Patience and homeschooling

If I had a dime for each time someone has told me that they “just don’t have the patience to homeschool” I’d have like, a lot of dimes- I’m talkin’ enough dimes to buy a whole candy bar, guys. I’m the first to admit that I am NOT a patient person, and that yes, homeschooling does take a lot of patience, so clearly it must work out somehow, right? My kids are all still alive and don’t hate me so I think I’m on the right track. There is no special ingredient, only the choice to take it day by day (or in my case it’s usually minute by minute) and choose patience. We all have the ability to be just as patient as Mother Teresa! Practice makes perfect. And it is so worth it!
That being said, I’ll be darned if there aren’t some helpful tips and tricks that can make that choice a little easier.
The current test of my patience during our homeschool is our darling, curious toddler. Pickle is a very normal toddler in the way that she needs quite a bit of attention. All the time. Particularly when it’s inconvenient for me, like during an explanation of a tricky math concept. I’m embarrassed to say that Pickle had been watching more shows than either of the big kids ever did at her age and it was really taking a toll on her attitude. There is only so much time I can expect my big kids to help out with her during school time and I like to keep that to a bare minimum, which is how things started to slide. Man, Winnie the Pooh made mornings so quiet! But we all know TV is really pretty lousy for the brain and I wanted to pull the plug for Pickle. I was definitely not a poster homeschool mom these past few weeks.
However, my rusty brain started to remember all the things I did to keep the Bigs entertained when there were two toddlers to keep busy and I’ve successfully been in incorporating them into our day. I thought I’d share some here with you!

Popcorn Transfer.
(Supervising kitty optional)

Got some popcorn kernels in the kitchen? Toddlers love simple transfer practice! This is also a good opportunity to practice patience when (not if) a scoop full goes flying, haha! When Pickle spilled however she was really excited to sweep it up with a small broom.

Paint-in-a-bag

A couple squirts of paint in a zip lock taped to the floor bought me about ten minutes. Hey, that’s enough time to give a spelling test, so I’ll take it!
An unexpected, yet heartwarming consequence of all these fun activities is that A is having a fond time remembering the days when she did them. She’s dying to do the paint in a bag herself now, haha!

Slime

My mother bought us this slime. I can confidently say I do not know who she is anymore. Just kidding! But seriously, giving toddler slime is not anymore messy than giving a 9 year old slime. Ahem. Ask me how I know…

Water Play

This is a really fun one. It is a bit tricky so your toddler might need more assistance than not. These are big droppers that I got for school and they were so worth it. Here Pickle is having fun sucking up and squirting water all around the tray.

Kinetic Sand

Kinetic sand is a fantastic sensory tool for toddlers and it has the pro of not being very messy. Now bear in mind, toddlers are just messy in general, so it’s all relative. I don’t find it any messier than play dough and toddlers seem to be able to do more with it. These little tools came with a play dough we got ages ago and they have been great and interchangeable. Note the sturdy sheet pan lid that has spent most of its life as a toddler tray, haha!

Painting

If you’re feeling really adventurous and really patient, go for actual painting! It will be a mess, but it is really fun to see how much toddler enjoy the experience. I can’t speak highly enough of smocks. It’s just easier to throw them in the wash than it is to clean off a squirming toddler. The washable paint on the market these days is a dream! So simple to clean up when it gets on the floor or table. I highly recommend using the floor for painting for kids of all ages. They seem to be more comfortable and it makes sure the paint doesn’t get on any other important projects or papers. Just keep an eye out for when your tot starts to get bored, they won’t mind walking right through their art work, haha! Oh, and double up the paper 😉.

Bristle Blocks

We got this set from my sister in law for our oldest and it is great! I will say her favorite part is the container. She will walk around with this on her head for quite awhile. It seems to attract kids of all ages in fact. But she’s able to build small cars or towers to knock over which is a favorite activity of kids from about 1-7 I’d say. 😄

The best days of my life

I hope you got some inspiration for finding ways to keep your toddler busy. We have so many more amazing toys and games we love to play with Pickle, or that she can do herself, including wooden train tracks, puzzles, and hide and go seek (she will play that for ages!) If you have any other ideas let me know, I’m always looking for new material. And don’t worry, we are all practicing patience, just take it one day, or one minute, at a time. Cheers!

