What exactly is Morning Time? How do I use a Morning Time Basket in our homeschool? This article addresses these two popular questions about this particular approach to homeschooling.
WHY WE NEEDED A CHANGE TO OUR HOMESCHOOL ROUTINE
For the longest time, our
Breakfast.
Clean up the kitchen table.
Bible and prayer.
Start
Unfortunately, many mornings were chaotic. I would hurry the girls through their breakfast so that we could get our homeschooling started. Then as we did our lessons, I would rush everything along… because let’s face it, in my family, everyone’s happier if homeschooling takes place in the morning. If any of our lessons flow into the afternoon, there’s guaranteed frustration and mayhem.
Our routine wasn’t feeling good. I hated the fact that some days, I really didn’t feel like homeschooling. I was frustrated that at times I resented the “work” of homeschooling. I was embarrassed to recognize that my kitchen table had turned into a classroom desk like the ones often found in brick and mortar schools.
Then, a month later, I discovered Pam Barnhill’s Better Together. At the time it was exactly the encouragement I needed to rethink our
Instead of jumping straight into worksheets and curriculum, Pam introduced the idea of beginning the day together with Scripture, beautiful books, music, memory work, and meaningful conversations.
That one simple shift completely changed the atmosphere of our
If you’re interested in creating your own Morning Time, I highly recommend Pam Barnhill’s Better Together. It’s the book that first inspired me to begin Morning Time, and it provides practical ideas for building a routine that works for your own family.
Morning time has had such a dramatic impact on all of our lives! I’m astounded by my children’s receptiveness and eagerness to participate. I’m stunned that my 4 1/2 year old, who previously would do everything she could to interrupt homeschooling, is now completely engaged in almost everything we do! Most importantly, I feel relaxed, joyful, and peaceful about our
WHAT IS MORNING TIME?
Morning Time is a shared learning experience that brings the whole family together before everyone moves into independent lessons. Instead of beginning the day with math books and checklists, we start with things that nourish our hearts and minds: Scripture, read-alouds, poetry, music, memory work, and meaningful conversations.
Every family’s Morning Time looks different, and that’s part of its beauty. Some spend 20 minutes together while others enjoy an hour or more.
WHAT IS A MORNING BASKET?
A Morning Basket is simply a place to keep all of the books and materials you use during Morning Time. Some families literally use a basket, while others use a tote, bookshelf, or rolling cart. The important part isn’t the container. It’s having everything ready so your mornings flow smoothly.
What is morning time and how do we include it in our #homeschool schedule? Come see an example! Share on XOUR HOMESCHOOL MORNING TIME ROUTINE
Morning time starts the same way every day. The thought for how to begin the ritual of morning time was inspired by my previous early childhood career….
I begin with a song and the children come to me:
Good morning, good morning,
And how do you do?
Good morning, good morning,
I’m fine how are you?
Then I sing one of the French songs which I can articulate well:
Bonjour mes amis, bonjour,
Bonjour mes amis, bonjour,
Bonjour mes amis, bonjour mes amis,
Bonjour mes amis, bonjour…
Bonjour!
Of course, I have to sing it in English too:
Hello my friends, hello.
Hello my friends, hello.
Hello my friends, hello my friends,
Hello my friends, hello…
Hello!
I take turns asking both of my children, the stuffed bunny, the stuffed bears, our family dog, and assorted other important “friends” how they’re doing and after everyone has responded, we dig into our morning basket.
OUR MORNING TIME SCHEDULE
Every family’s Morning Time will look different, and that’s okay. This isn’t a schedule to copy exactly. Instead, think of it as an example that you can adapt to fit your own family’s interests, ages, and
7:30 – Breakfast
8:00 – Gather at the living room couch as I sing our morning time songs
Faith building
Beginning our day with God reminds us that homeschooling is about far more than academics. It helps us focus our hearts before we focus on our lessons.
- Read daily Bible devotional.
- Sing a couple hymns or worship songs from my YouTube playlist.
- Say a prayer. We have a set of prayer cards that we created and we choose someone different to pray for every day.
