Morning Basket 2016-2017 :: Term 1

First, a note: I use the term "Morning Basket" to refer to all the work we do together as a family. Even though I call it Morning Basket for organizational purposes, it is really broken up into two parts: one done over breakfast, and the rest done at the end of our Naptime School block and into lunchtime. Our Morning Basket is still very much the same as we have done it for the past few years, so if you'd like to read more specifics about how it works for us, you can read about how we structure it and prior selections.

A look at our Morning Basket plans for Term 1 of this year...

Over Breakfast

Italian (daily) - The school-aged kids and I cover new concepts and hands-on games during naptime, but we usually do our Italian memory work and simple conversation practice with the littles around:
:: Rhymes - "La Vispa Teresa," "Filastrocca dei Mesi," and "Lucciola" from Filastrocche Italiane Volume 1 and Volume 2
:: Songs - "Nella Vecchia Fattoria" and "Girogirotondo" from Teach Me Everyday Italian (littles didn't know these yet)

:: Series -  Big Kids taught the littles one of our previous series: "I have breakfast"

Poetry - one poem from each of our poets for the term, Rudyard Kipling for Year 5 and Walter de la Mare for Form I (daily)

Short Readings - from a couple of the following:
:: The Gospel of St. Matthew from the Douay-Rheims Bible (roughly a chapter a week)
:: Old Testament stories from Schuster's Bible History (one per week)
:: Illustrations for the Old Testament Stories: The Dore Illustrations, The Raphael Bible, and Stories from the Old Testament (tied in to the OT story from that week)
:: Dangerous Journey (a bit a week)
:: Lang's Book of Saints and Heroes (a bit a week)
:: Long's Home Geography for the Primary Grades (1-2 chapters a week)
:: Father Lovasik's Catechism in Stories (a couple a week)

Read-Aloud - With any breakfast time I have left before the babies start fussing, I read from one of our scheduled read-alouds: Carry On, Mr. Bowditch or Pinocchio.

In the Afternoon

Memory Work (daily) - includes review of that day's items from our memory "notebook" as well as time spent on our current selections:
:: Hymns - Bring Flowers of the Fairest, Fairest Lord Jesus, St. Michael Prayer in Chant
:: Folk Songs - Swing Low Sweet Chariot, Blow the Man Down, Jamaica Farewell
:: Bible - The Parable of the Good Shepherd (Luke 15:3-10)
:: Prayers - the Words of Consecration; Acts of Faith, Hope, and Love
:: Poetry - Walter de la Mare's "Someone" (Cate), "The Horseman" (Xavier), and "Trees" (Vincent), AA Milne's "Sneezles" (Gianna)
:: Shakespeare - The Winter's Tale 5.1 for a performance with our homeschool group

Family Riches - roughly one of the following each day:

 :: Nature journaling lesson with The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling (once weekly) - read a section together and choose a challenge for that week.

:: Picture Study on Jacques-Louis David (once weekly) - two weeks for each piece, alternating between observation/narration and a picture sketch or tableau, along with a reading from Hillyer's Child's History of Art the first week.

:: Music Study on Children's Classics as listed on AO (once weekly) - including attentive listening and discussion.

:: Shakespeare - A Comedy of Errors, first in Lambs' Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare, then along with Arkangel Shakespeare, then to see it performed at a local theater.