Field Trip Fridays Continue

The money we get from our selling our eggs has become our Field Trip Friday Fund and it has really been a fun learning tool. The kids are always eager to count out the money and work with me on budgeting for the different museum fees and treats we have lined up for each Friday.
Last weekend we went to the Tacoma Art Museum and really enjoyed the western themed art. One artist even grew up in Ellensburg! One of his paintings is below.

I will say that we took Husband on this field trip, so it was moved to a Saturday. Boy, am I glad we did. This was not a museum that would have been easy to do with Pickle by myself. With Husband on Pickle duty I got to explore the art and exhibits with the big kids in-depth. It worked out for the budget too because kids are free and we had a AAA discount. Those AAA discounts are everywhere! Make sure to always ask about them if you have AAA.
The newest exhibit at the TAM is a collection of African American Art and History and there were some very powerful things to see there. I highly recommend going particularly if you are studying American history like us.

C enjoyed the bronze sculptures the most and A liked the Georgia O’Keefe painting. The painting itself wasn’t super interesting, but she enjoyed seeing a painting by an artist we just finished learning about. Sculpture is next in our art history so it was handy and fun to get some inspiration there.


Both big kids earned a Field Trip Coupon this week and A cashed her coupon in by going to the Children’s Museum in Tacoma. This has got to be the best children’s museum on the west side of the mountains, and yes, I’ve been to all of them from Olympia to Issaquah. Haha! The Tacoma one is free which is a huge plus and parking is only two dollars (we usually make a small donation to the museum which is optional). What I like about this museum over others is that your kiddo can’t get lost. There is only one floor, but multiple sections that cater to all different types of fun. Your kiddo can’t wander off far enough for you not to be able to locate them in about two minutes. I can even see all three kids at one given time most of the time- a real stress saver.

Anthem Coffee opened a new location right down the street, so we were able to budget a treat from our fund because of the affordability of the trip. It was Pickle’s first time at the Children’s Museum and she LOVED IT! 😁

I mean, seriously?! So cute!!

Field Trip Fridays are crucial for our homeschool development and I am grateful for so many places to explore with my kiddos. They are my adventure crew and bestest lil buds. These outings are also important for me, to get out there with the kids even if it seems like a hassle and I have to wear something other than sweat pants, haha. I am reminded that I can do hard things and most of the time, our adventures end up going really well and we all enjoy it. It’s all a matter of perspective and it’s good for me to exercise that positive thinking. Let me know if you want to join us on a field trip!

We are very excited for Thanksgiving break, and we have several fun activities planned, so stay tuned!

Hands On History

Though I’ve felt like our history projects have been blah lately, that dry spell was finally defeated with our pioneer natural dye project! Okay, so the term “pioneer” might need to be taken very loosely.
A long ways back I read that you can make pink dye from avocado skins and pits. Wild right?! That’s where the idea started of making this a history lesson about how clothes were dyed with natural substances that folks found around them.
Anyways, I’ve been hoarding all our ‘cado pits and skins for months in the freezer and finally had enough. But pink dye wouldn’t do for Handsome, so we foraged some red pine needles, which were advertised as being able to make a great green dye. After amassing dye stuffs, finally finding cute *cheap* 100% cotton clothes, and our alum mordant, we went to work.
We started with C’s sweatshirt. Not gonna lie- it was an epic failure (hence the lack of pictures of the project- it got a bit hectic). The green dye didn’t set a hoot despite the alum mordant. So, after some frantic boiling of other green substances in order to bring out our green color, I gave up. Green wasn’t gonna happen. But I did know a handy spice that I had on hand that would dye just about anything in it’s path- turmeric! I brought C up to speed in the change of plans and he agreed “Golden” would be a pretty great color too. So we set to work and this time- success!

We decided that even though pioneers probably didn’t have turmeric to dye clothes, this still counted because we still “foraged” it… from the cabinet 😂


He loves it! And the dye has set fast, holding up in several washes so far. Turmeric is one powerful spice y’all.

I was most antsy to try the avocado dye. Okay, yes, we know for sure pioneers didn’t have avocados, haha. So while I felt like a bit of a cheat, I explained to the kids it was really the process that we should focus on. Z and I scrapped those pits and skins all clean and made the dye. This also didn’t turn our exactly as I wanted, despite the over night soak but it also stuck fast which was a success. The girls look amazing in the color.

Look at that blush color!
Great dresses for twirling ❤️
What a pretty Pickle.
Once I started dyeing things it was hard to stop . I didn’t want to waste all that hard earned dye! So I dyed one of my white sweaters as well, haha!