Recitation
- Memory work (the children practice reciting a scripture or a poem).
Read aloud language arts
Reading together allows us to experience wonderful literature as a family. The discussions that naturally happen during read-alouds are often some of my favourite
- I read one chapter from a classic piece of literature. We read Winnie the Pooh and have recently begun Dr. Doolittle.
Read aloud social studies
- I read a chapter from a biography, or a section from Kayak magazine or Compassion Magazine, or we may listen together to a chapter of The Story of the World.
SQUILT (Super Quiet Uninterrupted Listening Time)
- We study a piece of classical music 3 times per week and do related work. I love the SQUILT curriculum. It’s affordable, flexible, and fun for all of us!
Art
Creative activities are a wonderful way to transition from our cozy Morning Time on the couch into table work.
- At this point in time we move over to the kitchen table and partake in an art activity. Watercolours, drawing, and clay are some of the girls’ favourites!
9:30 – Begin standard curriculum
- Language arts and math are done daily.
- Health, science, and social studies are done every few days.
I’ve included our schedule below so you have an idea of what our days look like. I check off what we do daily.
WHAT WE KEEP IN OUR MORNING BASKET
Here are some examples of items we keep in our morning basket.
- Bible
- Devotional
- Prayer cards
- Memory work
- Read-aloud novel
- Biography
- Poetry
- Classical music resources
- Art supplies
- Nature journal
What I love about our morning time is that the girls are eased into their day. We snuggle on the couch under a blanket and enjoy a peaceful transition into learning.
Their brains are awakened and activated by fellowship, quality literature, and fine music. Surprisingly, even though we added this 1 – 1 1/2 hours of “extra” stuff into our days, we are often done our homeschooling earlier than when we previously would just dive into studies.
Perhaps it’s because we’ve started our day in relationship – so my children respond better to me or maybe it’s because we warmed up our brains before diving into tough “work”. Regardless, the difference it’s made for me and my children is stunning.
I love our days together, I love our
If you’re thinking about adding Morning Time to your
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT MORNING TIME
What is the purpose of Morning Time?
Morning Time isn’t about adding more work to your
How long should Morning Time last?
There’s no perfect length. Ours typically lasts between an hour and an hour and a half because it’s one of our favourite parts of the day. However, Morning Time can be as short as 15 or 20 minutes. The goal isn’t to fill a certain amount of time. The goal is to intentionally begin your
What ages work well for Morning Time?
One of the things I love most about Morning Time is that children of different ages can learn together. My younger daughter absorbed far more than I ever expected simply by listening to stories, Scripture, and conversations. Older children can participate on a deeper level, making Morning Time a wonderful family experience.
Do I need a Morning Basket?
Not at all! Despite the name, you don’t actually need a basket. Some
What do you put in a Morning Basket?
Every family’s Morning Basket will look a little different. Ours usually includes a Bible, devotional, prayer cards, memory work, a read-aloud novel, a biography or history resource, poetry, music study materials, and whatever art supplies we’re using that week. Don’t feel like you need everything at once. Start with just a few things your family will enjoy and build from there.
Can Morning Time replace your homeschool curriculum?
It can for some families, but it doesn’t have to. We use Morning Time to complement our regular curriculum. It gives us the opportunity to enjoy rich books, faith, music, art, and family learning together before moving into subjects like math and language arts.
Where can I learn more about Morning Time?
If you’re looking for a step-by-step guide, I highly recommend Pam Barnhill’s Better Together. It’s the resource that first introduced me to Morning Time and helped me understand how to create a routine that fit our family’s
YOUR TURN
If your
Morning Time has become one of my favourite parts of homeschooling because it reminds me that education isn’t just about checking off lessons. It’s about building relationships, nurturing curiosity, and enjoying this precious season with our children.
I’d love to hear from you in the comments. Do you already have a Morning Time routine, or is this something you’d like to try?
