Group Time: How to Have a Strong Start to Your Homeschool Day

It's 7:42 AM, and the door closes with a thud as Dan heads off to work. FREEZE! Where are the rest of us? I am standing by the kitchen sink, loading maple syrup-coated plates into the dishwasher. Baby Theo, having recently finished a light-breakfast nursing, is supervising from his bouncy seat on the kitchen counter. Shane is seated at the keyboard in the living room, plunking out "The Entertainer" (his recital song) for the millionth time. He likes to play the tune in a different synthesized instrument each time, and this time it's the saxophone. Conner and Logan are charging up the basement steps in the midst of an exciting game of "robber and spy." I've got a full day of school planned for the boys, so how on earth do we transition from this kaleidoscope of activity into our school day?

"Group Time!" I call.

The boys stop what they're doing (usually without much complaint) and shuffle to the school room. They pull up their chairs facing our classroom calendar and, with Theo perched on my left hip, I lead the boys in devotion and prayer.

In my Elementary Education days, we referred to it as "Morning Meeting." Morning Meeting, Morning Time, Symposium (a la Sarah Mackenzie), Group Time or whatever you like to call it is a time when children are gathered together to share the goings on of daily life, be briefed on the upcoming day and/or week, do calendar and weather work, be read to from a good book, or do whatever else the teacher (or, in my case, the homeschooling mama) wants to do to start the day off right. This particular routine is ideal for children in grades 3K through 2nd grade.

To set-up and run our Group Time, I use the following:

I have the boys sitting in their school chairs, but having your children sit on a comfy rug would work just as well. 🙂

{Prayer}

On Monday-Thursday, we pray Martin Luther's Morning Prayer. On Friday, we review the Lord's Prayer. We always follow with special intentions.

{Daily Devotion}

My husband usually leads the boys in a daily devotion while they are eating breakfast. If he has to leave for work early, I lead the devotion at this time. Right now, we're really enjoying Jesus Calling: 365 Devotions for Kids by Sarah Young.

{Pledge of Allegiance}

We have an American flag hanging up in our school room. The boys stand, place their hands on their hearts, and recite the pledge.

{Calendar}

Days of the Week Song (I will share the two that we sing in a separate post.)

Months of the Year Song (I will share the two that we sing in a separate post.)

Next, to practice counting, we count the number of days we've had in the given month. If we're toward the end of the month, we may use this as an opportunity to practice our skip counting. When we're approaching the current date, I pause and let the boys call out the day's date. Then I have them repeat after me:

Me: Today is! (Them: Today is!)
Monday (Monday!)
April 24th (April 24th!)
2017 (2017)

At this time, we talk about any birthdays or holidays that may be in the upcoming week, and we also talk about any changes variations in our school schedule. For example, if it is a break week from Classical Conversations, I remind them that we will be saving Thursday (or Friday) for outside classes and errands.

I then shift over to my second bulletin board, and I ask the boys, "What day is TODAY?" When they answer, I move the appropriate day of the week to our display. "What day was it YESTERDAY?" "What day will it be TOMORROW?"

{Weather}

We consult our outdoor thermometer, which is located right outside our school room window, to determine whether it is cold, cool, warm, or hot. (I think of this in terms of appropriate outdoor attire. Cold = a winter jacket, hat, and gloves would be needed. Cool = a light jacket is needed. Warm = no jacket would be needed. Hot = a tank top and sunglasses would be appropriate.)

We also look out the window to see whether it is sunny, cloudy, rainy, etc., and I move the appropriate sticker to its place on the bulletin board.

{Alphabet Song}

If my three-year-old is with us, we will sing some variation of "The Alphabet Song," doing some kind of movement for the vowels. For example, we may sing the "Super Why" version of "The Alphabet Song," and we will jump for the vowels. (We only do a baby-jump for "y," because it's a sometimes-vowel.)

{Classical Conversations Memory Work}

At this time, we review our weekly CC memory work together:

Monday: Fine Arts (if I'm feeling ambitious), Timeline
Tuesday: CC Community Day - No "Group Time"
Wednesday: Geography, History
Thursday: English, Latin
Friday: Math, Science

After our CC review together, Group Time is over, and the boys grab their Classical Conversations notebooks. (CC Friends, I use the notebook pages created by Sheri Ellis. They are available on CC Connected and are fabulous.) My oldest child completes his notebook pages independently, and I assist my Kindergartner.

My almost-fourth-grader is getting a little old for the calendar/weather portion of Group Time, but he does an admirable job of hanging with us and supporting his little brothers while they work on these skills. This year, I've tripped upon the idea of the "Morning Basket," which I just love. When my brood gets a bit older (and the littles are no longer such a distraction), I think our Group Time will shift naturally into more of a loop schedule that includes Poetry, Picture/Artist Study, Shakespeare, Composter Study, and Literature Discussion. But right now... Group Time is just right for us.

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