Morning Time for the Beginner and What you Need to get Started

How I began Using Morning Time in my Homeschooling Routine

How I began Using Morning Time

I was in my third year of homeschooling when I first heard about “morning time”. I was reading Cindy Rollins Book “Mere Motherhood” that I picked up at the Great Homeschool Convention and I immediately fell in love. I purchased her “Morning Time Handbook” the second I realized it was available and we have been doing Morning Time consistently ever since. Morning time is amazing in that it allows you to come together for family time at the beginning of your day. We talk about our daily plans, pray together, read, memorize together, and have an enjoyable and relaxed time listening to various read alouds. It usually takes about an hour. Sometimes more if we are really having fun with the read aloud. It has become a sweet time of togetherness before the other school work begins. This is such a relationship building time.

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What is Morning time?

Morning time is a part of your day that is set aside to certain routines. It can be different depending on the homeschool family. But the consistent part is that it is done together as a family (all ages) and it is usually done first thing in the morning before you start your official subjects and independent work.

Morning time has been around for about 30-40 years. It however has had a strong resurgence in the last 5 years in the homeschooling world. And I am so grateful to the women who brought it back to the forefront.

How Do I Get Started With Morning Time?

I started morning time full force and tried to get way too many things in at first. Over time, however, I started to realize what would work for our family and you will too. I came up with a Weekly Morning Time Planner to assist and keep me on track while doing morning time, feel free to use it if it is something that can help you. Sometimes, however, we sway from the plan (I am good at that….I don’t always like to follow the directions I give myself). But having some type of plan is good to have which is why I created one.

What do I Need for Morning Time?

I also learned that it was important for me to be organized and ready for morning time when it began. Thus I put together a morning time binder and a basket with all the supplies I would need. You do not have to use a basket. You can put all of your morning time items on a shelf, in a tote bag, or anywhere that you might like. What is essential is that all of your materials are together and ready to go before you start.

Take the time to prepare for your morning time so it will be successful.

You do not want to sit down to do your morning time and realize that you can’t find what you need. Taking time to search for books, your water, or other necessary items can disrupt your morning time. Sometimes it can even throw the whole morning time plan out the window; trust me from experience. I am sitting down with my coffee (I didn’t forget that 😊) but then I can’t find the read aloud book, so I get up and start looking for it. When I am up and about, I am easily distracted. I can go from focused on teaching and morning time to “oh, I forgot to switch the laundry to the dryer…” and all of the sudden I am putting off the most important time of our homeschooling day. I have learned that preparing my morning time basket with these essential items ensures its success.

What should I include in my Morning Time Basket?

Your Morning time schedule (I keep a 6×9 binder with my schedule, memory verses, read aloud list, catechism questions, poetry, etc. so that it is all in one spot. No matter how many days I have completed morning time (usually 3 days a week) I sometimes lose sight of what comes next in our morning. Having a schedule keeps me on track and focused. You can even make a binder for each of your kids, especially the ones who are good readers. They can follow along or take notes using their own notebook.)

8 Essential Items for your Morning Time Basket

Your essential  books (Each family will have a different set of books that they choose for their morning time basket. Mine are: Bible, Catechism, devotional, philosophy book, logic book, Shakespeare, etc.)

Manipulatives and quiet toys (small bin Legos, Rubiks Cube, Magformers, thinking games like Kanoodle)

Your read-aloud book(s)

Art Notebooks (we like Strathmore sketch books at least 50lb weighted paper)

Coloring Supplies (I put mine in a small pencil box and make sure I have a pencil sharpener as well)

Nature books (Audubon, animals books, how to draw books)

A bottle of water and/or cup of coffee.

Can I see your Morning Time Basket?

So here is what my morning time basket looks like. I wanted mine to be cute because I always leave it in the living room. It is tall enough to where everything fits in it nicely. My house is a 1950’s house and we have so little storage space. I suppose if I had a closet or something, I may store it in there. But…. No storage closets here.

What does a sample schedule look Like?

Like I mentioned earlier, when I started morning time, I tried to do way too much at first. My kids are young and I was overwhelming them. But being a homeschool family, we are always assessing and reassessing what we are doing and how we can do it better. I may plan to do several things during morning time, but if my kids and I start having an amazing conversation, I let that play out over getting to my next scheduled item. Once we hit the 45 minute to 1 hour mark, I can usually tell that my kids have had enough. It is break time!!!

Here is how my morning time goes: (I try to keep it simple:-))

              1.  We are a Christian family so we always start our morning time with our devotional, Bible Reading, Memory verses, prayer time, Catechism, and hymn singing.  This usually takes 10 minutes or so.

              2. We also alternate reading a logic book, a philosophy book, a biography of a composer, or great speeches, and an artist biography.

              3. We end our morning time with a read aloud. Sometimes I grab a read aloud that coincides with history, but sometimes it is just a fun enjoyable story. I always let my kids draw in their nature journals as I read. I keep a variety of nature books for them to peruse and copy from.

You can download my free PDF sample fill-in schedule here or go to my TeacherspayTeachers page and download it for free there. Keep in mind that it is a template and that there is always more than what can fit in a day 😊. I am always more optimistic and put way too much in.

Inspirational Homeschool Mamas

So many of the veteran homeschool moms that I admire and follow have excellent resources on morning time: Pam Barnhill, Cindy Rollins, and Sarah Mackenzie. Each has a lot of experience and expertise to add to your knowledge of morning time. Here are some links to these amazing morning time resources:

Cindy Rollins with Circe Institute at CindyRollins.net

Your Morning Basket by Pam Barnhill at PamBarnhill.com

Read-Aloud Revival with Sarah Mackenzie at ReadAloudRevival.com

I hope that you have been inspired to look into morning time for your homeschooling day. I have been so thankful for what this treasured time has brought to my family. It is helping not only my children, but also myself to establish great routines for life joy and success.

Do you include morning time into your day? Do you have any tips for someone just starting out? Leave your response in the comments below.