“Win the Morning, Win the Day!”

I see this quoted often in books, on blogs, Instagram feeds, and Facebook pages that are dedicated to productivity, entrepreneurship, personal growth, and habit development.

I’m not an entrepreneur, but I’m a bit of a productivity/habit/organization nerd, and over the last several months, I’ve been wondering how some of the excellent advice that is given in the business space might apply to homeschooling. One of the key concepts that I come across on a regular basis is the idea of setting yourself up to win your mornings. In the business world that often means being up at 5 am, getting in a good workout, answering emails, reviewing the day’s schedule of meetings, and planning out a list of tasks.

Winning the morning is a concept that can be applied to anyone’s life and I’ve got three topics that I’d like to share with you over the next several months that will help you win your homeschool mornings.

1. Morning Time
2. Building Habits
3. Bullet Journaling

Morning Time:

Mornings with my children have always been a treasured time. So much so that it was a challenging adjustment as my children grew and started to be out of the home most mornings with work and post-secondary classes. The memories of first morning smiles from my babies, first hugs of the day from my toddlers, and big kids who always seemed to be in the mood to snuggle first thing in the morning are some of my favourite mothering moments.

Our homeschool mornings have always been gentle and slow-moving, but productive. The nighttime nursing years rarely saw me out of bed before the little ones, but now, with my nursing years behind me, I’m able to get out of bed before my children and accomplish a few things before waking them up to get started with their day. I encourage you not to miss the opportunity we have to make special morning memories. It’s worth seeking out how to do them well.  And winning the morning sets you up for a great day.

I first heard about morning time at a homeschool conference (also called morning baskets, lunchtime learning, together time, morning meeting, family learning time, and circle time).  The concept is simply gathering your children together to learn something together and it is a great way to start the day.

We have tried implementing this concept at other times of the day, and you should do what works for you, but I think there are real benefits to sticking to mornings. Morning Time starts your day with order and routine, ensures that enrichment studies get done, and my favorite…if the rest of our day falls apart, we have still engaged in meaningful learning.

Getting Started with Morning Time

You don’t need heaps of time.  Start by setting aside 20-30 minutes and build up from there. I like to use several resources each morning, but you can start with one, and add on as you go.  If you are already doing a regular morning devotion, add one more component to your Morning Time to get you started.

Storage for Morning Time Resources

When I first heard about Morning Time, it was referred to as a Morning Basket and I opted to use an actual basket. We outgrew that basket quickly so I currently use a 3-tiered rolling cart, but you could use a bookshelf or box. Portable storage is ideal if you think you might want to do morning time curled up on your bed one day and at the kitchen table the next.

Scheduling your Homeschool Morning Time

Once you have built up a stack of resources you will want to consider scheduling.  My preference is a flexible loop schedule. I set things up so that I can move a resource that I’ve used one day to the back of the stack to wait for another day.  The only one I use daily is the bible resource.

You could opt for a set schedule too, where you have particular resources that are used on certain days.

I prefer to keep things flexible.  I make morning time a priority but there are times where I have to set it aside or we have to cut our time short so looping through the resources seems to work best for us.

Ages & Stages and Morning Time Resources

I’m currently spending my mornings with my four youngest (ages 7-15).  I have found that when we have used a resource that is geared towards younger children, the older ones have found the review helpful; when the resource is geared towards older ones, the younger ones still seem to be able to glean bits of information that build over time. I would encourage you not to fret over the age for which a particular resource is intended.  The bible resource we are currently reading is designed more for my 10-year-old but I know that it is a helpful review for my 12 & 15-year-old and my 7-year-old is making connections to the resource we used last year that was geared towards his age.

Key Components of Your Morning Time

Devotions. Reading a chapter-a-day from the bible works well or you can opt for a Bible storybook. At times we’ve added bible memory work. And when we attended a large church, we had a special prayer project where we rotated through praying for our missionaries (a practical geography lesson too). I would highly recommend any of these resources; we’ve used many of them.  The Ology and Wonderfull are next on our list after we are finished with The Children’s Illustrated Bible.

Other Bible Storybook Resources Include:

The Big Picture Story Bible

The Children’s Illustrated Bible

The Child’s Story Bible

The Story Bible

The Golden Children’s Bible

Jesus Storybook Bible

Story Bible for Older Children

The 100 Most Important Events in Christian History

When you’re ready, add a creative component: drawing, picture studies, poetry, a simple seasonal craft, and music study are a few ideas.  Keep in mind that the idea isn’t to do all of these every day. You want to loop through them throughout the week.

Bible Picture/Picture Study Portfolios

How to Draw…

A Child’s Book of Poems

Favorite Poems Old and New

The Gift of Music

Great Composers

A Child’s Introduction to the Orchestra

Read Alouds are my favourite resource.  I’m always finding books that I want to read to my children and have quite the stack. Read Alouds help you introduce your children to all kinds of topics; during a typical week, we might learn about owls, a far-off land, a historical figure, and how cities are built.  Read alouds are the best!

