Morning Time When You're NOT a Morning Person
When I first heard about the Charlotte Mason idea of a "Morning Basket," I thought it was really neat. However, I just didn't see how it was possible with three wild, little kids (5, 4, 3). The bigger problem was that I am NOT a morning person!
Fuzzy Brain Time
As I mentioned before, I am NOT a morning person. I wake up with a fuzzy brain and wheezy, asthmatic lungs. Usually, before anything else can happen most mornings, I need a breathing treatment. While I'm on the machine, the kids eat breakfast in front of a TV show. At a certain time, an alarm on my phone rings that reminds me to start morning time.
Call To Worship
I announce our Morning Time by putting on the first song on the Getty Kids Hymnal CD, which is "The Doxology" and "O Shout for Joy." The music is energetic and joyful and gets us all moving. While I gather our supplies, the kids get their carpets and lay them out on the floor. The carpets are cheap bath mats from Walmart, but they define each kid's space and help them keep their bodies to themselves while we're having our special time. Once we're in place, we dance on our mats until the song ends.
Hymn Practice
The first hymn we learned was "What Can Wash Away My Sins?" which was a great hymn to start with because it's so repetitive. When you have non-readers, you have to learn things the call and response way. We call "What Can Wash" the "Popcorn Song" because the kids squat down during the non-repetitive part and then pop-up to sing, "Nothing but the blood of Jesus!"
I have started a song book for our school time, where I can keep track of all the lyrics and make sure that I'm teaching the kids the right words. Some of these hymns have a lot of verses that aren't sung very often, but my kids are learning them!
Memorization
For now, we're working our way through the ABC Bible Verse Flashcards from Homeschool Creations. I've had them printed off and laminated for years and now the kids are ready to use them. The kids (ages 5, 4, and 3) have memorized five verses.
Bible
For the past year or so, we've been reading the Jesus Storybook Bible. We still enjoy the book, but we've gotten a bit tired of the same forty or so stories. For our new morning time, we bought The Complete Illustrated Children's Bible, which has three hundred stories. Each story presents only the facts and covers a lot of Bible history, yet each story is only two pages long. The length is great for working on complete concentration and getting the Bible timeline down. Eventually, I'd like to add a physical Bible timeline that we can hang on the wall and build our knowledge of world history upon.
Missions
We're reading through Akebu to Zapotec: A Book of Bibleless Peoples as an introduction to world missions. After we read, we talk about where the group of people lives and find their country on our map.
Prayer
At the end of our morning time, we pray together. I've been encouraging the kids to think of someone outside of our family to pray for. Then, we take turns praying.
Starting morning time was scary, but I'm so glad we're doing it now. The kids look forward to our time together. I love how they're hiding God's word in their hearts and learning some of the great hymns of our faith. I am excited to see where this morning time goes next.
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| Wikimedia Commons |
Fuzzy Brain Time
As I mentioned before, I am NOT a morning person. I wake up with a fuzzy brain and wheezy, asthmatic lungs. Usually, before anything else can happen most mornings, I need a breathing treatment. While I'm on the machine, the kids eat breakfast in front of a TV show. At a certain time, an alarm on my phone rings that reminds me to start morning time.
Call To Worship
I announce our Morning Time by putting on the first song on the Getty Kids Hymnal CD, which is "The Doxology" and "O Shout for Joy." The music is energetic and joyful and gets us all moving. While I gather our supplies, the kids get their carpets and lay them out on the floor. The carpets are cheap bath mats from Walmart, but they define each kid's space and help them keep their bodies to themselves while we're having our special time. Once we're in place, we dance on our mats until the song ends.
 |
| The Song Book (laminated and bound), Illustrated Children's Bible, and Memorization Flashcards |
The first hymn we learned was "What Can Wash Away My Sins?" which was a great hymn to start with because it's so repetitive. When you have non-readers, you have to learn things the call and response way. We call "What Can Wash" the "Popcorn Song" because the kids squat down during the non-repetitive part and then pop-up to sing, "Nothing but the blood of Jesus!"
I have started a song book for our school time, where I can keep track of all the lyrics and make sure that I'm teaching the kids the right words. Some of these hymns have a lot of verses that aren't sung very often, but my kids are learning them!
Memorization
For now, we're working our way through the ABC Bible Verse Flashcards from Homeschool Creations. I've had them printed off and laminated for years and now the kids are ready to use them. The kids (ages 5, 4, and 3) have memorized five verses.
Bible
For the past year or so, we've been reading the Jesus Storybook Bible. We still enjoy the book, but we've gotten a bit tired of the same forty or so stories. For our new morning time, we bought The Complete Illustrated Children's Bible, which has three hundred stories. Each story presents only the facts and covers a lot of Bible history, yet each story is only two pages long. The length is great for working on complete concentration and getting the Bible timeline down. Eventually, I'd like to add a physical Bible timeline that we can hang on the wall and build our knowledge of world history upon.
Missions
We're reading through Akebu to Zapotec: A Book of Bibleless Peoples as an introduction to world missions. After we read, we talk about where the group of people lives and find their country on our map.
Prayer
At the end of our morning time, we pray together. I've been encouraging the kids to think of someone outside of our family to pray for. Then, we take turns praying.
 |
| Wikimedia Commons |
Starting morning time was scary, but I'm so glad we're doing it now. The kids look forward to our time together. I love how they're hiding God's word in their hearts and learning some of the great hymns of our faith. I am excited to see where this morning time goes next.
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