Is a Morning Basket for You?, by Jennifer - MetroFamily Magazine
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Is a Morning Basket for You?, by Jennifer

by Jennifer Geary

Reading Time: 2 minutes 

This week I want to share our morning basket with you!  It’s really simple and not my idea at all, but it has been a great way to start our day. 

In the past we have just started our school day whenever we were ready—and really, that’s what we still do instead of having a set time. Usually, though, we would just start with whichever subject my son wanted to do first and proceed from there. As my daughter has gotten older, though, and started doing some “school” activities, I wanted a way to start our formal learning time together.  I had been thinking about how to best accomplish this with two kids spaced five years apart when the clouds parted and the angels sang and someone in my homeschool group sent out a link to this post about a morning basket.

So what is a morning basket?  It’s just a collection of resources to spend some time on each day.  Some people have them geared toward Bible study and devotions while others have a little bit of everything.  It’s a great way to have the things you want to cover with everyone at hand so you can all start your day together!  If the morning doesn’t work well for a group time, you could use it after lunch or even at bedtime.  This could work well for any family, whether you homeschool or not!

What’s in our basket?  We have poetry books, Bible stories, Brain Quest sets, Mad Libs, Bible verse cards, Stories That Never Grow Old, Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare, and Five Minute Fillers (a card set left from my teaching days that I can’t seem to find online).  Pretty much it’s full of little things that I want to get done, but I have a hard time setting aside time for somewhere else.  Some of the things are over my daughter’s head, but she listens in and participates where she can.  Some of the things are more on her level, so they’re review for my son.  I’ve just been putting things in here and there, but if you want to get more formal, Jen at Wildflowers and Marbles has created a chart you can download to plan what’s in your basket.  Whatever works for your family is what you should put in your basket!

Grab a basket and start looking around and I know you’ll find lots of things that would be great—and then come back and share your ideas with the rest of us!

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