I have been intrigued by the idea of a having morning basket in our homeschool for awhile now without really looking into what it truly was, and what went into them. But a little research about a secular morning basket I realized that I have essentially been doing it for a few years now without realizing.
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What is a morning basket?
A morning basket is when everyone in the family can come together and learn together about specific subjects. All ages can homeschool together doing activities like reading aloud, studying the arts, or even efficiently combining students for subjects like history and science.
Morning baskets can be the perfect opportunity for you to teach multiple grades at once.
Despite the name, it does not have to be in the morning, but morning seems most popular as its a time when everyone is most often together, just starting their day, before they go off into their individual courses or subjects.
What is in a secular morning basket?
Now that you know what a morning basket is, the question becomes what do you put in it. And how big of a basket do you need to hold everything.
The answer for the basket is that I don’t have have an actual basket, but a bin in our cube storage organizer. It keeps everything together and neat and tidy, which is the point of a basket.
What’s in your basket is really up to you. Some feel that there should only be books, and while I love books, I don’t think it should or needs to be limited in this way. My kids love trivia questions, and I think they are a fun way to se what they know or might need a refresher on.
Some general ideas of what you may want to have in your basket:
- read aloud books
- encyclopedia
- board games
- hands on games such as Traffic Jam
- puzzles
- flashcards
- trivia games
- playdoh
- coloring books
In my experience younger children listen to read aloud better when their bodies are doing something, like coloring or playing with Playdoh. Build your basket around the needs of your children, and what you want them to learn. This week or month might be all things dinosaurs, and next week or month might be about art or music.
A secular morning basket is only different from a religious morning basket (typically just called a morning basket) in the fact that it does not content a bible or other religious material. A morning basket can be a great addition to any homeschool no matter the ages of your children. Or single child.
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