We didn’t switch out our Morning Basket at the beginning of May and I noticed a huge difference in how our days went because we weren’t as excited about doing Morning Basket. The girls were bored with everything and there were even a few days we didn’t do it at all, which hasn’t happened the entire year of us doing this together. So now I know, always switch the basket! It keeps things fresh and exciting for all of us. I for sure would not switch it out more than once a month, it takes me one who night and the next morning (Sat Night/Sun Morning) to do this always, so I wouldn’t be able to switch it more. A month at a time seems to be working just fine.
Lilly Belle is now done with preschool and is in full-on Kindergarten mode! All of the contents of the basket that are for her are all Kindergarten level. This month I did not include many activities for Lucy IN the basket other than our stories, just because she is usually eating breakfast and then wants to get down and play. Now that she is almost 19 months old, she is just too busy to sit anymore. We have a learning shelf set up that is right next to our kitchen table, so I will send her that way when she wants to get down. Then when I’m done working with Lilly Belle, I’ll take about 15 minutes to sit with Lucy at the shelf while Lilly Belle goes and gets herself ready for the day.
Here is what we have included for May/June 2018!
Girls Together:
We always do Bible, Poetry & Fairytales (stories) together first. Those 3 things always happen no matter what. No matter how fussy Lucy is or how tired I am, we always do those 3. After that depends on how the morning is going. Lately we are at about 75% of the time continuing with more. I find it changes every month as the girls change. I imagine as Lucy gets closer to 2, this will change again and there will be a lot more I can add for her again.
Bible: My First Bible and Prayers | We are continuing to read through this Bible per Lilly Belle’s request. When I told her I was switching Morning Basket, she shouted, “NO! Please. Keep the Bible that we have in there, I like that one.” So, that is exactly what we are going to do. The stories are short and sweet and the prayers at the end are so cute. We are also going to be memorizing the Morning Prayer from our Little Golden Book Prayers for Children.
Poetry: My latest discovery is Book Warehouse! I’ve found so many awesome books there and they’re all always super discounted. It’s the best. I found A Family of Poems by Carline Kennedy and loved it for Morning Basket and Poetry Teatime. It is filled with classic poems that are beautiful for children to hear. They aren’t silly like Where the Sidewalk Ends, but I think Lilly Belle and Lucy will love to hear me read them aloud.
Fairytale (Stories): This month we are going to read some of our treasuries together. We are starting with A Treasury of Curious George and then reading A Hundred-Acre Wood Treasury. Once we finish those, I will re-read their favorite stories from each until we start a new basket. Lucy loves monkeys so I think she’s going to love Curious George! Both of the girls love Winnie the Pooh. We will for sure be having a Winnie the Pooh day at Magic Kingdom, too!
Wooden Hundred Board: Lilly Belle will be using this to count to 100 as it is meant to be used. We are also going to start counting by 5’s as she can already count to 100 by 1’s and 10’s. Lucy will be using this as a toy while I am reading if she finishes breakfast early.
Camp Littles and Me: Ashley over at The Littles and Me has an amazing summer family program that is free on her blog! I printed out each week and will be printing out all the printables and gathering supplies so the girls and I can do this together this summer. It will be great family time. We are keeping the binder in our Morning Basket, but this is actually going to be our afternoon activities when we get home from Lilly Belle’s summer camps everyday. I am so excited about this!
Activities for Lucy (18/19 Months Old):
Mudpuppy Alphabet Flashcards: Ours aren’t arriving until Tuesday from Amazon so I didn’t get to add a picture to the blog or share them on Instagram, but we have had our cards for so long that it was time for a new set. I use to give them to Lucy during Morning Basket when she was a baby and she chewed them all up. Now I am going to give them to her but we are going to say all the letter sounds and names as I flash each one.
Montessori Books: I just ordered these and LOVE them! They’ve been on my Amazon wishlist for Lucy for-ever and I got them this week and in the perfect timing. She will love touching the sandpaper letters throughout the book. Again I will just be flipping through saying the letter sounds with her for the Montessori Letter Work book. For these we are not going to say the letter names, just the sounds. For the Montessori Number Work book we will be saying the name of each number and then count to that number until we get to 10 at the end of the book. I’ll let her hold them and feel the numbers. She’s too little to understand how to trace, but she will love touching the letters and numbers.
