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Favorite Resources for Morning Time

It is getting dark out earlier and it will be time to go back to school before we know it. (Where can I get 4 more weeks of summer? Oh, how I wish!) As the first day of school looms closeby, you may be wondering what are my favorite morning time resources. Well, I would love to share my favorites with you!

For our Morning Time, I mostly use a Loop schedule. What that means is that I schedule a list of resources and then we just do the next thing on the list each day. I do not have a particular resource tied to Monday, Tuesday, etc. This way we can cover each area consistently and evenly no matter what else happens. For more information about loop scheduling, check out this helpful article by Sarah Mackenzie here. (Hint, this method can be applied to more than homeschooling.)

The first resource in our loop is The Story of Science which highlights many of the greatest scientific discoveries in a narrative form. There are fun illustrations and additional facts on the margins that make the text more approachable. I use this to give us a taste of scientific achievements and if we are particularly fascinated with a topic, or have more questions about it, this book is internet referenced. There is a list of websites connected with this book that we can access on the Usborne Quicklinks website that give us more information, or even puzzles, games and quizzes relating to the topics covered in the book. We often use our Science Encyclopedia for further research as well. The Story of Science also includes a glossary and a timeline to help put the material into context. When we finish this book, we will move onto the Story of Inventions. (Also available is The Story of Space and Astronomy.)

Next, we are working through the Usborne Book of Famous Paintings . This book includes 35 of the best-known works of art from Monet’s Waterlilies to Escher’s Relativity. We examine each work of art and then read the information about it to add to our discussion. This book is internet linked, which means that there are specific links that correspond to each page of the book rather than to broader topics in the book. The links include closer looks at the works of art and also additional works or information about the artists. After this, we will work through the Usborne Book of Famous Artists .

Continuing on through our loop, another day we use the Usborne Famous Composers Reference Book . One of my favorite features about this book is that it includes QR links to samples of music from each composer. (If you do not have a tablet or a smartphone to scan the codes, you can find the links at the Quicklinks site as well.) This is so much easier than trying to search online for the pieces myself, which is what I was doing before. This book is also internet referenced, so more information can be found online. Another favorite feature is the rich illustrations making this a beautiful volume that will be brought out and examined by the children on other occasions as well.

Usborne Illustrated Grammar and Punctuation is a great resource for brushing up on all of the rules needed in writing and language arts. The fun illustrations and bright colors on the page help make sense of the language rules and even make it less of a drudgery to learn them. While we do cover a topic or a portion of a topic each time we get to this loop in our Morning Time, we also use this book as a reference if there are any questions about usage while the children are writing other assignments. I added this book to help keep the rules fresh in our minds for our standardized testing, but found it useful beyond that as well.

The last book in our current loop is 100 Things to Know About Science . My kids are obsessed with science facts and always have been since they were very little. “Mom, did you know…?” All.the.time. I love it! This is perfect to continue to feed their appetite for facts. I have even learned some interesting things that I did not know before. The facts are presented in infographic form which makes this an especially great resource for a reluctant reader. The facts are not watered down, but they are broken up into small pieces of text on the page which can be less intimidating in appearance. Once we finish this, I will let the kids choose whether they want to read 100 Things to Know About Space or 100 Things to Know About Food next.

In addition to our loop schedule, we do have some activities that we complete every day in Morning Time. These include our Memory Work, our current read-aloud, Geography and Shakespeare.

For Geography, we are working our way through The Geography Encyclopedia . We use it as a reference to complete our map work (the kids do this during their individual work time). Together, we read about the people in the area they are studying on the map. This book is also internet linked so that we can find additional information online. The pages come alive with brilliant photographs and illustrations that make this an enjoyable volume to sit and look through on one’s own as well. We have just started this near the end of last year and will continue the study this school year. I am thinking about adding the Flags of the World to Color since they love to color while I read aloud. I am also considering the addition of Illustrated Fables from Around the World to give more depth to the study of different cultures.

And last, but definitely not least, is my absolute favorite volume in our library, Complete Shakespeare . Heavy, substantial, lavishly illustrated and filled with the brilliant stories of the Bard, this is a beautiful book that will be treasured in our home library for years to come. I love that this book includes stories from all of his plays, not just a few. While some of the stories are told in a shorter form, all are included. The plays are told in story form and are not the original language of Shakespeare himself. I find this to be an excellent stepping stone to reading the original language though. I read the story from this volume and we enjoy and discuss it. Then, I will choose a few plays to read in their original language as well. By already being familiar with the story line, my children are taking more from the original version. Not only are my children not intimidated by Shakespeare, but they have grown to love his works. There are some quotes from the original plays included in this book and we love to compare the wording from the adaptation to the original. We also use the original quotes for copywork from time to time. Another Shakespeare book that has been enjoyed, especially by my youngest is called Where’s Will? It is a seek and find book where you find Shakespeare and some characters among the setting of their play. Great to extend the learning and appreciation for the Bard!

