I can’t believe it is already time to be writing this post again! October flew by which is bittersweet because on November 1st, Lucy turns ONE! I decided to put out our November morning basket a few days before November actually begins because we will be headed to my parent’s in Wisconsin for 9 days to celebrate Lucy’s birthday with my sister and nephew who also turns ONE on November 1st (Yep – we had our babies on the same day!)
I am pretty excited about November’s basket as there are some exciting new additions that I just know the girls are going to freak out over.
So without further ado, Our Morning Basket!
We start every single morning the same way. I read poetry to the girls first, then a fairytale or nursery rhymes followed by a Bible story. If I try to switch that up, Lilly Belle stops me in my tracks and says “ah ah ah, _________ comes first!” It’s pretty adorable. She likes this routine just as much as I do. Lucy even knows the drill now. We wake up, I nurse Lucy, Matt changes her diaper while I get the girls breakfast (we do quick like cereal, waffles/fruit, yogurt/fruit), I get my coffee and we’re off. There are some mornings we are starting to dig into the basket by 7:00am!
While creating Our Morning Basket each month, I keep a few things in mind. If we weren’t able to get to anymore school activities for the rest of the day, what would I want to make sure that the girls learned? I always add in a new life skill. I am now adding in items for Lucy (1) to work on developing fine motor skills and language. Lastly, I want everything in our basket to bring beauty and joy to our girl’s day.
Morning Basket has been such an incredible way for our family to start our day together. We have now been doing this for about 5 solid months where we religiously start our day this way. It has completely changed our family culture and the way our days go and I am so incredibly thankful to have discovered this.
If you would like more information on creating a Morning Basket for your family, you can check out my previous blog posts sharing what we have included. I find so much inspiration from Pam Barnhill as well! She has a podcast, YouTube page and blog where she talks all about Morning Basket and the different ways family’s use them. I’ve listened to every single Podcast of hers and they’re incredibly helpful.
Lilly Belle’s November’s Morning Basket | 4 Year Old
- The Good & The Beautiful PreK Language Arts Curriculum
- Lilly Belle and I are loving The Good & The Beautiful PreK Language Arts Curriculum! I will be doing an entire blog post on this because I love it so much. Lilly Belle does 1 lesson from her course book each morning.
- Jesus Storybook Bible
- This bible has been perfect for Lilly Belle’s age. It keeps her attention and gets her asking questions.
- Where the Sidewalk Ends
- This is the first time we have read Where the Sidewalk Ends with the girls and Lilly Belle thinks it is the best book ever. We read it while we were having our first Poetry Teatime a few days ago and I am so happy to have it added to our November Morning Basket!
- Usborne Musical Nursery Rhymes
- This has become one of my new top favorite Usborne books! That is saying a lot because I am a consultant and our family has over 50 Usborne books. Lucy (1) loves any books that make sounds and music. Since she was born, music has soothed her and made her happy. We will read one each morning. There is music you play while you read the nursery rhyme aloud to your child. It’s beautiful!
- Usborne Step-by-Step Drawing Activity Pack
- I wanted to add art to our basket this month. One of my Morning Basket goals is to add beauty to our day. Lilly Belle (4) loves to draw and is getting pretty good at it. We have had this set since she was 2. At first I would draw the things for her and she would sit and watch and tell me stories about them. Now that she is 4, I am having her draw from the book herself and she will work on creating her own book all month long. I got a blank book at the Florida Homeschool Convention last May.
- Squilt – Meet the Instruments Exploring the Orchestra Unit
- Guys! I am crazy excited about this addition to our homeschool! Lilly Belle is currently taking a few different music classes each week: Music Theory, Piano and Voice Lessons. She is super into it. She is actually playing her piano as I type this. Squilt is an online music curriculum and it is my favorite recent find and for sure one of my all time favorite finds for homeschool! I ordered the girls the Meet the Instruments Exploring the Orchestra unit as our first unit we will do together. It comes with over 30 instrument flashcards that I printed out, laminated and put onto a binder ring. Every morning we will focus on a new element of the orchestra, go through the guided learning and questions on the Squilt website and then watch the coordinating videos they give us. One of the reasons we homeschool is so that our girls have more time for the arts, so finding this has filled my heart knowing the girls will have this goodness put into their lives each morning!
