Tuesday, August 5, 2014

What to do in Morning Time

Day 3~



  • Bible Reading
  • Doctrinal Books
  • Christian Living
  • Intercessory Prayer
  • Worship
  • Catechisms
  • Bible Memorization
  • Bible Memorization Review
  • Hymn Singing (Memorization and Review)
  • Psalm Singing
  • Chorus Singing
  • Folk Song Singing
  • Hygiene
  • Manners
  • Language Memorization*
  • Reading about Composers (Opal Wheeler?)
  • Listening to Composer Selections
  • Choral Works in small doses using the Libretto
  • Artist Studies
  • Artist Biographies (Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin ?)
  • Poetry for Memorization (New and Review)
  • Poetry for discussion
  • Miscellaneous Memory such as speeches, Bill of Rights,  etc.
  • Plutarch
  • Shakespeare
  • Nature Notebooks
  • Drawing
  • Grammar discussion
  • Diagramming Sentences
  • Discussing Sentences
  • Civics Questions and Answers
  • Presidents 
  • States and Capitals Discussions
  • Reading Aloud: History, Humor, Literature, Science, etc.  (Read books that you all will love during this time. This year I dropped a book which we dreaded and added in Science Matters: Achieving Scientific Literacy . We are loving Science Matters. I highly recommend it for the Jr. High and High School.)

Any subject which you can study in short lessons. For instance you could study the constellations in MT by looking at one a day in a book and discussing it for just a few minutes. 

You could even work on math problem a day on the white board. The beauty of that sort of quick learning is learning how to think through problems together. They can see you working through it too. This happens to me all the time while we are doing our sentence diagramming which, by the way, has become my favorite part of MT.  I cannot begin to tell you how hard won that battle with grammar has been for me. Slow and steady wins the race and I am not dead yet.

Some of this you will want to do every single day of every single year. Some of it will come and go, like Civics or Astronomy.

Each day you will have many opportunities for discussion. You won't be able to have long discussions every day at every point but each day there will be some discussion. The neat thing is you never know where it will be.  We will talk more about this later.

*This is a category which must be used with caution. Memorization is good and a good portion of MT is used for it BUT memorization loses its value as it is divorced from meaning or at least the grasp for meaning. We may not know what Hey, diddle, diddle means but our minds at least grasp for it. Latin chants should cause us to do that and if they do not then we need to put them aside or teach them in context. MT is not for Poll Parrots.  I would never waste valuable morning time on meaningless (to the child) information.

One of my favorite things about MT is hearing the children make connections. This morning we read Tennyson's Ulysses and I asked the kids to tell me what they knew about Ulysses so we could look for those things in the poem. Alex told a long story about how he dressed up like a beggar and shot an arrow defeated the suitors. He had remembered that from his own reading.  Sometimes I ask about things I don't think the kids will know about at all but they do know and that is super fun. I don't and should not be making the connections for them. MT sets up connections and it is always better to let them make their own.


Suggestion of the Day for Morning Time Memory:

Heidelberg Catechism Question #1:

What is your only comfort in life and death?

That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by His Holy Spirit He also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him. 







1 comment:

Thia said...

I am looking forward to reading through this series. We've done morning calendar time for a few years now and my older children are moving beyond it. Perhaps I can breathe some new life into our morning group time.