SHARE WITH OTHERS
Hi Jennifer, what a joyful post to read. Morning time can be such a blessing. Here in my home, I haven’t quite perfected it yet but some days can be heavenly. With a teenager doing high school work it can be a bit tricky. But when we start out praying together, then reading while they work on a puzzle, deep conversation flows naturally and transitioning into individual work feels much nicer. One of the many joys of homeschooling – the joy of conversation. Have a blessed day!
I’m delighted you enjoyed reading about our Morning Time Carlie! I just love it. I feel so inspired and excited every day. I love those joys of conversation – homeschooling is such a blessing.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences with Morning Time.
It sounds like you have a lovely morning rhythm. Ours can still be a bit chaotic but I think having a three year old can just do that. I feel I need to incorporate more music into our days. I’m going to look into the SQUILT you mentioned.
I love our morning time. It’s such a peaceful time of relationship-building. SQUILT is amazing (and super affordable). Each package contains 10 “lessons” and each lesson is so rich with things to explore, music samples to listen to, that each lesson can be spread out over several days.
We are just now starting home schooling after having our boys in public school. This post gave me a lot to think about. I know easing into the day will be very beneficial for my children so thanks for writing about this. :)
Congratulations on the move to homeschooling. What a wonderful, exciting, and inspiring journey you have ahead of you!
I find that easing into the day helps all of us approach learning more enthusiastically. I’m delighted this gave you some things to contemplate!
Jennifer, thank you so much for mentioning SQUILT! I love how intentional you are about morning time!
We love SQUILT Mary – it’s the perfect way to bring beautiful music into our lives. My children love it too. I only recommend what I love and I absolutely adore SQUILT. Thanks for popping by and reading about our morning times. It’s a treasured time in our days.
Thank you very much for this post! This school year is starting out rough for us and while I’m trying to do a morning time with my kids, i often feel the need to rush through it to get to our math and language arts. Everything always seems to take longer than I want and then I end up stressed out. Perhaps I’m trying to conquer too much during our morning time. This gives me good food for thought and some ideas on how to revamp it. I’ve been wanting to do SQUILT but I’m concerned about time.
Stacey I’m so glad you took the time to comment and share your struggles. I hope you don’t mind me giving you a little bit of advice here. First off, don’t feel like you have to do everything every day. I shared my morning time plan as it currently stands but it took a number of weeks to build up to that much Morning Time content. Some days we get so absorbed in Bible and praise and worship that we may drop reading our social studies biography or art appreciation. Whereas other days we go so quickly through things that I wonder if I missed something.
It’s your school… you can do whatever you like! Try not to put too much pressure on yourself.
By the way, SQUILT is amazing – we do it only twice a week and sometimes we do a classical piece over the span of two weeks rather than one week (four mini-lessons).
If you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to ask. :)
You have given me hope that our homeschooling can be stress free and inclusive of my 3 year old! Thank you!
Wonderful to hear, Sarah! Morning Time is the PERFECT way to include young children in homeschooling older children. We love it!
This sounds so amazing!! Our days are so stressful with a 7 year old, 4 year old and very active 20 month old. My 4 year old and 20 month old tend to fight one another the whole time I’m trying to do school and I am so drained by the end of the day. Do you have any suggestions on how to incorporate this method when we have to be out of the house three days a week (my oldest has some delays due to being born a micro premie and has therapies we must attend). I only have one day where we are at home all day and can tackle things “uninterrupted”. Any help is greatly appreciated! I want all my kiddos to be involved and love the peace and presence of Christ as we learn-not the hurried frenzy it seems to have become. God bless!
Hi Destiny! Morning Time doesn’t have to be first thing in the morning, but I would recommend it come before the actual sit-down work.
We open our Morning Time with the lighting of the candle. My girls know that while that candle is lit, we need to be quiet and focused.
We always read the Bible but outside of that, I choose read-aloud books that my girls will enjoy. I read aloud from various subjects too. Science, Social Studies, Health, even Math — when I do this kind of reading, I feel like my children have gotten ample information, so if our sit down work gets derailed, I’m comfortable knowing that they learned a lot in Morning Time.
