What is a morning basket? It can be anything you want it to be! Basically, it is an organized collection of books that you have readily available to read through with your kids. You do not need any particular basket or any perfect selection of things to put in it. Get creative! What topics does your family enjoy?

I have found time and time again that reading aloud solves many issues that arise during our day. Do the kids keep arguing? Gather everyone on the couch for a read-aloud. Is it a rainy day, and everyone is antsy? Make a blanket fort and read-aloud. For whatever reason, do you need to hit the restart button for the day? Read-aloud! Reading together will fix any problem- well, most problems!

I actually first heard about the concept of a morning basket from a lady who was sharing about one she had for her own personal devotional time. In it, she had her Bible, highlighters, devotional book, dictionary, and prayer journal. Then, I began to hear more about utilizing morning baskets in your homeschool day. This is idea is adaptable to every family type, education choice and lifestyle. Gather your favorite books to read through together, pick a time of day (it doesn’t have to be morning) and read through them. The memories you create with your children will be worth every minute you spend reading.

We have found that our morning basket time works best for us right after breakfast. During breakfast, we have our Bible time with Daddy. Then, once I have cleaned up the kitchen, we move to our reading corner and work through our basket. We don’t read from every book every day. I usually rotate through one or two. Once I do a day’s reading, that book gets put in the back of the stack to help me remember which one is up next.

While we cycle through our read-alouds, there are a few things we try to do every day-

Bible Time

We are currently going through Clay Clarkson’s Our 24 Family Ways. This book uses Scripture to teach children Christian character and values. Some of the discussion questions are a bit over our littles head’s, but we are enjoying learning the family ways, using them to develop our family culture, and strengthen our relationship with the Lord. We also do a brief Scripture memory time. Daddy works on this more in depth with the kids before bed in the evening, but we review what passage they are working on.

MUSIC TIME

It is important to us that our kid’s learn the great hymns of the faith. They are packed full of strong doctrine and Biblical truth. We sing other kids Bible songs or fun songs, but my goal is to learn a new hymn every week. We use this songbook from The Wilds. One of my littles favorite parts of music time is shaker eggs! We use these to work on rhythm and to just have fun!

ANIMAL OF THE DAY

My kids love learning about the unique animals that God has created. We’ve been going through Zoo Guide put out by Answers in Genesis. There are a lot of detailed facts for each animal, so I tend to skim through them, or pull out one main fact at this stage of life. Eden and Knox are always so excited to tell Daddy about the animal of the day!

These are the different categories of read-alouds that we cycle through-

CLASSIC LITERATURE

Last year, we read through The Complete Works of Beatrix Potter. This year, we are working our way through The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh. We have had the best time laughing our way through the silly tales that take place in the Hundred Acre Wood. Pooh has taken a hold of each of our hearts, and we love sharing these stories together.

POETRY

Read-Aloud Poems has been a wonderful poetry book to work through. Some days, we only have time to read one. Some days, we read through several. On days that make me feel successful, we do a craft or activity that corresponds with the poem we read that day. Those days are few and far between though! Eden is beginning her second 9 week unit with Gather Round Homeschool, and the theme is At the Pond. I was excited to find this Usborne poetry book that we will read through as we study the pond unit- Otters, Snails, and Tadpole Tails.

BIOGRAPHY

My kids are 4, 2 1/2, and 9 months so biographies don’t hold their attention for very long. I include it though because Simeon and I believe that it is very important for our children to know the stories of heroes of the faith. I know that our lives have been impacted greatly by rich biographies of missionaries, pastors and leaders who have given their all for Christ. We want that same influence in the lives of our children. The Christian Heroes Then and Now series is a great place to start with your kids! I only go through a few pages with Eden because the content is a bit deep and there are barely any pictures. We’re currently reading through Elisabeth Elliot: Joyful Surrender.

INFORMATIONAL

This tends to be the category we cycle through the quickest. Because my kids are little, their informational books aren’t quite as deep as they’ll be one day. We’ve read through books about seasons, the ocean and woodland animals this year. Right now, we are reading through Usborne’s My Very First Science Book. The kids and I are IN LOVE with Usborne books! They are packed with exciting facts and engaging illustrations. They are an investment, but they’ve been worth every penny. My kids will sit for an hour and flip through them. If you know my lively bunch, that’s amazing! Another resource we enjoy are the Brain Quest decks. These are like flashcards that have different questions for kids to flip through. Shapes, letters, numbers, time sequence and story order are just a few of the question topics that you’ll find on these. You can buy them for many different age ranges. Eden loves flipping through these with us.

Your morning basket might look nothing like mine. It might not even be in a basket! What matters is that it is something that works for you to bring your family together for learning and bonding. I love anything that gathers everyone together and knits our hearts as one. Together, we laugh at the mishaps Pooh and Piglet get themselves into. Together we hear the amazing accounts of God’s provision for Elisabeth Elliot. Together we are in awe of the amazing world God has created. Together we read and memorize poetry. Most importantly, together we read God’s Word and sing praises to Him. TOGETHER- it’s my favorite place to be!

Listen to me share more about our Morning Basket routine on the No Higher Calling Podcast.