I am hopefully for another foraging expedition soon that can turn up some other great natural dye options such as acorns. They make a lovely warm brown and do not need a mordant to set them. I’m still hopefully for that elusive green as well, because I’m thinking our sheets would look fabulous as soft green. When I mentioned this to Husband he gave me a rather apprehensive look. I told him I really knew what I was doing this time and not to be put off by the frantic spinach boiling of earlier. Trial and error is all part of the learning experience, am I right?!

Cheers!

White River Valley Museum Field Trip

Maybe I’m stating the obvious, but you don’t have to go far to bring history alive for your homeschool. White River Valley museum is right next to our local library and we’ve never been in all our 7 years living in the valley! Lucky for us they have waived admission for the rest of 2021 which really motivated me to put it on our field trip list. You gotta check it out, it is a local treasure.

Original pioneer cabin. Man, it is TINY.
I’m usually apprehensive about taking a toddler to museums but this one was very toddler proof and had many interactive stations for her to play with! We also had the place to ourselves.
I couldn’t get over this diorama of logging in the Puget Sound. You HAVE to see it!
Okay, guys. By far and away, the coolest thing was that they recreated the local historical town. It was amazing!
Handsome went right for the gun display
Ha!
Yours truly pretending to be a olden times school teacher.

I would show you all the amazing pictures of this place but I don’t want to spoil it for you. Some of my favorites are the old school house, the hat shop, and the replica passenger train car. C liked the old dentist chair and A was a fan of the old piano. Lil C was just excited to touch all the fun “toys”.

Go visit the museum! It is well worth the trip.

Our Fall Morning Basket

Remember when I talked about our morning basket and how I had planned out all our themes for the year? Well, today I got to reorganize and set up our fall themes for the morning basket, which are Halloween and All Saints’ Day. I thought I could give you a peep at what we will be doing starting next week, breaking it up by subject. A new theme always gives the school mornings a little breath of fresh air!

So, if you’ll remember, the morning basket is just a snippet of a given subject that is covered in more detail throughout the week, usually on a every-other-day schedule. It is not the main text and work, but some of the fun activities or a component that is most beneficial when revisited every day, like memory work. For added fun I like to throw in crafts and games that are not school related per se, but are a fun bonus.


History

We are still working through our state study book, C reads about one state a day. I added the state and capitol flash cards as well as some cds that we listen to in the car full of patriotic music. We are really digging the music and love blasting it in the car!

Religion

Miss A is going to start confession prep this year so we are brushing up on our catechism. She is reading out of this book aloud to us a little each day. We are still chipping away at our Bible audiobook each morning and have finished the gospels and are into the Acts of the Apostles. I am still loving this Catholic signs and symbols book and highly recommend it. We read about symbol a day.

Art

Although we’ve read through some of this art book before, we are really taking our time with it and reading about the different art movements as they correlate to our history timeline. We recently read about the Impressionists and Post-Impressionist, so for the rest of the month we will be working on making paintings styled after some of the famous artists of those periods. First up, Édouard Manet!

Memory work

The kiddos memory capabilities will never cease to amaze me! Gotta capitalize on that, am I right? They have been memorizing poetry since they were four years old and I’m proud to say they are still going strong. I love to find poems that inspire them. A is currently working on The Flag Goes By by Henry Bennet and C is working on The Fool’s Prayer by Edward Sill. Both so epic! Of course they are usually less excited about math but there is no better substitute for learning math facts than good ol’ flash cards.

Seasonal

Now comes the good stuff! Just kidding, it’s all good stuff! Seriously though, it’s taken me awhile to curate exactly what I like to do for Halloween and All Saints’ day, I’ve tried lots of different options. It’s not easy to find things that are simple enough for the kids to do *mostly* on their own and also be something you can feel good about spending valuable school time on. I found this banner on Teachers Pay Teachers, and I am so looking forward to making it with the kids! What a learning activity! I plan on doing two Saints a day (school days), all the way up to November 1st. We will have quite the banner draped all along the walls!

