Starting Anew, Beginning with Morning Time
This post has been edited to remove links from Pam Barnhill’s original site. To find out more about her system, click here.Â
The leaves are falling, sunlight hours are dwindling, and I’m starting our homeschool year over.
Part of me just feels the need for a “do-over”, but part of it is the reality that after 6 weeks of doing “school-lite” and then no school whatsoever after the baby’s birth, we just need to start again. I’m starting with a ritual. A simple ritual that can take shape over time into a key, beautiful part of our homeschool day.
I’m starting our days again with Morning Time.
Last year, we did morning time. We prayed and read together, and while I read, the kids sketched. Sometimes we added a few extras to our time, such as history or geography. You can add anything you like to morning time. This year, I’m inspired to add art, poetry, and possibly even music here and there. My goal? To make morning time the focal point of our day, in which we feel fed and renewed and inspired by our time learning and growing together.
Morning Time is about the ideas and discussionwe share, coming together as a family with Mom modeling lifelong learning for herchildren, building a common family culture that continues to connect us long afterour homeschool days are over.…Morning Time is just that rich. Spending an hour beholding truth, goodness, andbeauty is the last thing Satan wants us doing each and every day in our home. –“Your Morning Basket Guide” from Pam Barnhill
Pam wrote about beauty and truth, and how Morning Time is so rich for building up a family culture around thing which are good and true and beautiful. My heart sings. All I truly hope for my children is to have an appreciation for truth and goodness, recognize beauty, and always be in pursuit of those things. Why? Because all that is true and good and beautiful is of God.
I know that if we do nothing other than have a quality hour or so of morning time, then it has already been a successful day. Any day with any amount of time spent in pursuit of truth and goodness, in other words, in pursuit of God, has been well-lived. And in the long run, those lessons which take root in my children’s minds and hearts, will lead them to do great things and always be in pursuit of truth.
As I said, we have done morning time. Starting again isn’t hard, and starting for the first time, if you are so inspired, should be simple and exciting. No stress allowed! It’s about starting small, creating habits, and building up gradually to your my goal. We started today, in fact…and all we did was read one chapter in our book about Saint Louis de Montfort. We’d already prayed a decade of the rosary on our drive taking the boys to school, so I felt ok with not starting this time together in prayer. Most days, though, we will start with prayer, very simple prayers, such as the morning offering or an act of faith.
After another week you might then add something else,continuing with this practice until your Morning Time has taken the form that youdesire. Small, successful practices will bear more fruit than overwhelming plans thatdo not get done.–“Your Morning Basket Guide” from Pam Barnhill
Gradually, we’ll build up to more and more. In a month or so from now, I hope to include prayer, poetry (including memorization!), read aloud time, practicing Latin vocab, journal time, and time to dive into history and discuss our reading together. It will evolve. During liturgical seasons, we might change things and focus more on the season and different saints and themes (such as preparing our hearts in Advent). But every day, we will come together and share this time to learn and grow.
I think I’ll make even more special by having tea or cocoa, and maybe muffins or scones some days. Maybe Some days our Morning Time will be outside, practicing Latin vocab and poetry while we take a walk. Doesn’t it sound lovely, this way to learn together? I almost can’t wait for Monday morning to come so we can begin again.
Does this sound like something you would like to try? Let me know! Let’s build our traditions together, sharing ideas.
Love this. We are trying to incorporate morning time into our routine and it’s a welcome time of calm in our home. I’d love to pick your brain on poetry and morning time. Also, what read aloud do you pick for saints? Do you have multiple books planned?
Thanks! I am sending you an email to chat about poetry and such, but for the saint books, we’re reading about St. Louis de Montfort right now. Other times, we’ll just choose a book of saints and choose one saint for each day, when the stories are shorter. Sounds like a good post for the future would be about saint stories we enjoy! 😉
This sounds great! I was homeschooled all through highschool until college and have been thinking of ways I can start fostering learning, creativity, and peace in my home, even while my kids are only 1 and 2 years old. This gives me something to work with, although I’m sure I will need to tweak a bit for toddlers. 🙂
I bet prayers and stories in the morning would be great!