As mentioned in my last post, I am going to share a peek into our “Morning Time” basket!
This basket is the place where I keep all of our morning time/family subject materials so they are easy to access. The basket itself I found at the thrift store, but is a Longaberger similar to this one. It is just the perfect size and shape to fit books in, and is sturdy enough to move around the room when I want.
Bible
We usually begin the morning reading from the Bible. Currently I am using Old Story New by Marty Machowski as a reading guide, and for the discussion questions. I edit the material and make it work for my home, but appreciate having the framework already there for me.
It is a simple devotional style book with a Bible passage, discussion portion, questions, and a prayer for 5 days of the week. Four days of the week are usually from the same passage of Scripture, and the fifth day is from the Psalms or Prophets.
Reading
Next, we do some reading. Usually I have my oldest read aloud from the Pathway reader she is currently working through, then I will read from different books. Typically I read from Life of Fred and also from a long, information heavy picture book or two.
Currently we are reading through Life of Fred: Edgewood, You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Extreme Weather, and The Picture History of Great Inventors. The long picture books I pick to read are ones I wouldn’t necessarilily keep out on my children’s bookshelf, but are more dense and meaty, and might have things I need to edit as I read.
History
Next we move onto history, which is typically me reading alound from whatever is sceduled that day and having an open discussion about what we read. We are currently using Foundations of World History 2: Daniel’s Statue; Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome for our history guide.
My children are still quite young for this curriculum, so we stick to oral narrarations and maybe add in a coloring page, timeline addition, or hands on craft to help them remember what we have learned.
Science
Science is one of our subjects we have on a loop type schedule, along with Geography and Typing. We do science twice a week, and had been using a more formal curriculum (Chemistry for the Grammar Stage) which I liked past years of this curriculum, but felt it was not the right time to do a very formal chemistry this year.
Instead, I had my children compile some subjects they are interested in, and we will be doing unit studies on those this year. The topics we will cover are: veternary science, agricultural science, automotive and steam engines, and doctoral science. I might write a post on resources for these units!
Geography
Geography is another subject we have on our loop schedule, and it is typically visited once a week. We are currently working through A Trip Around the World and have really been enjoying it. We also really love this Map Essentials book for some fun map skill games!
We typically study one country for three weeks, learning about the flag and statistics one week, landscape and map the next week, and the people and culture the final week. All of our memories are kept in a geography notebook.
The guide book is maybe a tad outdated, but I love that it gives me a jumping off point(and some printables!) for our studies. We use many other resource books, atlases, and the internet for our information for geography.
What is in your morning basket? What is your favorite family subject in your homeschool? Are there any resources mentioned that you would like to see more about? I’d love to hear from you in the comments!
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