Morning Basket for My Teens ~ Spring Term

Ahh, Morning Time, that wonderful time of the day when together we turn our minds and hearts to things True, Good, and Beautiful.

At some point this year I realized that Morning Time with teens and Morning Time with 4-6 year olds were two entirely different animals. I had been trying to force things, and make it all happen together, around the same table, at the same time, and no one was happy. Suddenly it occurred to me; two separate age groups…two separate Morning Times! Lightbulb moment!

This has made a huge difference in our homeschool happiness level. Little kids are up earlier than teens who enjoy staying up late and sleeping in while the rooster crows the sunrise. Why not do Morning Time with my little ones first, followed by a session with the teens later in the morning? I’ll admit sometimes it’s even lunch time or early afternoon time with the teens. It doesn’t matter the time of day. The time that works it the time that’s best.

In this post I will share our Teen Morning Time plans for this spring term. Linked below is a simple list of what we cover and the order they are covered. The first subjects we do every day followed by a list of subjects we are doing on a loop schedule. This has been working well. We are usually able to make it through the loop once per week but if we don’t finish, no worries. That’s the whole point of the loop.

Spring Term Morning Time Plan for Teens

We begin with prayer, catechism, and Bible reading. We read a Psalm and a chapter of Proverbs each day. One boy reads the Psalm and the other will read Proverbs. We alternate each day. This is doing wonders for their read aloud abilities.

Then we move on to the recitation portion of our Morning Time. This term we are learning the Preamble to the Constitution and reviewing last term’s selection which was Psalm 1. We are studying the poetry of Walt Whitman. I read aloud various Whitman poems and each boy reads the poem they are memorizing. They are working on O Captain! My Captain! and Miracles.

This is followed by about ten minutes of copywork. We usually use something they are memorizing and they have also been copying the Bill of Rights. During this time they listen to a selection from Copland.

Finally we are ready to get into our looped subjects.  The resources we are using this spring are linked below.

We are using Notgrass for American History during our Morning Time. We read it and discuss. The boys also have assigned history books that they are reading and narrating during the week.

The Uncle Eric books are a lot of fun. This is a great simplified introduction to political thought. It meshes well with everything else we are studying in this loop and leads us into a lot of great conversations.

Our Plutarch this term is the Life of Crassus. We are using the study guides by Anne White found on Ambleside Online. I absolutely love these study guides. The Lives are broken down into twelve lessons with vocabulary and discussion questions included. The guides make Plutarch approachable and doable. There is so much goodness to be gleaned from Plutarch. It has become our favorite item on the loop.

This pretty much sums up our Morning Time for this term. I am excited to begin planning next year’s basket and can think of some things missing here that need to be added; folksongs, hymns, and artist study should be included, maybe on a loop of their own…hmm, next year!