We do celebrate Halloween, or All Hallows’ Eve, but are pretty mellow about it. We dress up and trick or treat and carve pumpkins but the kids usually don’t eat any of their candy (we give them the option of the Switch Witch) and we are all in bed by 9pm. I don’t hate it, haha! I think carving pumpkins is one of the best family traditions we’ve ever started, it is fantastic! We can barely wait and usually end up carving them really early in October and then they rot super fast but we don’t even care. It is so fun to see the kids become more and more skilled over the years! However, why not use those pumpkins for learning before they head to the compost? I’ve been using this flip book activity for a couple years and it is always a hit. Come to think of it, I might need to find something more tricky for next year, it might be getting boring for my smart kidlets!

Last but not least, we always make bats during this time of year. It’s quite a nostalgic craft because I first made them with C when it was just him and me all day, many moons ago. So even if it seems juvenile for a 7 and 9 year old, they really love it and it always makes me laugh to see how their personalities come out in their bats. Last year A’s had a pink hair bow and C’s had wildly different sized eyes, haha! We usually only make a few, but who knows what will happen! My children surprise me everyday.

Well, that’s it guys! I can’t wait to dig into this morning basket soon. Hopefully you have a morning ritual that inspires you as well. Happy fall y’all!

Ellensburg Field Trip

Bring on autumn! I am so ready. The smell of apples cooking and the crisp air has me all giddy. We were driving home from church today and I saw the ticket stands being put up at our local pumpkin patch/corn maze and I promptly shrieked, “SPOOKY SEASON!”. Luckily, I did not startle Husband who was driving. It’s like he knows me or something 😉.

Yakima river

With autumn came the start of soccer practices which started off really well. I think it will be a smooth season for both the kids, and fingers crossed it won’t be too hectic for Husband and I. Go Cheetahs! Go Wizards! School has been humming along well, I’m finding the year round schooling is taking quite a bit of pressure off me.

We took a long weekend on Friday to go on a short geology/history field trip to Ellensburg. We met my parents and several of my sisters there; it is always a treat to see them. As part of our history portion of the trip we stayed in a Sioux replica teepee! It was so incredibly fun! On Friday we had great weather but it stormed like crazy that night so our shoes got wet because we left them outside, that wasn’t too bad as they dried out inside on a heater. Personally, I love storms and enjoyed listening to the wind during the night. I was super excited to go “glamping” for the first time! I’m totally sold on it.

Our teepee! Complete with mini fridge, heaters, and beds.
It was a bit rainy Saturday morning.


Phases of the moon painted all around the top

We also went on a few hikes. The first was to see a old homestead and school from the 1800s. They had quite a collection of old farming equipment too.

Seed spreader ( we think)

The second hike was to see some very old basalt columns for Azelie’s geology enrichment. We found some volcanic rocks too. Ellensburg has amazing geology.

Our last stop was at the local museum to combine our geology and history exploration. First, we got to see a one of a kind rock, Ellensburg Blue, a completely unique agate not found anywhere else in the world. The museum has a great little collection of lots of types of crystals and rocks. They also have a good selection of historical displays, including artifacts from the Civil War, Korean War, WWI and WW2. We are studying early modern history this year so this museum was perfect.

Of course no trip to Eastern Washington is complete without a stop at a produce stand or two. The rest of the weekend will be full of apple sauce making and preparing for the week ahead. Happy fall y’all!

Steilacoom Field Trip

Remember when I said I planned all our field trips in advance for the school year? Well, this past Saturday we got to go on our first big field trip! So, Field Trip Friday, became Field Trip Saturday because this one was a long one and we needed Husband there to help.
We are studying early modern history this year and many of the preserved historical sites in Washington fall into that time period. In Steilacoom we combined region and religious history by visiting the oldest Catholic church in Washington!

Church of the Immaculate Conception. We didn’t get to go inside but the kids were throughly impressed and we especially noted how small it was; the doors especially are an indicator of how much smaller the people were.



Two blocks down the hill is a house that is an original from 1852 built by Nathaniel Orrs and was only ever lived in by his family. After electricity and plumbing was added virtually nothing else was changed. His son lived in the house until he died in 1973 at which point he donated the house. Much of the furniture was built by Nathaniel too. Check out his story here!



Behind the Orr house is the orchard Nathaniel planted with the knowledge he gained in Oregon. Many of the trees are the original trees he put in the ground! All the other trees were planted from the seeds from original trees replacing any that died, making it a heritage orchard! We were encouraged to pick as many pears, apples, and plums as we wanted. I resisted the urge to pick all the trees clean, although they would have welcomed it as they said they don’t have many visitors.

