museums, explore new places, or make fancy lunch.

Here we go!

Choosing Mother of Divine Grace

Linking up with This Ain't the Lyceum for 7 Quick Takes!

It is homeschool planning time for us! This year I will have a Kindergartner and a preschooler, with a newborn making an appearance early on in the year. I will be using 26 Letters to Heaven with my preschooler this year, but with some added adaptions to help it better fit into our year and my daughter's specific needs (more on that later!)

For my Kindergartner we have decided to enroll in Mother of Divine Grace (MODG). There are a lot of pluses to the curriculum in the early years that I thought I would write down - partially for myself to read when the "February Dull-drums" hit and I need a reminder!

Rigor not busywork

Somehow education discussions have come to view being busy as equivalent to rigorous in a curriculum. I think what one truly means when one says "I am looking for a rigorous curriculum" is, "I am looking for a curriculum that asks enough of the student that they must keep striving ever further, even in areas they may not personally enjoy." I believe busy work always comes back to bite you. It does not foster sustainable learning in the child, and is a recipe for burnout for the teaching parent.

Just like any other healthy plan, having reasonable and achievable goals is the sweet spot.

Beauty

MODG is beautiful. I would be remiss if these early years did not involve learning to see and appreciate beauty. Because this window for true awe and appreciation just does not open again in the same way.
All the art, and music, and poetry are not just beautiful extras but important in their own right. Learning how to notice detail in art, pick up tone and audible difference,  memorization and performance - these are all skills that might be fudgable for a while, but their lack does become painfully obvious further along in life.

I love that MODG teaches kids these skills early, while simultaneously familiarizing them with a cultural heritage that could seem far away and unreachable.

Flexibility

There is a lot of wiggle room in MODG in terms of which books you end up using for each kid. It's flexible and allows for adaption from kid to kid and family to family. I love that I can tailor the curriculum but I don't feel like I have to right off the bat. There is nothing that I greatly dislike or feel the need to avoid in the curriculum as it stands.

It forces me to have limits

MODG is very simple in the early grades. It's all about building a solid foundation. A newborn is expected to make an appearance in the early part of our school year, and the reality is I need to know what is important and focus on THAT.
Because I am type A and would totally try to do all the things if the curriculum did not reel me in a bit.

Solidly Catholic

I do not need to pay money for materials that undermine the Catholic base I am trying to instill in my kids. That being said, the curriculum does not feel the need to make anything and everything about specifically Catholic things. MODG utilizes books that are not from Catholic specific publishers but produce solid materials with nothing anti-Catholic in that specific book. I like the attitude that secular or Protestant materials do not automatically need to be excluded. We are still meant to live in this world after all.

Enrollment and Accreditation

While enrollment is certainly not strictly necessary when I only have a Kindergartner and a Preschooler, it is comforting to be able to enroll in the school and have a consultant on call in the event that an issue does arise. If we feel like we need to change a book, if something is just not working, or specific learning issues come up, I can email, call, or text my consultant and know that she is familiar with our materials.

Accreditation is something I don't worry about until the middle/high school grades, but it does not hurt to have it - especially when talking to people who are unfamiliar with homeschooling.

It's Familiar

The big reason MODG initially stuck out to me is it uses the materials I largely know and would have chosen anyway. Many of you know I was homeschooled up until high school so I've made the transition from homeschooled kid to homeschooling mom. Living through the experimentation of the 90s Catholic homeschool world left me with big opinions about what does and does not work for me.
Starting out with what I know helps my confidence that we will arrive at important destinations without (too many) tears.


We are adding in a few things to the curriculum, such as: Little Lambs Family Formation, Ballet, science and history plans, etc. A post on our specific curriculum adaptations will be in the works soon!

What do you love about your curriculum? How do you envision next year in your house?