Morning Basket

A few people emailed and asked about my version of the morning basket that Jen so generously shared a while back. There was a lot to inspire me in that post since I had been struggling with how to begin our day.

Since having Brendan I have been having trouble getting up early.  This is due to the fact that Brendan enjoys being up at night and nursing off and on all night.  He also is not a fan of the bottle. Or a binky. Or anything that might allow me to sleep for two consecutive hours. So I have not been able to get up as early as I would like and this creates some chaos for me in the morning. So instead of my getting up at five and getting a head start on the day before waking the children, we are all clamoring around getting up at seven and trying to get going. 

In the grand scheme of life this is a minor problem but I did crave a more peaceful beginning to the day. I often found that while I was caffeinating (totally necessary I assure you) some kids started school, some kids snuck away to watch cartoons and a few actually left the house and went outside.  We were missing prayers and just starting badly. We have been having some chaotic times here and I wanted to anchor our day as best as I could.

I remembered Jen's morning basket post and I went back and re-read and I tried to see how I could make it work here. I wanted the basket to reflect the season and to address our faith and what we were studying as well as some things that I want to include in our day but often don't find time to incorporate.

So this is what I came up with.

Faith

Baltimore Catechism which we work on for about 15 minutes. 

The New Catholic Picture Bible - I try to read the story related to whatever everyone is studying in Faith and Life.

The First Christians, An Acts of the Apostles for Children

Then  I will read something from the following list depending on the day or any virtue I might want to address.

57 Stories of Saints
Catholic Mosaic
Fenestrae Fidei

Nature Studies

I am so glad we are incorporating this into our day regularly. I read from

Thornton Burgess
Nature Friend Magazine

While I am reading the children are sketching. I assign a subject related to the reading, show them a picture and have them sketch and color. I keep their sketch books right there in the basket as well as the Prismacolor Pencils and Lyra Crayons. They have other books and supplies elsewhere but these are kept special for morning time.

I also have a bunch of nature, seasonal books from the library that I will read at this time. A Picture Perfect Childhood by Cay Gibson is helpful as is just asking the librarian.

Poetry

We are really enjoying poetry this year and I wanted a little extra in the day. For this part of our day I thought the poems we read could be more lighthearted and whimsical. So there is :

Zoodoings by Jack Prelutsky
A Children's Garden of Verses, Robert Louis Stevenson
And because I am a nut for Shakespeare I usually read a sonnet from m beaten up copy of the complete works that my parents gave me when I was in high school.

And that is really it so far. After morning basket time we make a morning offering and then we say the Pledge of Allegiance and sing "My Country 'Tis of Thee.

After this they are off to their workboxes and the day begins.  I don't pull this off everyday, although that is my goal, since the little guys take up a lot of morning time but we are managing to do it often and the kids love the gentle beginning. I think the nice pencils and crayons are a draw as well.

I hope you enjoyed reading about our "humble beginnings" to the day.

Have a blessed evening.

Comments

[Dina]

Mary Ellen,

You truly amaze me. I feel like I don't do that much in a day and this is your morning?!??? About how long do you devote to this? I would like to try something like it. I need to at least incorporate some time for all of us to pray. One of my problems is that one of my children gets up later and he's not with us at the start of the day. Maybe I can do our basket when he gets up.

Dina

[Kelle]

I am so curious how long this takes. It seems like it would take a long time. Is this before breakfast or after? My kids are still a little young for this (5, 3, and 1 yr), but I could always adapt it. Amazing! Thanks for sharing!

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[Heather]

Wow Mary Ellen! You amaze me. You accomplish all of this before breakfast. I feel like a slug these days. I am doing well to even get my breakfast down and then I spend an hour or two curled up on the couch gagging. Thank God the fourth grader has an assignment notebook this year that I've filled out and she actually usually does most of her work on her own...although I do have about two weeks worth of British History to read with her. :)

[Gae]

Dear Mary Ellen,
It is lovely to see how each family uses ideas and then applies them to own families.
A lovely morning routine. Thank you for sharing.
I have been praying for you and your family.
God Bless

[meredith]

Sounds like a lovely morning time Mary Ellen, this is working really well for us too :) Much love,

[Jessica]

What a lovely start to your day!! We started the year doing something along the same lines, but these past few weeks, I've been so tired and I don't even have a baby to nurse at night (yet!) but not sleeping well just the same and getting later and later starts each day. You've inspired me to get back to it!

You've been in my daily prayers and thoughts!! {{{Hugs}}}

[Jennifer Mackintosh]

Oh, Mary Ellen, I'm thrilled to see how you've taken this idea and made it work so nicely in your home! I read your follow up post and I was so pleased that you emphasized that it's not how **I** might do something or **YOU** might do something, but that it's an idea that can be molded to fit a unique family!!!! This unique expression in individual families, not the original idea, is what it makes it so lovely!

Your morning basket looks just delightful! I pray it is a gentle blessing that helps you pull corners of your day together in a pretty bouquet!

[mel]

Thank you for the inspiration. I'd like to try a morning like this. I'm 19 weeks pregnant and the last time I managed to wake up before the children was,,,well, probably 19 weeks ago! :) Our mornings have also been getting off to a slow and weary start.