Morning Basket: Ages 3 & 5

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This is our third year doing “basket time.” (We call it basket time, and not morning basket because it doesn’t always happen in the morning!) If you’d like to see our morning basket from previous years check out:

Morning Basket: Ages 1 & 3

Morning Basket: Ages 2 & 4

Now I’ll tell you all about our morning basket for ages 3 & 5.

You will see that it is quite different from the other years. One difference is there is no Alphabet loop. There are two reasons for this.

1. If for some reason we didn’t do a letter unit one week, I automatically didn’t do basket time for that week because I didn’t want to get ahead in our alphabet activities. Life happens and I want basket time to continue. So this basket time is mostly independent of what we do in other parts of our day.
2. Since I began when my firstborn was 3 I’ve learned more about the methods of Charlotte Mason, a 19^th century educator, author, and education philosopher who stressed no formal learning before age 6. This exposure to her ideas has influenced me (and my public school teacher mindset!) to relax a bit when it comes to phonics instruction and spend my time with my preschoolers in other ways.

This post outlines what we do in our morning basket time, but what about the rest of the day? Find out here!

So what is in our basket this year? I’m going to share with you our schedule and then describe the contents.

The Schedule

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday
Prayer	Pray together. Include: praise, thanks, requests for others, confession, requests for self.
Hymn	Songs of Faith and Praise
Bible	A Child’s Garden of Bible Stories
Yoga	YOGI Yoga Cards
Memorization	Ministry to Children Bible Verses
Recitation	Songs and Poems from A Joy-Filled Journey Through Preschool
Loop	Children Just Like Me	Children’s Book of Virtues	Fun with Nature	Get the Giggles
Current Events	God’s Big World
Foreign Language	TalkBox.Mom German
	Sing a song in German
Picture Study	Season & Time of Day	People & Emotions	Colors	Share Opinions
Composer Study	Listen to music selection
Tracing	Kumon: My First Book of Tracing
Read Aloud	Chapter book &/or picture book from A Joy-Filled Journey Through Preschool

I print this schedule, laminate it and keep it in our basket. I reference it for a while until I memorize the order.

The Contents

Prayer: We begin our time with prayer. Last year we recited a prayer from this book, but this year I would like my focus to be on helping my kids pray independently.

Hymn: We are part of a Truth, Beauty, and Goodness coop that meets at the beginning of each month. Each month we sing a new hymn together and we will continue to sing the selected hymn all month in our basket time.

Bible: Each day we read one Bible story. Last year we read through The Big Picture Bible twice and LOVED it. This year I think we will switch it up a bit and read through A Child’s Garden of Bible Stories. This is the Bible we used two years ago for basket time and we enjoyed it.

Scripture Memorization: We will memorize one verse per month using the verses here.

Yoga: Definitely a new addition to basket time! I thought it would be beneficial to add some movement into our time together and I’ve tried to place fun, loud, &/or more active times in between the quiet listening times. We will be using the YOGI Yoga Cards for our yoga time.

Recitation: Every day we will sing or recite the poem &/or song from the current unit in A Joy-Filled Journey Through Preschool. If we aren’t currently working playing through a unit we will choose a nursery rhyme to recite and a children’s or folk song to sing.

Loop: This is the only loop in the basket. Loops are a little too complicated at this stage in parenthood for me! (3 kids 5 & under) Mondays we will read about a child in the book Children Just Like Me. Tuesday we will read from Children’s Book of Virtues. Wednesday we will read about an insect, amphibian, reptile, mammal, nature sign, or plant from Fun with Nature. Thursday we will share a joke from Get the Giggles. This one is just for pure fun because Josiah has shown an interest in jokes.

Current Events: We subscribed to God’s Big World last year and included it in our loop- reading the entire issue for the week. This year we will try reading one page of the issue a day.

Foreign Language: We are learning German! We just completed our first box from TalkBox.mom. Until this point I have been listening to the audio alone and the phrases my kids have learned have been from me speaking to them in context. I would like to spend a few minutes listening to a handful of phrases together so they can hear the correct accent, not just mom’s! Something else that we have already been doing is listening to German children’s songs. We will use this time to sing and move to a song until we know it.

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Picture Study: This is another new addition to our basket. This one comes from our Truth, Beauty, and Goodness Coop, which is focusing on one artist per term-3 total for the year. During our basket time we will view a piece from the artist and discuss one element each day. We will change pictures each week. I think they will enjoy this part of our basket and I look forward to these discussions.

Composer Study: Same as above, we will be studying one composer per term. During this time we will listen to the piece selected by our coop. We were given the suggestion to examine the picture while listening to the song, but I don’t think this will hold my children’s attention. Instead my kids will be keeping their hands busy by tracing- see below!

Tracing: Last year when Josiah was 4 I thought we would work on some tracing and pencil grip- nothing elaborate. No letters or writing- just tracing simple lines and circles and such. We began this book and quickly quit. He was not ready and it was a struggle. We put it away and got it out at different times throughout the year with the same result. He still needs to improve his pencil grip, strengthen his hand, and prepare for writing, but this time we are going to try something new. I purchased My First Book of Tracing by Kumon and two dry-erase pocket sleeves. I will put 2 pages in each sleeve facing out. While we play the selection from our composer Josiah and Jessa will trace their page, erase, flip it over, and do the reverse page. Then they will trade sleeves and repeat. For Jessa it will just be fun (although the book is designed for 2, 3, and 4 year olds), but I would like to stress proper pencil grip with Josiah. We will likely change out sheets on a weekly basis.

Read Aloud: This time (If we make it this far!) will be reserved for reading a chapter from a chapter book or the picture book from our lesson in A Joy-Filled Journey Through Preschool.

Whole Brain Child: You may have noticed that the book, Whole Brain Child is in the photos, but not in the schedule. This is because I’m reading through this book now and plan to include it in our time on the couch together. Each chapter has a lesson and illustrations to discuss with your kids to help cultivate healthy emotional and intellectual development.

Why is there no Math or Nature Study?

Our basket time is spent (mostly) on things we wouldn’t be sharing together if we didn’t have a basket time. We spend time together playing with numbers in meaningful ways and exploring nature as part of our preschool curriculum.

There you have it! Our basket time for the 2019-2020 school year for preschool/preK.

Final Notes

I don’t plan to begin ALL of this initially. We will begin with just the religious elements and gradually add more until we are sharing all of the contents. I also don’t expect us to do all of the contents every day. There are some days we will need to cut it short due to plans outside the home. And there will be some days we will need to cut it short due to wavering attention and restlessness! On those days we will skip certain elements altogether or pick back up with basket time at lunch, after naps, or while supper is cooking (or maybe all three!)

Did you find something new you’d like to try? Do you have a favorite basket time resource for your young learners? Please share in the comments!

Are you looking for curriculum for your preschooler? A Joy-Filled Journey Through Preschool is for you!