Katy No Pocket

Random House Book of Fairy Tales

King Arthur

My Side of the Mountain

Call It Courage

Wingfeather Saga

Buford the Little Bighorn

Blueberries for Sal

All of a Kind Family

The Green Ember Series

Listening for Lions

Review in the form of games, flashcards, and discussions.  This is a new component for us.  I’m trying to be more purposeful in our discussion topics and have recently purchased a few games to help us review math facts.

…Facts That Stick (Math Facts)

If you were a…(grammar picture books)

I haven’t tried long-term projects but I think this could work too.  Personally, I would avoid projects for morning time that will be too time-consuming with set up or clean up.

While everyone is gathered, I like to spend a few minutes on the administrative details of our day and week.  This is where I assign chores, give reminders about appointments, and review expectations about the grocery store trip that is planned for that day.

I love a well-written homeschool curriculum but the resources that I find that are easily pulled into our family morning time are my absolute favorite!

Check out our Morning Basket Whiteboard Video on our Youtube channel. It’s a great summary about how to get started with a Morning Basket/Morning Time.

by Adrianne Curwen

Adrianne is a wife to a public-school educator/administrator and a homeschooling Mama to seven children, ranging in age from 7 to 23. She believes that we have a unique opportunity as homeschoolers to design individualized education that suits giftings, interests, and passions. She and her husband have used a blend of registered homeschooling, enrolment with independent DL schools, and participation in public trade school programs to design individualized programs for their children.  She is passionate about using as many read-alouds, picture books, novels, and conversations to educate her children but also gets excited by the amazing homeschool-designed curriculum that’s out there.  Adrianne is thrilled by her new role as Communication Specialist for Classical Education Books and is grateful to have an opportunity to learn something new.  She is grateful, every day, for her saviour, Jesus Christ, and has no greater joy than when she sees her most important missions field walk with Him.

The post Do Mornings Well! Part 1 appeared first on Classical Education Books.

I’ve really enjoyed reading through these math picture books with my children. We use them as part of our morning time, and they are bringing math to life.

I’m regularly negotiating with my reluctant learner but he’s always up for a good story, even a math story. Math picture books help children make connections between math concepts and the real world, they introduce your students to math vocabulary, and they combine literacy skills with math. Many times my reluctant learner has literally disappeared under the table as I’ve encouraged him to answer the math questions in his workbook but math questions that are asked as part of a story seem to fly under his radar and he’s happy to answer them.

Whether you have children who love math or have one that has developed math anxiety, math picture books are a fun way to engage children with math in a fun and gentle way.

Counting on Katherine

Millions to Measure

Blockhead

Bedtime Math

Math Curse

The Librarian who Measured the Earth

How Many Pumpkin Seeds

How Much is a Million

I’m Trying to Love Math

Anno’s Counting Book

Lemonade in Winter

by Adrianne Curwen

Adrianne is a wife to a public-school educator/administrator and a homeschooling Mama to seven children, ranging in age from 7 to 23. She believes that we have a unique opportunity as homeschoolers to design individualized education that suits giftings, interests, and passions. She and her husband have used a blend of registered homeschooling, enrolment with independent DL schools, and participation in public trade school programs to design individualized programs for their children.  She is passionate about using as many read-alouds, picture books, novels, and conversations to educate her children but also gets excited by the amazing homeschool-designed curriculum that’s out there.  Adrianne is thrilled by her new role as Communication Specialist for Classical Education Books and is grateful to have an opportunity to learn something new.  She is grateful, every day, for her saviour, Jesus Christ, and has no greater joy than when she sees her most important missions field walk with Him.

The post Math Picture Book Stack appeared first on Classical Education Books.

If Morning Time or a Morning Basket is already a part of your regular routine, these should be in there! (If you are not familiar with the concept of a Morning Basket, click here to link to a short video that will help you get started.)

Cycling through these stories throughout the year will give your young children a solid grasp of basic grammar.  My 7-year-old, who has not been introduced to any grammar concepts yet, had a clear understanding of nouns after the first read-through, and even my 9-year-old who has completed 2 years of formal grammar curriculum enjoyed these books.

There is a suggested game at the end of each book that is simple and fun. Don’t dismiss big kids before you read one of these to a younger one; they work well as a simple review, and I found that my young ones enjoyed having the big ones participate in the game.

Order a few to get started with but you’ll probably be back for more.

If You Were a Noun

If You Were an Adjective

If You Were a Verb

If You Were an Adverb

If You Were a Preposition

If You Were an Interjection

If You Were a Conjunction

If You Were a Homonym or a Homophone

If You Were an Antonym

by Adrianne Curwen

Adrianne is a wife to a public-school educator/administrator and a homeschooling Mama to seven children, ranging in age from 7 to 23. She believes that we have a unique opportunity as homeschoolers to design individualized education that suits giftings, interests, and passions. She and her husband have used a blend of registered homeschooling, enrolment with independent DL schools, and participation in public trade school programs to design individualized programs for their children.  She is passionate about using as many read-alouds, picture books, novels, and conversations to educate her children but also gets excited by the amazing homeschool-designed curriculum that’s out there.  Adrianne is thrilled by her new role as Communication Specialist for Classical Education Books and is grateful to have an opportunity to learn something new.  She is grateful, every day, for her saviour, Jesus Christ, and has no greater joy than when she sees her most important missions field walk with Him.

