I first heard of "morning time" while reading Sarah Mackenzie's blog. I have to admit I read, re-read, and then read her post again. It took a little while to wrap my brain around how I would implement it but I knew it was a ritual I wanted to incorporate into our day somehow.
We began last Spring and I believe we are already reeping the benefits of these moments together. My Children are ages 12, 10, 7 and 5. We are part of a program called Classical Conversations where we meet with our community once a week. Because of their ages, and the work load of my Jr. Higher, morning time is treasured by each of us. It is our time to be and learn together before they scatter throughout the house to get their individual work done. If I could say one thing to a mom who isn't sure how to make morning time work? I would say, just start. I know your kids are 5 and under and won't sit still for more than 5 minutes. And I know you're tired and can't think of adding on one more thing. Just pick ONE THING. Don't overwhelm yourself. Read a bible story or a short poem. Listen to a hymn and begin memorizing the lyrics. And then stop. Let them all go run around out side for a bit. Your morning time doesn't have to look like anyone else's. It has to work for your family. I found a way that works for us and it has changed the culture of our home.
Here is a run down of our morning time routine along with links to many great resources. Some I have used, some I plan on using in the future. The possibilities are endless!
We spend one hour in morning time from 8am to 9am. We begin with prayer and singing the doxology. I pull up youtube and we sing 2-3 worship songs. We love Seeds Family Worship because it's a great way to get more scripture memorized. We follow that with a hymn and maybe a more contemporary worship song.
After worship we move to our bible study. We are currently working on a character study through Proverbs after which I will begin the children's catechism. We started that one last year but I wasn't consistent enough. Including it in morning time will change all of that.
Memory work comes next. There are an endless number of wonderful choices for memorization. Scripture is an obvious one of course. We have memorized the Nicene Creed and we just finished a poem titled "The Alamo". My oldest son chose that selection from Words Aptly Spoken. We are moving to Shakespeare next and I cannot wait!
When memory work is complete we move on to read aloud time. Again the options here are too many to name. Of course we love The Chronicles of Narnia, historical biographies, and collections of stories that tie into the historical period we are studying. I try to think about the interests of my kids when choosing literature but I also try to stretch them a bit. I'm sure they'll thank me for it later.
And of course during reading time it's important to keep those little hands busy. The morning basket always has quiet activities for them to choose from. Putty, legos, colored pencils, and paper are working well for us.
So there it is in a rather large nutshell. Remember, make it work for you and your kids. It's not about perfection. It's about the ritual, the routine. You won't regret setting aside a special time of day for your family to be immersed in beauty. I truly believe it will be one of their fondest memories.
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