Our Morning Time plans this year are going to be split into 2 groups: one for the older students and one for the younger. The younger ones are elementary age (grades 1 and 3) and the older ones are both middle school (grades 6 and 7). We will be doing Bible, devotionals, art, memory work, and music readings together as one big group. But history, science, and poetry will be done in the 2 different groups.
Bible/Devotional
We’ve read through a number of different story book Bibles through the years. This year’s pick is Who is Jesus? Forty Pictures to Share With Your Family by Kate and Joe Hox.
We’ll read this along with reading through parts of the Bible together.
We’re also going to read aloud WonderFull: Ancient Psalms Ever New by Marty Machowski. This book is about a fictionalized boy who learns how to use the Psalms to worship and pray. Marty Machowski’s other books have been pure gold, so I’m really looking forward to this one!
Art
This year we will be following Ambleside Online’s artist rotation and using the artist’s paintings from A Humble Place. We will be studying the work of Albrecht Durer for the fall term. The plan for this artist includes 6 different paintings to study, so we will aim to do a picture study at least bi-weekly.
I’m also excited to try out A Humble Place’s YouTube picture study this year! This new feature allows you to look at each painting through a video rather than having the printed copy in front of you. I really feel that this is a great way to simplify Morning Time, especially if you have multiple students!
Music/Composer Study
We will also be following Ambleside Online’s composer rotation for our music study together. For the fall term we will be studying Beethoven. Like the artist rotation, there are 6 different pieces of music that Ambleside Online assigns for a term. What I like to do for this composer study, however, is read a brief biography of the composer during Morning Time. For this term, we’re going to read Classical Giants: Beethoven: Musical Histories for Enquiring Minds by Emma Warner-Reed.
Sometimes we’ll even listen to an episode of the Classics for Kids show that features our composer. Then we’ll listen to the composer’s music later on whenever we’re driving in the car. I find that everyone’s attention is better when we drive!
Read Alouds
In our read aloud time, we’ll use a loop schedule to go through several different subjects for the fall term. I’ve picked a few books for each subject. When we’ve finished one book in a subject, we’ll read another book from the next subject on our list, and so on.
Elementary History
For elementary history study this year, we are focusing on American heroes and American history.
- George Washington by Ingri d’Aulaire
- Abraham Lincoln by Ingri d’Aulaire
- Buffalo Bill by Ingri d’Aulaire
- Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Elementary Literature/Fairy Tales
- Selections from American Tall Tales by Mary Pope Osborne
- Selections from The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
Elementary Science/Nature Study
- Pagoo by Holling Clancing Holling
- The Boy Who Drew Birds: The Story of John James Audubon by Jacqueline Davies
Elementary Poetry
- Selections from Now We Are Six by A.A. Milne and Beat the Drum Independence Day Has Come by Lee Bennett Hopkins (illustrated by Tomie dePaola!)
Middle School History
This year for the middle school kids, our Morning Time plans will be focusing on early American history in Morning Time. We will also be spending some time on government and civics, so this study should be a great foundation for that!
- George Washington’s World by Genevieve Foster (this is one that you may want look for on Thrift Books or eBay due to the high price currently on Amazon.)
- William Penn: Liberty and Justice for All by Geoff and Janet Benge
Middle School Literature
- Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray (this will probably be read over 2 terms)
Middle School Science
- Eric Sloane’s Weather Book
- Archimedes and the Door of Science by Jeanne Bendick
- Johannes Kepler: Giant of Faith and Science by John Hudson Tiner
Middle School Poetry
This year we will be reading selections from The Oxford Book of English Verse by Arthur Quiller-Couch and The Oxford Book of Children’s Verse in America edited by Donald Hall. We’ll aim for a couple of poems per week.
Memory Work
Elementary
States and Capitols – For years we have used Kathy Troxel’s geography songs to learn states and capitols. My kids love it! The world geography songs are also great.
Middle School
This term we will be working on civics questions from Cindy Rollins’ Morning Time: A Liturgy of Love.
As as a group, we will also be reviewing Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” speech. We started memorizing it a few years back but never finished the whole thing.
I always remind myself that, while having a plan is incredibly helpful, it is never perfect! Our Morning Time plans are there to help give us structure and keep us moving along. But it is not our master! We may not end up being able to cover everything that I’ve listed above and that is just fine. There may even be alternative books that we stumble upon and want to read instead! This list is here as an encouragement to you that there are treasure troves of books to be enjoyed with your children. Will we be able to read all of them? Probably not. But having a plan is the tool we need to read as many of them as we can!
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