- Count to 100 Activity
- This set from A Little Pinch of Perfect is so great! It comes with these 10’s cards 0-100 and little numbers that your child puts onto each 10’s card to count up to 100. Lilly Belle can count to 100 now so we are working on her recognizing the numbers and writing and building her way to 100 now. I added velcro to all of our cards to make it more fun and interesting for her.
- Addition Cards
- Lilly Belle has been doing a great job with these Addition Cards from From the Pond on Teachers Pay Teachers. This month she will use little wooden buttons as her math manipulative to count out each number sentence. She then uses a dry erase marker to write her answers. She does one card/morning. You can find the cards for free! I printed, cut and laminated ours then added them onto a binder ring.
- Wooden Ten Frame
- Along with the addition cards, Lilly Belle uses her Ten Frame from Treasures From Jennifer to do her addition problems. It helps her visualize the problems more. And, it’s beautiful to look at!
- I’m Thankful For… Chalkboard
- As it is November, we are going to be using our I’m Thankful For chalkboard from Chalkfull of Design each morning! I will ask her what she is thankful for and then write it on a piece of paper and have her copy it onto the board with her chalk marker. We will then put the board out on display for the day as a reminder.
- Montessori Phonetic Reading Blocks
- I got these on Etsy last month and they shipped incredibly fast and they’re so well made. And they were only $13! At first, Lilly Belle was intimidated by them but already just a month later, she can read through them and spin them on her own. She has been having fun playing teacher with them. She pretends I am the student and she makes me “repeat after her” with each word. It’s super cute!
- Dash Into Reading Books 1-3
- Lilly Belle has now mastered books 1 & 2 in the Dash Into Reading program. I am putting Book 3 together for her today and she is super excited because the ram is named Matt like her daddy. I cannot recommend these books enough! The illustrations are so beautiful and exactly what I want our girls to be looking at when they are learning how to read. The reading program itself is incredible. Lilly Belle is legit reading now. Because of learning how to sound out words in these books, she can now sound out 3 letter words in any book! It has been incredible to see. I cannot wait to see what happens after Book 3 when she learns the “th” sound!
Lucy’s November Morning Basket Add-Ins | 12 Months Old
Lucy sits with us at the table in her high chair. I pull her to sit in between Lilly Belle and I. She eats her breakfast and then I load her up one more time with some Cheerios, a bagel or something that I know will take her a while to eat. Once she is done eating and starting to fuss, that is when I hand her to the learning toys. I want her at the table with us for as long as we can because I love knowing she is hearing and seeing what we are doing and that she is a part of it. I sing and read to the girls a lot during Morning Basket and I like having her close.
- Mudpuppy My ABC’s Ring Flash Cards
- Lucy LOVES these. She has had them since she was itty bitty and it is her favorite thing to play with during Morning Basket. They’ve been chewed on a bit 😉 I like to think of them as “loved”. She gets super excited when I hand them to her.
- Baby Einstein Take Along Tunes Toy
- This has been a favorite with both of our girls. Lucy loves the music. I like the music she is hearing. This usually keeps her attention for a while.
- Crayola Palm Grip Crayons
- She has just discovered how to color! She can hold a crayon and knows that she needs to move it around on the paper. Sometimes because of the angle she holds the crayon at, nothing ends up on the paper. I found these crayons and I am so excited Matt’s parents got them for her for her birthday! I so want to open these now…but I’m waiting 😉 She is going to LOVE this! I added a little blank book into the basket for her to color in every morning. I can’t wait to have a little book of all her first coloring!
So there you have it. Our November Morning Basket! If you have any questions, please feel free to message me on Instagram – I love answering questions and helping everyone along their homeschool journeys!