What’s the Point of Morning Time?

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What’s the point of morning time in the homeschool?

Everyone talks about adding a morning time to your homeschool day. A morning time where you and the children gather together for poetry, memorization, music, and great literature. But what’s the point of morning time in the homeschool?

Homeschool Morning Time is a Gathering Point

Morning time is a time when the family gathers together before everyone separates into their personal schoolwork. It’s a time for shared learning, shared discussion, and shared fun.

The mornings aren’t just a time to rush through breakfast so kids can start on schoolwork and get it done. It’s a time to appreciate come together.

The point of morning time in the homeschool is to come together to sing, listen, and enjoy each other’s company.

Clear Starting Time

Morning time doesn’t just give us time to gather the family together. It gives a gentle yet clear division between play hours and schooling hours.

Whatever the children were doing, they know when the call for morning time comes, it’s time to stop playing. It’s time to leave the dolls, trains, and dinosaurs and gather at the table to begin the school day.

Important Subjects

There are several important subjects for a classical education that tend to be skipped in the busyness of everyday life. We skip poetry reading to finish that math lesson. Great literature is skipped in favor of another phonics lesson or essay. Music is never turned on so the house can be silent for optimal studying.

When are we going to read poetry or listen to great literature together? When is a good time to sit, listen to music, and study paintings?

Sure we can assign it to the kids, but they have a tendency to rush through subjects. After all, they have their own plans for the day. Plans that include building cities of Legos, climbing trees, and skipping rope.

The best way to cover these important subjects is morning time. A time when we take the time to appreciate the beauty of words in poetry readings and great literature. A time when we enjoy music and art. A time we enjoy coming together to learn in unison.

These subjects of literature, poetry reading, music, and art are some of the best ways to teach our children the real aims of classical education.

point of morning time in the homeschoolBeauty, Wisdom, Virtue

The kids are introduced to beauty, wisdom, and virtue through these important subjects. They listen to the choices characters must make. They learn timeless truths about honor, right and wrong, and choices.

Kids slowly learn to appreciate what is good and beautiful through morning time. It takes time to learn this critical skill, time that is easily squandered chasing the urgent tasks of today, rather than the vital task of tomorrow.

Ultimately the point of morning time in the homeschool is to have a time and place for children to gather together as a family, start the homeschool day off right, focus on the important subjects that are always skipped.

And to have time to appreciate the beauty of classical education.


12 Comments

  1. This is a beautiful essay, Sara, and so important to reinforce the marvelous concept of ‘morning time.’ It is often my most precious time of the day.

  2. I have seen other posts about ‘morning time’ and have even listened to podcasts about it. yet, I always walked away still feeling confused at what it actually consisted of and WHY people do it in their homeschool. This post honestly has made all of that clear to me. So thank you for that! And now I’m starting to think of how I can incorporate it into our routine and school days. Do you do morning time on days that you don’t do school? Like the weekends?

    1. I’m thrilled my post cleared up the what and why of morning time! 🙂

      To be honest, no we don’t do morning time on days that we don’t school. It would be a wonderful start to the weekends, but we’re usually distracted by other activities.

    1. A quiet morning time sets a beautiful tone for the day, doesn’t it! I love having both in my life. A quiet morning time for me, and another one for the children and I. 🙂

  3. It’s funny how the concept of morning time has come up for me in the past week and I just started applying it on Tuesday and I LOVE it!

    It just makes so much sense… I mean I like to pause, and ease into my day, shouldn’t it be the same for my kids? Plus I love the “richness” of what we cover in the morning. Bible, Art, Literature, Music Appreciation… it’s such a delight.

    Thanks so much for sharing and congratulations on being featured at the #SHINEbloghop.

    Wishing you a lovely day.
    xoxo

    1. Morning Time really does make a world of sense. For my family it’s a time to gather and study together. The teenagers get a brief survey of what they’re studying this week, while the preschoolers learn everything they need to know. I enjoy the time too. 🙂

  4. Hi, I experimented with Morning Time at the end of last year and really felt like it filled some gaps just like you say. My question for you is this: what do you NOT do because you are taking time for this? A homeschooling mom only has so much time, and there are other things in her life besides homeschooling! Specifically, how do you handle keeping kids accountable for their other subjects, teaching Phonics, etc., and still have a reasonably clean house and food to eat?

    1. That’s a great question and deserves an in-depth answer, so I’ll give a full answer in a post. The short answer is that I prioritize. For instance we don’t do as many out of the house activities as many families. It allows us to keep a slower lifestyle, gives the kids plenty of time for free play, and gives me time to focus on my top priorities.

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