We’ve been right back into our Morning Basket routine and it’s felt so good. We have changed a bit as far as what time we do it and what is included so that it works for our family now and our kids current ages and stages. We used to wake up and immediately the kids would be at the table. We would usually be done with Morning Basket by 8am. The kids would eat breakfast that Matt made for them while I would read and do all the things with them from our basket.
Fast forward to now and Liam is almost 14 months old and still doesn’t sleep through the night. I am up every night until midnight working so it makes for a slower more tired morning. Plus, we are in the middle of a global pandemic, so … we have a lot more time in our day and don’t have to rush for anything.
We now wake up and the kids eat breakfast. We slowly all get ready and then around 8:30am we go for a walk as a family. When we get back from our walk, the kids and I sit down together on our living room rug and we start our Morning Basket. It’s usually around 9am when we begin.
I have bins filled with Magnatiles, wooden blocks and pattern blocks available for them to play with while I’m reading. We always start with our Jesus Storybook Bible. We have probably read through it 5x now but I just love it and every time I’ve switched to a new Bible for the kids, I always end up switching back to this one.
What is included in our basket for May 2020?
Jesus Storybook Bible – Our favorite!
Pippi Longstocking / Zoey and Sassafrass – Right now I am reading them a chapter a day from Pippi. We read this book every single spring. This is the 4th time we’ve read it and we love it more and more every year. It is for sure our family’s favorite read aloud. We have also been reading through the Zoey and Sassafrass series which is another of our favorites. I’ve been reading it to them at bedtime, but once we finish Pippi, I will put it in our Morning Basket instead. We are on Book 5 and want to read 6 and 7, too.
Let’s Play School FUNdamentals – Each of the girls have one of these. Lucy’s is preschool level and Lilly Belle’s is covering things she is working on for 1st grade. These have been one of my all-time favorite items from our shop and families across the world have been using them together in the morning. They do their calendar pages, we talk about the plans for the day and then they do the 5 other worksheets included. It’s really helped each of them with their foundations.
Play and Learn Numbers Game – Each month I will switch out the Play and Learn Numbers game I have included in the basket for Lucy. This month she is playing our Ice Cream Cone Game. She has to put the numbers in order. It includes numbers 1-20, but I just have 1-10 in the basket for her now. She is 3.5 years old.
Play and Learn ABCs Game – Same as above, I will switch the game out every month. The Play and Learn ABCs and Play and Learn Numbers packs each include 15 games so having some of them in our baskets for the next 6-12 months will help her learn her alphabet and how to count to 20. This month I have included the Teddy Bear Hospital Game for her. She has to match up the lowercase letters on the bandaids to the ones on the bear’s tummies.
POP for Addition and Subtraction Game – Lilly Belle has been working on getting her math facts down quickly. We play this a few times a week and she tries to beat her time each time. The game is filled with math facts on little bubble cards and she shouts out the answers as quickly as she can.
Brain Quest Cards – The girls love these so we do a few with each of them every morning.
Song Sticks – I have songs written on popsicle sticks and we sing them with Liam in between all the things in the basket for the girls. I will do a separate post sharing the songs we have in our little Song Cup.
Maracas – The kids had so much fun making maracas when we learned about Mexico earlier this month so I put those in there so they can play with them while we sing. Liam really loves this.
That’s our Morning Basket for May 2020. Sometimes we are playing and sitting together for 10 minutes, sometimes it’s over an hour. Depends on the kids. It is 100% my favorite part of the day! I love this time with them. It’s so intentional and calm. I’m always so present with them during this time. It is something I hope we continue to do for years and years and years. We are now on our 3rd year of doing Morning Basket. Before Liam was born, it was something we did together every morning even on the weekends sometimes! Once he was born it became something hit or miss and I was sad. A couple months ago we started to do it every morning again and it just makes such a difference in how our day goes.
I hope you were able to take something from this to enjoy Morning Basket with your family, too!