Morning Time Matters

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;

his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

~Lamentations 3:22-23

Every morning is like a do-over, a reset from the previous day's blunders and missed opportunities. It presents us with fresh grace and mercy from the Lord, as we meet each new day refreshed and ready to accomplish the tasks before us. For this reason, I choose to do morning time with my kids as often as possible.

What is morning time?

Morning time is intended to be a time when the whole family gathers to do the things that are meant to be done together. There are many ideas of what can be included in morning time. For abundant inspiration, I highly recommend tuning into Pam Barnhill's podcast, "Your Morning Basket." But for the purpose of this brief post, I will simply share...

What my family does during morning time:

Read Aloud: the importance of reading to your children (yes, older ones too!) cannot be overstated. Reading excellent books together provides a way to build relationships, connect hearts, and develop inside secrets through the stories you share. I would also highly recommend Sarah MacKenzie's podcast, "Read Aloud Revival" as an excellent resource for all things pertaining to reading aloud. Consider the content your children will be learning this year, then browse excellent book lists to select the best books you'd like to read aloud, and create your own reading list to work through for the year. In addition to Read Aloud Revival, here are some resources I have turned to for ideas:

Read Aloud Family by Sarah MacKenzie
Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease
Institute for Excellence in Writing suggested literature to accompany the writing theme

Memory Work: this type of learning - rote memorization - has become an undervalued form of strengthening children's mental faculties. Consider... how much easier it would be to teach multiplication if children have memorized skip counting the various numbers... how much more enriching would a trip to a museum be if children have memorized facts about history and science... how much more comprehensive would their study of the English language be if they memorized definitions and important word lists? Children are natural memorizers anyway. It's important to provide them with the guidance and rich content of worthy things to memorize, so they have more in their well of knowledge than simply Pokemon characters and Disney lyrics. For this content, we turn to the Classical Conversations Foundations guide, and practice the weekly memory work on a daily basis.

Foundations Curriculum, 5th Edition by Classical Conversations

Bible Study/Devotional: the available resources for Bible study or devotionals are almost limitless. I would suggest if this is your first year, to just start with one thing. It's easy to go overboard with a plethora of ideas, but consider your audience and your goal. Most likely, we're talking about children (audience), and wanting them to love the Word of Truth (goal). This will develop over many, many faithful days of sowing a small bit at a time, not from inundating them with mounds of Bible activities, readings, and devotional commentary. With that said, I realize it may be helpful if I provided some ideas for you to consider. We did not do all of this at the same time; these are just some of the resources our family has used and loved over several years:

Indescribable by Louie Giglio
The Ology by Marty Machowski
Our 24 Family Ways by Clay & Sally Clarkson

Other Ideas: again, the possibilities are endless, and there are always so many wonderful things to do! Just remember, doing too much of a good thing can be bad. I would encourage you to limit your morning time to about an hour, which means spending only 15-20 minutes on 3-4 things each. If, like me, you have read aloud, memory work, and Bible devotional listed as every day, non-negotiables for your morning time, then you might consider leaving it at that, or only including one more thing. In the Beautiful Family Homeschool Planner, there is space to plan for four morning time activities, so you might reserve that fourth line for other random things you would like to do, but not necessarily every day. Here are some ideas:
- Nature walk/journal
- Drawing project (check out artforkidshub.com, or any number of excellent books)
- Poetry reading/memorization
- Podcast listening/watching
- Science experiment (many simple idea in Usborne books or VanCleave's books)

A beautiful beginning to each day

I love starting each day with a solid plan for morning time. I pencil everything into the Beautiful Family Homeschool Planner, which helps me to focused and intentional about this precious time together. Morning time seems to set us all off on a a good trajectory for the day, as we spend our first hour or so together indulging in good books, scripture, prayer, and filling our minds with treasures of truth, goodness, and beauty.

Blessings,

Beth

Check out this video for an overview about morning time: