Our 25-26 Morning Basket & Bible Time Choices
A look at what's inside our Morning Basket this school year.
It’s the start of another school year and as much as I’m a summer-loving kind of girl and like to linger on these beautiful days, there’s something about August that ushers in a fresh perspective and excitement as we dive into another year of homeschooling.
It’s my 6th year on this unexpected journey and each year just keeps getting better (maybe it’s me finally figuring this all out, but I think it’s also my kids and their ability to thrive on a reliable rhythm).
This year, I’m homeschooling my daughter (age 10) and two of my boys (ages 8 and 5), while my youngest son (age 3) runs wild through the house and keeps us all on our toes— which still remains my most challenging part of homeschooling.
Last month, I shared our 25-26 Elementary Curriculum Choices so today I’d like to share what we have in our Morning Basket— which mainly includes our Bible time and a few other family-style activities.
What is a Morning Basket?
Before diving into what we include in our Morning Basket, I wanted to share what this time is and how we integrate it into our daily rhythm.
A Morning Basket is simply just a “bin” or “basket” that’s filled with family-style readings or subjects done together. Some families may do Bible readings, read-alouds, poetry recitations, a Nature Study, art or composer studies, or anything else that you could do with the whole family gathered together.
For us, this time fits perfectly in the middle of our morning. From 8:30am-10:00am I do 1:1 Language Arts lessons with my three school-aged kids (our phonics, grammar, spelling, and writing lessons). Then at 10:00, we take a break and have our Morning Basket time. The kids clean up, grab a snack, and we all meet at the kitchen table. It’s the perfect mid-morning break between L.A. and Math lessons.
Morning Basket time usually takes about 30-40 minutes, depending on the season and what we’re including in it at that point.
The kids sit at the table, eat their snack, and participate in our time together. Afterwards, it’s on to 1:1 Math Lessons before lunchtime.
A Look Inside Our Morning Basket
The main focus of our Morning Basket has always been our Bible time. Coming from teaching elementary in the public school, I’m always so grateful to have this opportunity to integrate our Christian faith into my kid’s education at home.
Our bible time has always followed a simple rhythm that is able to be adapted and enjoyed by a wide age-range of kids like my own— singing a hymn, scripture or catechism memorization, reading from the Bible or another Bible study book, and our prayer and gratitude journal.
Here’s what we’re doing this year for Bible Time…
Daily Hymn singing- I love teaching my kids old hymns that I grew up singing as a child. I print the lyrics on card stock (usually just the first verse) and keep a collection of a few dozen hymns on a ring. We sing a new one each day.
The ABC’s of God & Me- My good friend from our co-op wrote this book so I was eager to go through it with my kids! It’s an alphabetical journey that studies the character of God and our identity as His child. I want my kids to know what truth is and what God declares in His word, so I’m excited to use these verses as a way to tie in scriptural truths that we can memorize and cling to. My older kids will use these weekly verses as their handwriting copy work each day to help solidify them into their minds while working on penmanship (cursive and print).
The Treasure: Ancient Story Ever New of Jesus and His Church- This beautifully illustrated and book, written by Marty Machowski, is for anyone who also loves The Ology: Ancient Truths, Ever New (which we’ve read several times over the past few years!). This book weaves a Bible study of the books of Luke and Acts with a fictional story. I’m so excited to read this with my kids as we study these foundational books of the Bible.
Prayer and Gratitude Journal- We began our first prayer and gratitude journal one year ago and it’s been one of the best rhythms we’ve added to our homeschool routine. Each morning, I ask the kids for one thing or person they’d like to pray for as well as one thing they’re grateful for. Sometimes their answers are sweet and innocent, other times it’s genuinely moving to see their empathy for others. All you need is a basic notebook. It’s a great way to look back on the Lord’s faithfulness over the year to see how He’s provided.
Other items in our Morning Basket…
In addition to our Bible time, I like to also include a read-aloud, our Science lesson (since I try to keep that appropriate for all my kids to do together), and any other “extras” that don’t fit into the rest of our school day.
Read-Aloud- We always have some sort of classic read-aloud going on. Last year some of our favorites were The Secret Garden, Little House on the Prairie, and Stuart Little. We usually only get a few pages read at a time, but it’s way for me to keep reading classic titles to my kids to develop their love of good literature. Some titles on our list for this year are The Wind in the Willows, Pippi Longstocking, Anne of Green Gables, and The Railway Children.
Science Lesson- As mentioned in my 25-26 Elementary Curriculum Choices post, my kids and I became very fascinated by feeding and watching the birds in our backyard this spring. To help us learn more about this topic, we’re doing a Bird Study for our science curriculum. We’ll incorporate crafts, outdoor nature walks, and additional read alouds into our study.
Shakespeare introduction- I’m so fascinated by
’s use of Shakespeare with her elementary aged daughters! If you haven’t already heard them reciting a portion from MacBeth in this recent post I shared of hers, give it a listen! She provides a step-by-step approach to how she teaches her kids Shakespeare. I have the book, How To Teach Your Kids Shakespeare, on reserve from my library so I’m excited to dive into this area of literature with my kids!
Previous Favorites in our Morning Basket…
Storybook Bibles
The Jesus Storybook Bible- This one is our favorite and has been read countless times since it’s appropriate for toddlers through elementary.
The Biggest Story Bible Storybook- Another favorite we’ve read through and loved.
Little Pilgrim’s Progress- I’ve never actually read The Pilgrim’s Progress, Paul Bunyan’s allegory of the Christian life, but this children’s version is amazing! We read it last school year and I felt like every single chapter allowed me to go into a mini-sermon on the path of salvation. My kids loved it!
The Ology: Ancient Truth’s Ever New- As mentioned above, this is one of our favorite theology books for kids. It’s so rich and deep but appropriate for preschool through elementary school.
Our 24 Family Ways: A Family Devotional Guide- Sally and Clay Clarkson’s guide to teaching kids biblical principles is very thorough and engaging. I did this a few years ago so I’ll likely revisit it in the next year or two as my kids are older and more mature now.
New City Catechisms- Last year, I led my kids through these catechisms. We used the app to play the songs and my kids had these little booklets to help them memorize the questions and answers.
As always, thank you so much for reading and following along with our homeschool journey! If this post was helpful to you, I’d love to hear any thoughts you have through a message or comment below! Any favorite Morning Basket or Bible time choices for your family? I’d love to hear!
Oh this brings back so much sweet nostalgia of when my boys were younger homeschooling with me! What great ideas you continue to share, Mollie! Praying you have a wonderful school year ahead, sweet friend! 📚
It’s just started homeschooling (it’s really a soft launch of putting some rhythms in place for our nearly 3 year old) and your publication is exactly what I need! Thank you for sharing your journey:)