What is Morning Basket?
Morning Basket (or Morning Time, or Circle Time, etc.) is a time when the whole family comes together and learns together. Typically Mama is reading aloud and the kids are all gathered around quietly keeping their hands busy while listening to Mama read.
The beauty of homeschooling is that you can make Morning Basket whatever you want it to be. There are no hard and fast rules other than learning together. Morning Basket fits in perfectly with a Charlotte Mason style of learning, but we also used it when we did a traditional style of schooling as well. In both scenarios, we have loved it.
This year, our Morning Basket consists of things I want to teach my daughter that don’t really fit in anywhere with “school” and neither do they fit in with “family devotions.” So Morning Basket is the perfect answer to fitting in all those extra read alouds that I’ve been collecting over the years.
Morning Basket has also been the perfect opportunity for “training” in things that are important for children to learn, such as how to be a good conversationalist, how to treat your friends, how to address adults, how to answer the phone, the importance of integrity, etc. The overarching theme of every book included in our loop is character.
Although, I sometimes feel we are never going to get there, we are always shooting for excellent character and Morning Basket has been a wonderful addition to help us achieve that lofty goal.
What is a Loop?
I hinted earlier that we do a “loop” for our Morning Basket Time. All that means is that there are so many books we have to read, it would be ridiculous to try to fit them all in at one time. So we do a loop. Say I have 10 books. On the first day, I’d read a little bit from books 1-3. The next day I’d read some from books 4-6, and the following day I’d read from books 7-9. The next day I’d read a little from book 10, and then start the loop over reading from books 1-2 as well. It makes it easy to keep track of this way.
Loops can be useful for many household tasks including meal planning and cleaning. It’s really just putting everything you need to do in one big long list and working through that list in order, always picking up next time where you left off. And then when you finish the list, you start over! It’s that simple.
Our Morning Basket Loop
Now that I’ve shown you how our loop works, these are the books and resources we’ve included in our Morning Basket Loop this year.
Book 1: The Lone Ranger’s Code of the West by Jim Lichtman
From the sub-title: “An action-packed adventure in values and ethics with the legendary champion of justice.”
This book is not at all what I expected. We are not too far into it, but I have come across the “d” word already. However, I am not ready to give up on it yet. Currently, I am reading it aloud so it makes it easy to skip over or replace words I don’t like. So far, we are enjoying the story lines, but I will be able to give a more solid review when we get much further into the book. Having said that, know that this is not a recommendation yet!
Book 2: Beautiful Girlhood by Mabel Hale
From the back cover: “Beautiful Girlhood offers godly wisdom to girls making the transition to womanhood. Though written many years ago, Mabel Hale’s words have much to say to twenty-first century girls—on vital life issues like real beauty, responsiblility, relationships, and dreams. The underlying message of Beautiful Girlhood, that every girl must consciously decide to develop godly character, is truly ageless. In any generation, young women need sound, bibilical guidance to develop the traits that will guarantee a happy, fulfilling life.”
It’s been ages since I read this book, but I’m looking forward to going through it slowly with our daughter over the next couple of years.
(And here’s something I want to make note of for myself, and you too! There’s another book by a different author called Beyond Beautiful Girlhood that I would like to check out after we finish this one. It looks like it might be good.)
Books 3-4: The Case for Christ for Kids and Off My Case for Kids by Lee Strobel
From the back cover: “You meet skeptics every day. they ask questions like: Was Jesus really born in a stable? Did his friends tell the truth? Did he really come back from the dead? Here’s a book written in kid-friendly language to give you the answers.”
These books were given to me by a friend. I’m looking forward to dabbling into apologetics this year with these as my guide.
Book 5: Portraits of Integrity by Marilyn Boyer and Grace Tumas
From the back cover: “One of the most powerful ways to inspire people to greatness is through the stories of great people from the past. In Portraits of Integrity you and your children will be challenged to strive for excellence through the examples of 45 people who have gone down in history as models of noble character.”
We’ve done a few of these already. I will say, these stories aren’t a favorite of ours. My daughter thinks they are boring compared to other things we have read, but we aren’t quitting because there are some great stories to tell in here!
Book 6: Hero Tales by Dave and Neta Jackson
From the back cover: “Drawn from the lives of fifteen key Christian heroes, Hero Tales is a beautifully illustrated treasury of forty-five exciting and educational readings designed to help foster Christian character qualities in familes with elementary-age children. This inspiring collection presents a short biography and three true stories for each hero.”