Original cider press the town used
I played in the orchard with Pickle while the big kids got a private tour of the wagon shop. We had the place to ourselves!


Next door to the Orr house is the Steliacoom museum. We had an incredible time there. It is small and run by the greatest volunteers who led us through all the amazing artifacts and history of the Orr family and Steliacoom. Behind the museum is Nathaniel’s workshop. He was the only wagon maker in the Puget Sound and his shop was amazing! Here there were more volunteers who gave the kids a fun hide and seek quiz and the prize for finishing was getting one of Nathaniel’s original nails!

Those volunteers were so kind and truly care about their town’s history. I was quite touched and inspired. Did you know Steliacoom was once going to be the capitol?!

After our amazing historical adventure we stopped by Dutch Brothers and played at a nearby playground- which was huge and built in the style of the old Fort of Steliacoom. On our way home we had a great time chatting about what we liked best on our adventure. We had dinner and watched a movie the kids earned by working on meals during the week. Once the kiddos were all asleep Husband and I ended the evening by having a diy pizza date night to celebrate getting meals done that morning(!) and our epic field trip.

Sourdough crust- still working on perfecting it.

If you have the chance, you should take a trip to Steilacoom! It was well worth the time and really made history come to life for us.

Finding Our Rhythm

Well folks, we wrapped up week two of school and so far it is going swimmingly. I’ve been able to find a happy medium between accomplishing the daily goals and rolling with the punches.

I’d like to say that we have a set schedule each day, but it seems that in this season of life, that’s just not going to happen. True, we get school done, but sometimes it ends at 9 am (yes, that early!) and sometimes it ends at 2pm (did we decide to move the coop again because the chickens are escaping? Push school back 30 minutes. Did we decide we seize the glorious morning and go for a jog?! Push school back an hour.) That’s the beauty of homeschooling I’m trying to embrace more; just roll with it baby! All those little “distractions” ARE school!

However, i haven’t completely thrown in the towel on our schedule. I’ve set a schedule for myself of waking up at 5:30am to get myself prepared for the day by starting breakfast and having some quiet time. It has been life changing these past two weeks and I cannot recommend it enough. Normally, I’d let Cosima wake me up at 6 but giving myself the extra 30 minutes has been a great gift to myself and to my family. This night owl has reformed y’all.

We’ve been so busy with house projects, freezer meals, field trips, canning food, and all the sweet little kiddos moments like loosing teeth, watching Pickle master new milestones, and starting new family read aloud books. The last two weeks have flown by. I really am so blessed. This is the least hectic our year will be and I am trying to savor it. Soon all the extra curricular activities will start and we will be doing an extra class or lesson every.single.day. And that’s on top of our regular school! Knowing this is the calm before the storm is helping me live in the now.

one of our chickens started laying and we are all super duper excited!

Our kitties and chickens have been keeping us extra busy with their daily antics but we are enjoying them so much! I’ve especially appreciated how much responsibility it has given the big kids; they really are blossoming into loving pet owners. Cosima in particular is so confident in her sometimes overwhelming affection for the very patient animals.

Well, I think that’s all for now everyone! We have found our new school rhythm with much less of a rocky start than I anticipated, and I am grateful! I’m sure it will be a whole new adjustment mid-September when things get hectic, but I have no doubt we will adjust accordingly then too.
I have some new recipes and field trip posts planned in the next few days so stay tuned!

A Bit On Homeschooling

One of the numerous benefits of homeschooling is the ability to educate and learn in a way that works best for your family and situation. We have always done a combo of Charlotte Mason and classical education, a blend that compliments our learners and the goals I have for their education. I’m really happy with our curriculum and methods, but the past few years have been rough due to scheduling. Between navigating a new baby with two kids who still needed a lot of one on one help with school, and then all the covid mess, 2019 and 2020 were difficult on the school front. There was burn out. I hadn’t yet felt that in homeschooling and man, was it discouraging! One of my main goals for homeschooling is to have learning be enjoyable and that goal was not met. We did survive but that’s not enough for me. I want to thrive! Or why am I even doing this, right? Anyways. Our extra long summer break has been restorative, but also detrimental. I can feel the lack of schedule and structure starting to wear on us, so while planning for the next school year I decided to try a few changes.