I don’t know exactly what your schedule is like, but try putting Morning Time before you do sit down work, and see how your children respond. The website that the Morning Time Bundle is sold on also has many podcasts with suggestions for how to do Morning Time with young ones.
I hope this helps.
Thank you for the helpful post! Two questions come to mind:
1) When do you clean up the breakfast dishes? This seems to take me forever with four kids and a dishwasher that needs to be emptied from the night before.
2) How do your girls know when to gather on the couch? My girls take forever to get dressed and come back downstairs.
Thanks!
Hi Rachel!
I can definitely answer those questions for you. Our dishwasher has been broken for over a year. So I make sure I start each morning with an empty sink. This means that all the dishes are washed the night before. I eat before my kids eat, so I’m washing breakfast dishes as they’re eating their breakfast.
I find things flow a lot better when we go straight from breakfast to Morning Time on the couch. Also, my girls generally don’t get dressed until after morning time or at the end of our “formal” learning time.
You can see a more detailed outline of my schedule here –> https://thedeliberatemom.com/homeschool-day
Even though I have a schedule that works for me right now, it might not work in 6 months… so I make sure to stay observant and flexible. Sometimes it takes a bit of trial and error to find the prefect schedule.
I hope this helps.
I was browsing Pinterest for morning basket ideas, came across your post, and said “Hey! I follow her on Instagram!” Lol! Love your ideas and can’t wait to put them to use. Thank you!
I’m delighted you enjoyed our morning time basket ideas! I often write about (and share) our morning basket / morning time — it’s the most beloved part of our homeschool day. Thanks for stopping by and saying hi!
Well golly gee, this is the first homeschool blog post in a while that got me MORE excited about homeschool and learning different tricks rather than stressed that I’m “doing it wrong.” We do this a lot, but not intentionally, and I just love the idea of a basket of reading goodies followed by art! My littles would eat this up.
I’m so delighted that this post inspired and energized you Jenni! I love Morning Time… it nourishes me AND my children.
I want to encourage those stressed out moms. I have 10 children; 8 are still being homeschooled (oldest two have graduated) 6 of the 8 are in my morning time. The older 2 are involved in some outside classes for college credit in the mornings. Morning time is indeed wonderful as Jennifer has shown. It is a good opportunity to teach little ones to sit still and listen. They also get opportunities to be involved in discussion or singing and they love memorizing poems!! Reading aloud is invaluable!!! Ive done it all through my homeschooling and i can see the long term positive effects on my kids. Morning time is a time to be together and talk, sing, laugh, discuss, encourage and learn. If all you do is read aloud and sing in your morning time everyone will be blessed. And as stated in this post you can add on a little at a time. Don’t feel like you have to do everything everyday! Or everything RIGHT NOW!!
Thank you so much for sharing this encouragement for other homeschoolers. Morning Time started slow for me, as you suggested… and has built up into this wonderful, beautiful, peaceful, habit of co-operative learning. Thanks for that reminder to start small. <3
I love what you have modeled and shared here for us all to read- how do you choose which items you will have in your basket? I have 2 children right now and my daughter will be beginning Kindergarten in the fall. We will be doing Five in a Row and then a math and reading program with some handwriting. I only expect to spend an hour a day on those things, while following her lead as well- knowing some days it might just be our FIAR. I have been reading more about Morning Baskets and think all three of us would absolutely love it. I just don’t know how to choose what to use or how to plan ahead with something that isn’t telling me what to focus on or a social studies curriculum that would say which books to read in which order, etc. I know I cannot “mess up” Kindergarten but I still think about these things.
I love how you light a candle at the beginning. My daughter would think that is SO fancy ;)
Hi Katelin! Thanks for your question. The materials I choose usually revolve around the curriculum I use. So if you’re doing Five in a Row, select the books that revolve around the FIAR book you’re using (anything to enhance that book). For instance, with the book, How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World, I would select some books about apples, baking pies, etc. I have shared some apple-related books on this post here:
A is for Apple: A Complete Preschool Curriculum
I hope this helps! Feel free to message me if you have any other questions!