We love anything by Dave and Neta Jackson. This particular book is a very similar to Portraits of Integrity (mentioned above), but in much simpler language. We’ve enjoyed this one very much.
Books 7-8: Emily Post’s The Guide to Good Manners for Kids and Emily Post’s Table Manners for Kids by Peggy Post and Cindy Post Senning
From inside the front cover: “Since 1922, the name Emily Post has represented good manners based on kindness, courtesy, and unselfishness. Today, the third generation of Post authors offers the children of the twenty-first century a comprehensive guide to good manners. This book is full of the simple, practical advice that Emily herself would have offered. Written with kids in mind and full of bold illustrations, Emily Post’s The Guide to Good Manners for Kids is a reference guide that children will use and parents can trust.”
We originally started off a couple years ago using the huge original Emily Post’s Etiquette book. While it was great, I had to sludge through a lot to make it palatable for my young daughter. I was so happy to run across these books written especially for children, and it has been a much better experience for both of us.
Book 9: Everyday Graces by Karen Santorum
If you can only get one book out of this whole set of books, GET THIS ONE!!!!!!
From inside the front cover: “This wonderfully rich and instructive anthology speaks to the fact that manners are seldom discussed anymore—and seem to be practiced even less. Yet, good manners are vital for the growth of moral character; they are the habits of conduct by which we express, in the most ordinary, day-to-day circumstances, our fundamental respect for others. Under such headings as “Honor Your Mother and Father,” “Please, Thank You, and other Kind Words,” “Good Sprtsmanship,” and “Respecting Our Country,” Mrs. Santorum has arranged a collection of stories and poems that will develop and enrich the moral imagination.”
We’ve been reading this book for years, and it is the favorite in our stack. It’s definitely worth getting your hands on a copy because it is just a beautiful book all around!
Book 10: A Child’s Treasury of Poems edited by Mark Daniel
From inside the front cover: “Breathtaking reproduction of over fifty full-color paintings and fifty black-and-white engravings from the Victorian and Edwardian eras illuminate this splendid collection of poems from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Children will cherish this dazzling introduction to the timeless works of Tennyson, Wordsworth, Stevenson, Dickinson, Rossetti, Kipling, and many others long after they have ventured past the nursery door.”
This poetry book is new to us, but we are loving it so far! It is so beautiful, and the poems are easy to understand as it is especially written for children.
Bonus: Growing Up With God for Girls, Level 1 by Rebecca Spooner
From the website description: “Growing Up with God is written as a personal journal for your kids. It is available in three different levels and each level comes in both a boys and girls version to make it as specific as possible so as to not expose kids to something they are not ready for. Though it is designed to be read independently by your child, you can use this however you want. Each digital level comes with the level and book of your choice (boy or girl version) plus a teaching companion in digital format for you. This will give you an overview of what your students are learning as well as their reflection questions and the conversation prompts they have. Students are prompted each day to come to you with questions to help facilitate an open-ended line of communication and a pattern that will hopefully follow them all throughout their lives.”
Level 1: Has ten chapters and covers God’s original design for mankind, discretion and appropriate talk, safe and trusted people, personal anatomy, personal hygiene, puberty, emotional regulation, cultivating a relationship with God, conflict resolution, pregnancy, and protecting your purity. Level 1 is designed for kids who are around 8-10 years old or are pre-puberty (or at a more innocent level). It has watercolor illustrations of the appropriate genitalia (male genitalia for the boys’ version and female genitalia for the girls’ version) but does not show graphic pictures of the opposite sex. In the lesson about pregnancy, level 1 does not talk about intercourse at all and instead stays focused on fetal development and birth.”
I’ve already purchased and previewed Level 1 of this series and will be reading certain parts of this book aloud as the time is right. I am not quite ready to hand it over with unlimited access as it still goes into more details than my daughter is ready for. It is a really good first option though and I’m excited to go through it with her.
As always, the Amazon links here are affiliate links, and if you use them to purchase something, I will get a small kickback at no extra cost to you, BUT I’d highly recommend you check Thriftbooks FIRST, as you can always find THE BEST deals there espcially with all of their rewards, perks, and teacher deals. (If you are a homeschooler, you can sign up for their homeschool teacher perks as well! Let me know if you need help figuring this out! You kind of have to jump through some hoops.)
Happy Reading!
Sarah