First, we are going to school year round! It’s not as insane as it sounds, and actually not too far off what I usually end up doing, but I’ve scheduled everything in a calendar an effort to be more intentional in my breaks. The way I have it planned out is that we will not school for more than six weeks at a time. Some “year rounders” do a two-weeks-on, two-weeks-off schedule but I decided I wanted to have a longer stretches in order to get into a rhythm, something I don’t think I could accomplish in two weeks. Let’s be honest, we don’t really hit a stride till week two.

I am really looking forward to this new schedule. I have high hopes that it will make this coming school year the best one yet. I’ll keep ya posted on how it goes!

The second change I have already implemented is firmly scheduling our field trips ahead of time. There is nothing like taking advantage of homeschooling by enjoying a long weekend off in the middle of the year in order to go hiking around to see some lava tubes. While I am usually very good about doing fun field trips to complement our learning, I usually play it by ear as far as when exactly we do them, (thinking that it was ideal and more fun to be flexible) and as a consequence, I would miss some opportunities. Well, I decided I could be flexible but also give ourselves firm windows of time in which certain field trips have to be done. For example, we are for sure going to the Monet exhibit while it is in town, so I know I HAVE to get there in September or we will miss it. And I have to make sure we have a ideal weather for our geology excursion out of town so picking a reliable month for good weather was important; October seemed a good option. You get the idea. By doing more research ahead of time for our big field trips- special exhibits, excursions out of town, etc., I’ve been able to plan at least one big adventure a month. This plan gives me so much to look forward to while supplementing our homeschool curriculum and also taking advantage of living in such a diverse state! Now, the flexible part is that while some field trips have certain weekends I’ve marked off, they could easily be moved around that month in order to accommodate our schedule without missing out, win-win! I’m so glad to have something special for the kids and I to look forward to each month.

The third change I made was booking all the extra curricular activities way ahead of time, gauging how much work and strain these will put on the family, and how best to manage that. It’s not an easy choice as I’d like the kids to Do All The Things for sake of experience and fun but it’s just not possible. For example, Azelie will be busy this year with faith formation classes. Reconciliation prep class, piano, 4H, soccer (fall), and ballet. Whew! Doing ballet and soccer in person would just be too much time commitment for us. Soccer is local and affordable, so that will be in person. A is very interested in ballet, and I wish I could find better options for her in our area, but for now ballet will be online.

Caidoc will also be in soccer in the fall, and flag football in the winter. His year round activities are 4H, faith formation class, a writing class, and piano. Our goal (pun intended, haha) is to stack their soccer practices back to back, in order to make the schedule more manageable this fall. How? Chris is volunteering to coach both teams. Haha! The parks and rec department of our city is very happy to have volunteers and makes an effort to cater to their schedules. Here’s to hoping that all the sportsing and classes are enriching for C and A, I’ve done my best to stack the deck in our favor. Wish us luck, friends.

I was burnt out at the end of this past school year, let me tell ya. I thought I wasn’t going to get my mojo back which made me even more dejected. I was dreading needing to plan for the 2021-2022 year and while we did two summer sessions (in order to prevent the “summer slide”), I didn’t really feel the thrill I usually have for homeschooling. Turns out, the best way for me to get enthused about homeschooling again was to just jump in head first and get the planning DONE. I am so excited to start school up again full throttle with the kids. The countdown is on!! While putting our kids in school has never been something I’ve considered, even in my toughest times, I am grateful all over again for the homeschooling route we chosen-it is so forgiving and fulfilling.

So friends, if you’re in a slump, I recommend ripping the bandaid off. You can do this! A trip to the dollar store for snazzy school supplies doesn’t hurt either😉.

Our morning basket

The concept of the morning basket is not a new one, but that’s the hippest thing to call it these days. I’m a little late to the game on the morning basket trend, I am woefully (or perhaps blissfully?) ignorant of trends (what gave me away? Was it that I’m still using the word “hip” to mean “current” or “trendy”?). However, I do remember the same concept was used during my student teaching days, except it was called “morning meeting” and it mostly singing loudly with guitar music and involved a calendar. This is a tad different.

current morning basket from repurposed bin, good for me.

