We really simplified our Morning Basket for January and I found the girls got bored with it after a couple weeks. That’s never really happened before so this month I ramped it back up and really added a lot of solid fun for them. I love when our mornings are smooth and when I can feel the girls’ joy from our time together. In January, for the first time, Morning Basket became something Lilly Belle and Lucy started moaning and groaning about. It broke my heart. So, now I know. They like it filled with all the goodness so we can change it up more each morning. As always, the biggest lesson is that yes, Instagram can be beautiful, but don’t ever forget to stay true to your family. Our family has bits and pieces of Charlotte Mason style learning, but at the end of the day, slowing down that much just isn’t for us.
So here is our February Morning Basket!
Bible: We are not using a Bible curriculum this month. I am going to continue reading the Jesus Storybook Bible to the girls each morning and we will sing the February Hymn from Happy Hymnody, but we aren’t going to do Bible based projects this month.
Poetry: Our girls love Shel Silverstein so we went to Barnes and Noble and got a new one for them this month. They will sit belly laughing listening to me read these poems! We already own Where the Sidewalk Ends, so now we bought A Light in the Attic. I’m excited to start this with them.
Fairy Tale: Dumbo has a lot of special meaning in our family especially with Baby Brother coming. It was Matt’s favorite movie as a little boy so we did his “nursery” with an elephants and dreams as the theme. I am reading a few pages of this book to the girls each morning. It’s almost 100 pages long and this was my book as a child.
Handwriting: I am trying to keep Lucy at the table with us longer because she just does not stay with us lately. We are using our Let’s Play School Nursery Rhymes Handwriting Book each morning. We sing the nursery rhyme to Lucy while Lilly Belle traces or does copy work of that nursery rhyme.
Let’s Play School Subscription: The girls have both been having so much fun with this. It’s so awesome to see that Lucy can participate in some of the activities now too! She can do about half of the hands on activities and a few of the printables too. Lilly Belle loves them all! Depending on the month, we choose 1-3 activities to do together each morning from that month’s theme. This month’s theme is ocean. We will be doing the majority of our ocean unit study in the afternoons, but doing a few of these activities each morning will get them excited for the learning that is to come in the afternoon when we really dive into our ocean study. Lilly Belle does the Kindergarten – 1st Grade activities and some of the preschool ones too. Lucy has been asking for these activities every morning!
(Pictures coming next week as I start photographing each of the 20 activities)
Rooted Childhood: We love Rooted Childhood so much. We’ve now used it for two months and the girls and I have really enjoyed it. We read the poems and the stories together during our Morning Basket time. Some days at the end of Morning Basket we do the handicrafts or recipes together and it’s been such a special time together.
Spanish: We are going to use our Kindergarten Toolkit flashcards to work on numbers to 20 and colors this month. These flashcards are perfect because they’re super simple and pretty and the you can do so much with them!
Fine Motor / Sensory: While I am reading to the girls, we get out Lulu’s play dough set from Prairie Tale Travels. The girls have been playing with this play dough and kit for almost a whole month now. It came in the mail early January and it’s something they are happy to play with every single day. I added it to our basket in hopes of keeping Lucy at the table with us while I’m reading. Lilly Belle has been designing play dough outfits for her barbies with it which has been really cute. I can’t wait to get another kit for them from Prairie Tale Travels soon!
Language Arts: We are going to be learning about nouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives this month by using a Valentine’s themed Mad Libs. I tried this with Lilly Belle when she turned 5 in August and she wasn’t quite ready, but I know she is now and I know she’s going to think this is hilarious!
Songs / Finger Plays: Lucy has been loving our felt story sets from the Quiet Book Queen. This month I added our 3 Little Pigs and 5 Little Monkey sets to the basket. Lucy is obsessed and she saw me put these in the basket and started clapping!
I am so excited for our mornings to be filled with songs, stories and play this month!