We took a school break for the holidays and resumed January 4, 2021! After a week of trying a new winter routine, I thought I would share how I conducted our morning time!
Last semester, we had a short morning time, but that lead us right into our lessons for the day. I decided this month we would try doing afternoon lessons. So that has given us quite a bit of time for slow mornings, big breakfasts, and devotional time. Here is a look into what we have been doing in the early hours of the day.
We begin our day with some morning responsibilities. We make our beds, brush our teeth & hair, and go potty before heading downstairs for breakfast. Our meals are pre-planned, so we check the schedule for that day's breakfast and we sit down to enjoy it together. As we finish eating we begin our morning time with our calendar.
Shown here is the calendar from Treehouse Schoolhouse. We love that the tree changes with the seasons and my kids can trace the date each day. We sing a '7 days of the week song' as well as a '12 months of the year song'. We like the ones from The Good and The Beautiful. Then, we count to that day's number which is good practice for my preschooler. I ask a few questions like "if today is January 8th, what was yesterday? What is tomorrow going to be?" We also do some skip counting practice, singing songs from Classical Conversations.
After calendar, we look out the window to observe the weather and my 1st grader tracks it on her weather chart (which is included with her curriculum with My Father's World).
Next we read our daily devotional, which is currently 'My Big Book of 5-Minute Devotions' by Pamela Kennedy & Douglas Kennedy. It is included in our 1st grade curriculum so we read the pages instructed by the curriculum. We enjoy that this book ties in some nature study and bible together in one, as well as puts an emphasis on good character.
A few days ago I realized it was a little too tricky to teach both Kindergarten & 1st grade during afternoon lesson time as my older kids were competing for my attention. So to our morning time, I decided to add a lesson from our Simply K book from Masterbooks.
The lessons are short and a good review for my 1st grader but also enjoyable for my preschooler. Sometimes there is a simple craft, this week we made an arch and learned about Noah.
With this Kindergarten curriculum, we introduce a new letter sound each week and read a short book with words that begin with that letter. This week we focused on the letter 'A'.
This curriculum also includes a weekly poem and a rhyme, so we say those together which fits in perfectly with what I want to include during morning time. We plan to continue doing our Kindergarten lessons in the morning each day. Then later during afternoon lessons, the only one-on-one time my Kindergartener needs with me is for math.
Lastly, we review our weekly scripture, which is included with 1st grade with My Father's World. I just say it once or twice and then have the kids repeat it back. By Friday, we all have it memorized.
This whole morning routine has been completed by 8:30am or so each day, and the kids then do a few morning chores including unloading the dishwasher, feeding the dog, and cleaning up any school supplies that was left in the kitchen. They are free to play until lunch around 11:30am but I found that this week we spend most of playtime outside! We are keeping track of our outdoor time with this free tracker from 1000 Hours Outside and so far we have 11 hours this new year!
So that's it! If you have any questions about our morning routine or would like to know more about our afternoon routine, feel free to reach out to me on Instagram, at Twigs and Sage! You can find the resources I have shown here on Instagram as well!
Best, Mackenzie