The post Book Stack – Grammar Picture Books appeared first on Classical Education Books.

World Water Day

From Brook to Ocean

Water Dance

Down Comes the Rain

Celebrate Spring

Karl, Get Out of the Garden

The Reasons for the Seasons

How Does a Seed Sprout

Palm Sunday

A Child’s Garden of Bible Stories

The Jesus Storybook Bible

World Poetry Day

The Llama Who Had No Pajama

A Child’s Book of Poems

The Selected Poems of Wendel Berry

Saint Patrick’s Day

Patrick

St. Patrick’s Day

by Adrianne Curwen

Adrianne is a wife to a public-school educator/administrator and a homeschooling Mama to seven children, ranging in age from 7 to 23. She believes that we have a unique opportunity as homeschoolers to design individualized education that suits giftings, interests, and passions. She and her husband have used a blend of registered homeschooling, enrolment with independent DL schools, and participation in public trade school programs to design individualized programs for their children.  She is passionate about using as many read-alouds, picture books, novels, and conversations to educate her children but also gets excited by the amazing homeschool-designed curriculum that’s out there.  Adrianne is thrilled by her new role as Communication Specialist for Classical Education Books and is grateful to have an opportunity to learn something new.  She is grateful, every day, for her saviour, Jesus Christ, and has no greater joy than when she sees her most important missions field walk with Him.

The post Teach Through March Book Stack appeared first on Classical Education Books.

Whether books are the foundation to your child’s learning, something you use to supplement curriculum, or you simply value what books bring into your home, CEB’s Book Stacks are something we’ll be pulling together on a regular basis to help you educate your children.

Making Memories

Themes are fun and a key ingredient to making memories.  I use them regularly in life and book themes are no exception.  I pull out all the fall-themed picture books off our bookshelves every September, we have a bin of Christmas books that gets hauled out in December, and I love finding books that coordinate with the other things we have going on.  Our trip to an ocean cabin included a bin full of ocean-themed activities: picture books, puzzles, games, and coloring sheets.  What stuffies do you bring on an ocean vacation?  Well, the mermaid and sea star of course.  During our family read-aloud time of The Green Ember, it just made sense to find picture books about Rabbits.  This year my plan is to purchase books about bacteria, viruses, and pandemics.

Boundaries Help Creativity

Themes introduce boundaries.  We don’t often think of boundaries as enhancing creativity or opening up our world, but they do.  A few years ago, we had a fun and creative time planning our meals for Valentines’ Day when we decided that everything had to be red.  And there was that year we had silent reading themes: Mondays were for science, Tuesdays were for history, Wednesdays were for fiction, and Thursdays were for bible stories.  This was a good strategy to encourage reading outside of the “go-to” genre.

Books are a Curriculum Complement

Homeschool Mamas have a special relationship with books. We know that there is a heap of learning that can be pulled out of living books.  I find myself leaning more and more on books particularly in the primary years.  It’s such a sweet and gentle way to learn.  I encourage you to weave living books into your curriculum where you can, especially when you notice a child being drawn into a particular topic.

Benefits of Living Books

-spark curiosity

-are a delight

-present facts as part of a storyline

-lead to greater retention

-are exciting

-are whole books

-draw a reader in

-make the subject matter come alive

Immersion

Immersing a child in a topic is a great way for them to learn. This Winter Book Stack has so much to offer.  Snow is Falling, Snowflake Bentley and Snowman-Cold=Puddle are all science books.  Robert Frost’s Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening is a poetry book, Winter on the Farm is a social studies book, and Snow is a Language Arts book where you can introduce your children to what it means to write lyrically. I love how the pictures in Owl Moon capture the feeling of a winter’s night and White Snow Bright Snow captivates the delight children feel when it starts to snow. Katy and the Big Snow is a sweet fictional account in which your child can share in Katy’s shining moment experience, The Mitten is a traditional Ukrainian story, and in Brave Irene, you’ll be sending your child out on an adventure as the main character faces a snowstorm.  How fun would it be to have these books on hand for the next snow week?

Add a snowflake craft and you’ll have a week to remember.

I hope you enjoy this Book Stack.  We can’t always add the book suggestions that you all have.  We sure love to hear about them though and add them to our Wishlist.

by Adrianne Curwen

Adrianne is a wife to a public-school educator/administrator and a homeschooling Mama to seven children, ranging in age from 7 to 23. She believes that we have a unique opportunity as homeschoolers to design individualized education that suits giftings, interests, and passions. She and her husband have used a blend of registered homeschooling, enrolment with independent DL schools, and participation in public trade school programs to design individualized programs for their children.  She is passionate about using as many read-alouds, picture books, novels, and conversations to educate her children but also gets excited by the amazing homeschool-designed curriculum that’s out there.  Adrianne is thrilled by her new role as Communication Specialist for Classical Education Books and is grateful to have an opportunity to learn something new.  She is grateful, every day, for her saviour, Jesus Christ, and has no greater joy than when she sees her most important missions field walk with Him.

The post Introducing CEB’s Book Stacks appeared first on Classical Education Books.