Circle Time

I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time getting going in the mornings.  I have always been a night owl and when that alarm goes off in the morning all I want to do is chuck it against a wall and wrap myself back up in the blankets/Lawrence’s arms.  Unfortunately kids don’t usually get that, jobs require people to be on time, and dogs need let outside, so I do eventually drag myself out of bed.  The dogs get out, the kids get fed, the husband gets off to work, and I’m left to manage our schedule the rest of the day.

Our display board

For a long time it looked something like this:  7:30-8ish- kids get up, I roll out of bed, 8ish-9ish- feed kids and send Lawrence off to work, 9ish-10ish kids get dressed, I take shower, kids play, then sometime between 10:30 and 11 we were finally ready to start our day’s activities. Getting the kids started on school work was almost always a fight. They had been having lots of fun playing and didn’t want to quit, they were hungry for a snack, and school work just isn’t as much fun.  I was getting so tired of always fighting about this and looking for a new, fun way to kick off our school time.  Enter The Homeschool Sisters’ podcast.

Monday: music

Tuesday: shapes and colors

I had been following Cait at My Little Poppies for about a year and finally subscribed to a podcast she does with another homeschool mom, Kara. They answer questions, share stories and strategies, and interview other homeschoolers, advocates, and teachers to support and help the homeschooling community.  I was scrolling through the episodes of their podcast, looking for ones that sparked my interest, when I saw one titled “Creating a Morning Time Routine.” THIS! This is what I needed, help organizing my mornings better. So I listened, and I found that it was something I could do, even something I had kind of already done when we were in the preschool years.  Basically Morning Time is a time to gather all the kiddos and do some simple and fun learning activities all together. Instead of breaking us all up for our individual tasks before we get going on our more formal learning.  We sit down together and sing songs, read stories, do puzzles, listen to music, and learn.  It came so naturally!

Wednesday: states and capitals

I want to share how we do it. Keep in mind, this is how we do it, Morning Time, or as we call it Circle Time, can look different for everyone; you do you.  These are just some of my ideas.  Back when we did a preschool co-op I made this board (see above) with a weather center, calendar, shapes and letters on it.  It was a foam core poster with a holographic side and a white side and I taped all my things on the holographic side so they would come off without tearing up the poster board, it worked great! When we transitioned to kindergarten I modified the board and added a laminated calendar that I could re-use, a Pledge of Allegiance, and a list of the months of the year.  Since then some things have come off and I put up other learning graphics as we worked on different things. We start Circle Time when I play the song “The Greatest Show” (Greatest Showman), which signals to the kids that it is time to head downstairs and gather on a rug.  They can sing, dance, and play until he song is over, then it is time to sit.  I swipe an essential oil roller to help with focus across the backs of each of their necks then we do the Pledge, check the weather and mark it on the board, talk about the date, sing a few songs, work on memorizing an Article of Faith, then each day gets a different learning activity.  Monday we do music, Tuesday is shapes and colors, Wednesday we work on learning the states and capitals, Thursday we practice Spanish, and Friday we play a game.  I tried to include acticvities for all my kids and the things they are working on, but that they can also all do together and enjoy.  We use puzzles, songs, books, and move a lot (the pictures are just a few of the resources we use).

Thursday: Spanish

Friday: games

This has transformed our mornings (mostly)! The kids get excited when they hear the Circle Time song and race to the basement.  We have fun doing activities together, that also help the kids all learn, and we transition into regular schoolwork easier.  Don’t get me wrong, there are still mornings when there’s grumbling, and we do our best to work through that, but for the most part we get into school earlier, faster, and easier when we start with circle time.  The nice thing about it is that it is super flexible, so if we have a field trip, an appointment, or we get sidetracked we can skip a day and it doesn’t matter a ton, but when we do skip it the kids miss it and remind me that we missed it.  I love that we can change it up at any time if we need too.  If the kids are getting bored with the music stuff we're doing we can choose a different way to do it, or even a different subject or activity, it's so flexible!  I love that it gets the kids excited to learn and get going in the mornings.  I'm still working on getting out of bed and getting us started a little earlier in the day, but whether we get started at 11 or at 9 Circle Time will be there to get us started and get my kids excited to learn.





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