Well, those are our current favorites for Morning Time in a nutshell. While these resources work well for Morning Time, they also are great to strew for unschooling or to use for homework helpers for children who go to school. What are you using for Morning Time in your homeschool? What do you love about what you use? Please share below. I love collecting new ideas!

Would you like some personalized recommendations for your homeschool? Or recommendations for homework helpers for your home library? Comment here or message me on Facebook.

Just Start…

You know that you want to read to your kids more. What is stopping you from building that habit? Are you anything like me? Are you waiting until you can do it “just right”? Or waiting for the right time? Well, the right time is right now! And the rest, well, just start and it will all take care of itself. It really will.

Do any of these roadblocks sound familiar?

I will start after we get back from vacation.
I want to get a new book to really grab their interest.
I don’t think my kids will sit through a story.
I am not sure what reading level I should chose for reading aloud with them. One of them is an advanced reader and the other is struggling.
We don’t have a consistent bedtime routine in the summer.

I have heard and/or entertained these and many other similar ones over the years. The basic theme has to do with wanting to do it “right” which prevents us from doing anything at all.

I knew that I wanted to start a blog to help you read to your kids more. But I was waiting for the right time. I needed to make sure that I have 10 articles ready to publish. I needed to do a photoshoot for my graphics. I needed to make sure that these beautiful ideas in my head come to fruition exactly the way I imagined them. Does this sound familiar to you? Can you see that I am getting in my own way as well? And the perfect becomes the enemy of the good enough and nobody benefits. Here I am, starting with my imperfect and incomplete vision and you can do it, too! We are in this together!

Now, let’s step around the roadblocks…

I will start after we get back from vacation.

Why wait? Pick up a book while on vacation as a souvenir and add to the memories you are making. Even a magazine or a travel brochure is something that you can read to your kids. It doesn’t have to be a storybook, all reading together has benefits. Or read some interesting items from the newspaper from where you are vacationing.

I want to get a new book to really grab their interest.

While this is a wonderful idea, don’t let it be a roadblock. Reading some old favorites from your bookshelves can be just as enjoyable. You have the added benefit of being able to talk about how you felt the first time you shared it together. Read something else while you wait for that new book to be delivered or until you can get to the library. You will be happy you did.

I don’t think my kids will sit through a story.

I get it. I have 3 busy boys, so I do truly get it. But do they really need to sit still to enjoy the story? They can still pay attention if they are doing something else at the same time, and sometimes this helps them pay attention even more. Try letting them have play dough or supplies for drawing or blocks for building while you are reading. Better yet, just grab something to read and start reading while they are already doing one of these or similar activities. Another time that worked for us was to read while they are eating a snack or meal. (I often read our history reading during lunch.) Also, you don’t have to read for a long time to get the benefits. Even 10 minutes is a great start. Or less if that is what they can handle. Stamina is built up over time. Any minutes are better than zero minutes.

I am not sure what reading level I should chose for reading aloud with them. One of them is an advanced reader and the other is struggling.

This is a common concern and one that I will write more about in the future. For the purpose of reading aloud, the reading level is less important than when you are choosing material for the child to read on their own. Most children can understand content on a higher reading level than they can decode on their own. So just chose something with age appropriate content and read to them. They will each take away what they can at their own level. They may even surprise you with just how much they take away from the reading. The same goes for a lower reading level. Do you love picture books? I do! I still enjoy them even though they are not on my reading level.

We don’t have a consistent bedtime routine in the summer.

That is OK. Many people don’t. You don’t even have to read at bedtime. There, I said it. You really do not have to read at bedtime. You can read at other points during the day, whenever you prefer. I will say that when you are building a habit, it helps to tie that new habit into something you do on a daily basis, but it does not have to be bedtime. You can tie it to a mealtime, a certain activity, whatever you do regularly. Or even just set an alarm on your phone and read when it goes off each day. You have the freedom to decide what works for you.

It is OK if your kids don’t fall in love with the first book you start together. It is OK even if you don’t finish it and choose something else. It is OK if your kids do something else while you read to them (mine like to build with Legos or draw). Just start. You can do it. We will figure the rest out as we go. I will help you. You don’t need to see the finish line, just the starting line.

I don’t have 10 articles to publish yet. But I am going to start with just this one. Just start. Here we go…we will do this together. On your mark, get set, START!

If you have a roadblock not discussed here, or want more ideas or encouragement to get started, let me know in the comments below. Also, if you have worked around some roadblocks yourself, please share to help others.

And stay tuned because I will be adding more resources here to help you continue to build the reading habit that you are starting today!