The daily gathering. It’s the part of a new homeschool year that we’re looking forward to the most. I wrote all about it here in my article, “The Quiet Art of Morning Time.” I wrote about how we gather around a table laden with food. We read scripture and pray. We get lost in stories and poems.

We get lost in truth and beauty.

Sometimes I wonder whether this might be the most important part of our day—more important than geography, math or grammar. At the very least, our Morning Time routine is integral to providing a well-rounded education. And it certainly is a special time.

“The morning, which is the most memorable season of the day, is the awakening hour. … All memorable events, I should say, transpire in morning time and in a morning atmosphere.”
~Henry David Thoreau, Walden~

This year, we’ll be drawing from several resources to provide a rich and beautiful morning routine. I hope that, by sharing our choices, we’ll inspire others.

Devotions

Typically, we read the Bible at night and focus on a devotional and scripture memorization in the morning. Our core devotional for the upcoming year will be Growing with the Millers by Mildred A. Martin. We read Wisdom and the Millers last year—and loved it—so we’re looking forward to going through this new book together. The series uses sweet, realistic stories to illustrate Bible verses and teach character traits.

On Fridays, we like to read a missionary biography. For the upcoming year, we’ve chosen Hero Tales by Dave and Neta Jackson. Hero Tales is an illustrated collection of the real life stories of 15 Christian heroes. It includes questions to generate family discussion.

Poetry and Composer Studies

This year, our poetry readings will mirror our history studies. We’ll be reading Wordsworth, Keats, Whitman, Rosetti, Frost and Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, among others. Some of our poetry selections are from various online sources. The rest are from two wonderful collections for children:

Poems for Young Children (Miles Kelly Publishing)
A Child’s Book of Poems (Gyo Fujikawa)

We’ll also be studying a composer/piece of music that corresponds with the time period that we’re focusing on each week. I don’t have specific resources that I can recommend for these, as all I did was research popular music from each time period. I then found the corresponding composition on YouTube.

Artist/Picture Study

Although we don’t typically spend a lot of time on art, we do study one artist a month on average. In the past, we’ve used the beautiful picture study folios from Simply Charlotte Mason (borrowed from my local Charlotte Mason group’s library). This year, we’ll be using The Usborne Introduction to Art as our main reference.

Stories

“Our story begins where all good stories begin – high, high above the earth, where pinhole stars pepper a velvet sky, and where galaxies twirl until they feel so dizzy that they need to sit down.”
~Eric James, children’s author~

Stories should be beautiful. Stories should transport children to another world, spark imagination and inspire. This year, we have four volumes of stories that we will draw from during Morning Time:

Great Stories Remembered II (Joe L. Wheeler)
Tales from Shakespeare (Charles and Mary Lamb)
Aesop’s Fables for Children
Hans Andersen’s Fairy Tales

One last thought. I’m considering adding a “Monday Free Write” into our week. If anyone does free write exercises with their children, I’d love to hear how it has worked out for you!

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Disclosure: These are resources that we love and wanted to share. I have, however, used some affiliate links in this post. This means that, should you click on one of those particular links and make a purchase, I will earn a small commission at absolutely no cost to you.