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I’ve been using a great method to open our homeschool day that I want to share with you. And as usual I can’t take any credit for it because it’s totally not my idea. While I was trying to figure out how to add all the little extras to our schedule that I always imagined doing but could never find the time for, I discovered the concept of Morning Baskets.

If you’ve been hanging out in the homeschool world for a while, you’ve probably heard of them. If not – here’s a a quick primer.

Morning Basket Basics

Morning baskets can take on many forms. In the most generic sense, it’s a way to tackle those things that don’t fall into your basic subjects you do every day. Think Shakespeare, poetry, Scripture memorization, Art History, classic fairy tales, a study of modern inventions, math games, National Parks, the list is endless.

You’ll take your basket, find a comfy place to hang out with the kids first thing in the morning (or over breakfast), and work through your resources little by little. Set a timer if you wish, and open your school day with something you love. This process is called Morning Time.

Often, families will use Morning Time as a way to bring the whole family together for a read aloud or math games, or anything else you want all the kids to participate in, before breaking off to do individual subjects. For some families that use online programs or more independent learning for each child, morning basket time might be the only chance you get to sink into something together.

Whether you are an independent homeschool or part of a charter that you report to, you know that getting bogged down in the four main subjects of Math, Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science is easy to do. When you have a teacher’s manual telling you what to teach and how fast to teach it, it can be hard to deviate without feeling a little guilty. Morning Time can change all that.

When you first started homeschooling, what were the things you imagined doing with your kids? Did you want to study classical music or learn how to raise chickens? Did you dream of reciting poetry or reading great books just for the fun of it?

How to Get Started

If you’re anything like me, you had plenty of ideas for good, beautiful, and useful things to learn and enjoy with your kids. And you’ve probably struggled to find time to do them. Friends, let me encourage you to start a Morning Time ritual in your homeschool. All you need is a stack of whatever you want to learn. A basket to put them in is just a bonus. Here’s how it works:

Make a list of the things you have always wanted to add in to your homeschool but never could. Identify the resources you’ll need. Schedule your Morning Time to begin before your lessons – during breakfast could be the perfect time. Starting out you only need 20 or 30 minutes a day (unless your kids are very young, then you might start with just 10 minutes). Work through your resources little by little, and over time you will bring in all of those wonderful things you’ve always wanted to do.

Some families like to cycle through different topics each day of the week. Some will work through one till it’s done, then move on to the next. My personal twist is to cycle through topics monthly. I had quite a few things I wanted to add to our Morning Time, so instead of overloading ourselves, I scheduled them by month. We work through as much as we can, and if we don’t finish we don’t fret.

My Basket Contents

Here are the things that were in our stack this year. Now let me give you a disclaimer – we didn’t get to all of these. But those that we didn’t finish will make it into next round. There’s a few that might not. (It’s ok to reevaluate every now and then!)

• Indescribable: 100 Devotions for Kids About God and Science
• The Usborne Complete Shakespeare – Stories From All the Plays
• Who Is My Neighbor? by Apologia
• The Iliad by Homer (mine is packed up and I can’t remember the version! Find a good retelling for kids.)
• The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure
• D’Aualaire’s Book of Norse Myths
• Yo, Sacramento! (And All Those Other State Capitals You Don’t Know)
• Yo, Millard Fillmore! (And All Those Other Presidents You Don’t Know)
• Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales: An Illustrated Classic
• Stuff You Need to Know!
• Aesop’s Fables: An Illustrated Classic
• The Story of the World’s Greatest Paintings
• The Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales: An Illustrated Classic

Your Basket Contents

So what should go in your basket? Are there things you always imagined you’d bring in to homeschool but never did? That can go in morning time. Do you need some family fun to start your day? Games and mad libs can go in morning time. Can you identify things that you want to accomplish each day, even if there’s nothing else you get to? Because, you know, life. That goes in morning time.

A great way to look at this is to remember that morning time can be your most important time of the day, and that doesn’t always include the academics. Try to avoid using this as a remedial time and make it enjoyable family time.

I mentioned earlier that morning time isn’t my idea. If you have more questions, go to my source. Pam Barnhill’s book, Better Together: Strengthen Your Family, Simplify Your Homeschool, and Savor the Subjects that Matter Most, was my inspiration for making the morning time leap. You can also get great ideas at her website, or do a Pinterest search for “morning baskets”.

Please, Not Another Subject!

At this point, you might be wondering how you can possibly squeeze something else into your already busy day. But I encourage you to avoid considering this another “subject”. It’s not. It’s an investment. An investment into you, your kids, and your relationship with them. It could possibly be the most important time of your day, and should be the one thing you get to if you get to nothing else.

Give It A Try!

I’ve only touched the surface of the idea of Morning Time and Morning Baskets, but I hope you’re intrigued! You can design it any way you like, but the point is to bond as a family over a topic, enjoy something outside of the usual academics, and have a focused but enjoyable start to the day. And summer is a great time to start, especially if you aren’t continuing school through the summer months! So grab a few resources that you’ve always wanted to use, and have a great morning!