Color Circle Stickers: I am going to give here these stickers to play with while I am reading if she finishes breakfast and is getting antsy during Bible, Poetry, or Fairytale. She loves stickers lately, so these should keep her busy.
Wipe-Clean Alphabet Cards: Bitty Beginnings has adorable toddler and preschool activities. We found her shop when Lilly Belle was 2. I am excited that Lucy is now old enough to start doing some of the activities as well. I got out the Wipe-Clean Activity Cards for her to play with while I am reading. She will just be coloring on them with dry-erase markers, but I want her to just start seeing the letters more.
Activities for Lilly Belle (Almost 5):
My Summer Learning Packet: I purchased this from The Moffatt Girls and it is perfect for our Summer Morning Baskets and for when we head to Washington for 3 weeks this summer! It has over 100 pages of math and literacy work. I purchased the Kindergarten one for Lilly Belle because when I was looking at them online, I realized she can already do 75% of what is included as Kindergarten REVIEW in this packet! So apparently, Lilly Belle already did Kindergarten lol. Oops! There are some new concepts included that I am excited to work with her on this summer and just touch on before we really dive in during Kindergarten. I printed this out on colored paper and she is going to love that I made it like a rainbow. It’s the little things 😉
Let’s Play School Play & Learn Weekly Spelling Program: This is our newest product in the Let’s Play School shop and I am so excited to be working on this with her! Each week she will follow the program I have created using the Spelling Lists from The Good and The Beautiful Kindergarten Language Arts curriculum. I will have a whole separate post on how this program works, but she is going to love it! She was so excited this morning to see her Spelling Box all ready to go filled with fun for her. She is super into spelling and writing right now, so she’s pumped and so am I!
Early Readers: She really wants to read “real books” right now, so I included two for her in our basket that she can read to us during breakfast. Her favorite beginning reader is, I Love Pink and I bought her a new one last night, Biscuit. She’s going to love it!
Explode the Code 1: I will have her do a couple pages from this each morning. She just completed the beginning series for Explode the Code and is excited to be on the “big girl books” now!
ABC See, Hear, Do 2: Lilly Belle knows all her letter sounds like the back of her hand now, so it’s time to start working on blends! I am putting together a Blends Box for her right now, but don’t have it quite ready yet. Once that is done, that will also be added to our morning time. It will be a box similar to our Spelling Box that will included fun activities and resources for her to learn all her consonant blends! These books are so much fun and make learning sounds so silly as your child does actions with their body to remember the sound of each blend. Lilly Belle AND Lucy will think this is hilarious. They both loved the first one. Lucy just loves watching Lilly Belle do the actions, she cracks up and I love it!
Let’s Play School Play & Learn Sight Words: This is our next new program I am working on but am not quite done with it. Once it is complete, this will become a part of our morning time as well! Each week we will focus on 3 new sight words and play tons of games and activities to memorize them. She will have a Sight Words Box just like her Spelling Box and Blends Box. It’s just a matter of when I get it all together that we will start it. She is still working on the Dolch Pre-Primer list. She isn’t super into memorizing so I think this will REALLY help her! I cannot wait to share it with all of you!
Zoom Cards & Timer: As a part of our letter sounds and blends practice, we are going to be using some of the Zoom Cards from From the Pond. Lilly Belle thinks these are the best. She has to say the letter sounds and on the new cards I pulled out for her, sound out the blends, as fast as she can. We time her and she tries to beat her time everyday. It’s a really neat idea!
So there it is! Our 1st Morning Basket of the Summer 2018! I am beyond excited about all the new things the girls are going to learn from this basket and about all the beautiful time we will be spending together. I can’t wait to start tomorrow! Lilly Belle ran out this morning thinking today was the day, “Ahhh yay! I can’t wait to see our Morning Basket!”
This has become such an amazing part of our everyday and I cannot imagine life without it!