During my oldest daughter’s 1st grade school year, we hit a road block in our homeschool time. My youngest was now a spunky toddler, running and climbing all over the place. It was becoming increasingly difficult to complete our homeschool work in one large chunk of time in the morning while chasing the kiddo!
In addition, I found that we felt stuck at home all the time. My toddler was taking one long afternoon nap, so we would school all morning then have to stay home for naptime. We were getting a little bummed and I knew we all needed an update to our routine!
Enter our Basket Time.
I decided to split our homeschool routine in half. While baby sister is awake, we enjoy our Basket Time all together. Our basket includes books covering various subjects like Bible study, poems, and more. Most of the resources are read-alouds on my end, so the girls are free to play together, color, or eat while I read to them.
During the toddler’s afternoon naptime, I help my oldest complete her table work. This has given us so much more focused, one-on-one time together and has been such a blessing to our day!
If you’ve been part of the homeschool community for some time, you’ve probably heard of a Morning Basket. I’ve always loved the idea of using a Morning Basket, but with “morning” in the name I felt extra pressure to complete it early in the day. I often found that we enjoyed this time together after getting out of the house for a bit. So we started to call it our Basket Time so we could complete it any time during the day!
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How Do We Use Our Basket?
Our Basket includes resources that fit into 5 main categories – Bible, poetry, Social Studies, Science, and chapter books. As mentioned earlier, these subjects were already mostly read-alouds during our regular homeschool time. Gathering them together in one spot and reading them while the girls play or eat has been a great way for us to “chunk” them into a time while both girls are awake!
While I do include 5 categories in our basket, the only category we cover every single day is Bible. Next, I choose either Social Studies OR Science for the week. Then our goal is to cover each of the week’s categories 3 times each. If we meet this goal, our Basket Time checklist looks like the one pictured above!
Are you ready to see some of our favorite Basket Time resources? Keep reading for some ideas for each category on our checklist!
Bible Time Resources
The first subject we cover (and the only subject we cover every day) is Bible time. I love getting to snuggle up with my babies and study Scripture together. Whether your kiddos are old enough to sit and study from a “real” Bible, or they’re still tots who need engaging Bible picture books, it’s never too early to begin this Spiritual discipline as a family!
Most weeks we begin by working on our Bible study for the week. I created these Bible studies when LG was in Preschool and every year we move on to a bit more difficult pieces. For her 1st grade year and beyond we’ve worked mostly on the Bible journals and their corresponding sequencing pages. (These pieces are part of each complete study OR sold as a separate journal pack!)
CLICK HERE to purchase our Bible study materials!
Once we’ve read and journaled for that day’s passage, we pick a devotional or picture book to read together. Over the last few years, we’ve gathered quite a collection of these books and you can read more about them using the button below!
Poetry Resources
Poetry time is a new addition for us, and we have been enjoying it SO much! Our collection of poetry books is still pretty small but we are so excited to grow it over the next year or so. The book above is one of our favorites for finding quick, super sweet poems to read together. And I’ve purchased THIS BUNDLE of seasonally themed poems from Annie Moffatt at The Moffatt Girls for LG to practice reading aloud to me for extra reading and vocabulary practice.
Social Studies Resources
On the weeks we choose Social Studies, we begin with our history textbook. While I call this a “textbook”, it’s really more like a giant, beautiful History picture book collection. The images are a lovely combination of photographs and illustrations. And the information is shared in a very child-friendly way. Each unit includes 3 lessons, making it perfect for us to complete 1 unit each week over 3 separate days!
Sprinkled through our school year is our Geography workbook. This technically isn’t a read aloud, but we do love to include it during our Basket Time so we can save our other subjects for baby sister’s nap time.
Science Resources
Science has been one of our absolute favorite subjects for including picture books. There are SO many options for every topic you can imagine! We’ve definitely collected quite a few, but there are always wonderful books to choose from through your local library.
Each week that we choose Science for Basket Time, I grab a handful of picture books that cover the subject we’re currently studying. I also include Science picture books that meet some of LG’s interests. This makes for a super fun read aloud time while we’re snuggling on the couch or enjoying lunch together!
I also include our Science workbook for reviewing the week’s Science skills. You can find it below!
Chapter Book Recommendations
Including a chapter book read aloud with our Basket Time has been such a joy! It’s been so much fun to share some of my childhood favorites with LG and to see her excitement when listening! We just got started with chapter book read alouds during her 1st grade year, but you’ll find some of our favorites so far below!
Winnie the Pook – A. A. Milne
The Railway Rabbits – George Adams
Mercy Watson – Kate DiCamillo
The Chronicles of Narnia – C. S. Lewis
A Bear Called Paddington – Michael Bond
Nancy Clancy – Jane O’Connor
Magic Tree House – Mary Pope Osborne
Let’s Hang Out!
I hope this information about our favorite Basket Time resources has been helpful for you as you build your own basket with your kiddos! If you have any questions, I’d love to chat with you! Pop in any time, or come hang out with us in some of our favorite places!
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