Getting Rolling with The Morning Basket

I learned about an amazing concept from the brilliant Pam at My Morning Basket. We’ve been experimenting with the morning basket as a way to start our day of learning at home. So far, we are using the morning basket for poetry and art books. We start our day all together, looking at various pieces of artwork and listening to poems. These books live in a basket beside the couch. Hence, the name “morning basket.”

So far, I’ve been shocked at how receptive my kids are to poetry. Even the twins - who seem barely old enough to understand a lot of what we read - love it! They have their own comments and interpretations and it’s wonderful to hear what they take from each poem. The art is also a hit, although we haven’t formally moved into what I would call “picture study.” I am aiming to do a picture study in the style of this amazing homeschool mama, who has tons of picture study resources - many of them free. We will get there! It’s still early days.

The poetry books we are using so far are A Children’s Garden of Verses (the version given to me by my grandma when I was just born!) and Favorite Poems Old and New. Eventually I’d like to read a chapter book to all 3 kids together, and allow each of them to draw or play quietly as they listen. I haven’t yet found the book that I think will appeal to all 3 of them, but I’m on the hunt this summer to find something. In the meantime, I can extend the morning basket time with reading shorter books or we can listen to music and move into dance party time. That’s always a hit!