So, what’s a morning basket? Well, in basics terms, it’s a collection of items and subjects that you cover with your students first thing in the morning. I started a morning basket because it was the beginning of the winter here in Seattle and I was feeling that seasonal blah. Starting school in the mornings was becoming dreaded around here and I felt that a little change of pace was needed for C and A. I swapped around some things and freed up a bin and went around gathering activities we haven’t worked on in awhile and some of the less rigorous academic subjects we cover but haven’t been very consistent with. I’m most impressed with myself that I didn’t use this as a excuse to get a new bin or visit *swoon* The Container Store, good for me. I did however buy some new materials, so maybe not so good for me. It was exciting to plan and spice things up. I am a big planner and naturally I wrote out a chart and planned themes for the whole year. Yes, planning and spread sheets spark joy for me. As you can see below our theme right now is Lent.

Here is peak at our current morning basket for February/the beginning of March:

First things first, I am not a morning person. I can’t stress this enough. I am not a “ have breakfast ready and have already worked out by the time my kids wake up” mom. To do that I would have to be up by 4 am. Do I wake up at a ridiculously early time? Yes, but not by choice. Everyone else in my family are morning people so I just go with the flow. Our kids wake us up, and that’s just fine with us. I cannot remember the last time I set an alarm. However, I had to stack the deck in my favor and the morning basket was a great way to do that. While the kids are eating breakfast, and I want to sit in a stupor and drink coffee, I put this Bible audiobook on. I found this on Amazon, and while it is probably not the best version out there, I appreciate that it’s not quite a “ kid bible” version, but also not the full complicated text. I was reading the gospel everyday but the kids just were not grasping it and I had to spend a long time giving a “momily” each time to explain it. This audiobook helps take some of that off my plate.

It opens like this on both sides and I’m embarrassed to admit how long it took me to figure that out. Like I said, not a morning person.

Once I am caffeinated and the kids have completed their morning check lists (brushing teeth, making beds, etc), we sit down and read. Over the next couple months we are working through The Children’s Book of Virtues, an artist from our art book, a symbol explanation from the Church, a chapter from our current read aloud, and poetry from Christian Rossetti while they color, do the Spirograph, play dough, or some other hands on activity. I switch out the activity every week, this week it’s the Spirograph and coloring. This plan sounds like a lot of reading, but it is usually only 30-40 minutes, as everything but the current read aloud is very short. Here are the texts I am using;

A classic!
This book is so good! I am finding is really helpful and learning a lot myself.
This is also such a fantastic book! I really look forward to reading it with the kids. When we get to Michelangelo I am going to read aloud while the kids color a big piece of paper taped to under the coffee table, as a pretend Sistine Chapel!
This text shows more examples of art based on time period. It has amazing images.
C has been really partial to the Spirograph lately and A has been loving this memory game from Ikea.


Rossetti poems, and our currently supplemental history read aloud.
We read a saint from these books, or some catechism from this little book or the Baltimore Catechism. We will also read from our saint of the day book, but we’ve read from that for a few years in a row now so we are changing it up a bit.

I mentioned that the kids color during our read aloud time. We have a plethora of coloring books that we have gathered over the years. Most of them were in our church “kids bag” and getting zero use, so I pulled them out, relocated them, and sure enough now they are really interesting again, ahah! These are perfect for our Lenten theme that we are doing now.

While I read our history, either supplemental or the main text, A really enjoys coloring in this coloring book.

The current Lenten activity that the kids most look forward to each day in the morning basket is rolling their Lenten blocks! I’ve posted about these before on Instagram, but I’m not on any social media anymore so I thought I’d give an update about our blocks here. A few years ago I bought three wooden blocks for each kiddo, one block for each of the pillars of Lent; prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. They got to paint them a color, blue for C and purple for A. Then we brainstorm ideas for each block that is personalized for them, based on age and preference. For example, offering up yogurt one day wasn’t a sacrifice for C since he doesn’t like it, but an apple, that’s a different story! I also make sure they are age appropriate. A painting pen worked well for writing on the blocks, then I sealed them with modge podge. Well, the kids out grew their blocks in terms of age and space. So, instead of the one inch blocks I used before, we made three inch Lenten blocks this year and put down new ideas that reflect their capabilities in the aspects of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

I encourage you to try this with your kids. I find them very helpful with bringing Lent alive for the kids.

That’s our current morning basket folks! Do you have a morning basket? I’ve found ours to be very fun way to start our day before heading right into the denser subjects like math that require at least two cups of coffee before I can start them. Hey, maybe our morning basket should be renamed to the more appropriate “A Saving Grace for a None Morning Person Homeschooling Mom” ? Then again, that’s kinda a mouthful, especially if you have trouble forming sentences at 5 am. Morning basket it is.

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