Morning time/circle time

Shari,

My concern with circle time would be to make sure you aren’t doing several read alouds in a row.  Make sure they are using different parts of their brain.  I’ve noticed when we do more than one or two readings, my DC seem to lose interest in the readings.  However, if we do something different in the middle of the readings (memory work, listening to music/singing, or even just some physical exercises, they will listen better.

As long as you keep a variety of activities in the circle time (and keep lessons short), I think it very much fits a CM education.  Personally, we prefer to spread these types of subjects throughout our morning, but I know there are many CM moms who have a morning basket time with great success.

Sonya’s recent article is helpful for organizing your day, and could be applied to organizing your circle time as well:  https://simplycharlottemason.com/blog/sequence-your-day-simple-tips-for-a-smooth-year-part-3/

I think that we should remember that we use the Philosophy and Methods in our modern day situations. Charlotte Mason did combine many of these “feast” topics because it makes sense to do so – no point in revisiting the same composer, poet, artist, hymn, etc. 4-15 times a day with separate children. Morning Time, Circle Time, Morning Basket, Family Time – all are names for subjects done together as a family – and all are designed to streamline your studies and ensure that you don’t miss the enriching subjects that are so easy to skip in a CM Classical education. These would be things like Hymn Study, Memory Box, Poetry, Nature Study, Composer Study, Picture Study, possibly History, Geography, Handicrafts, Shakespeare, Plutarch, Literature, Character, PE (exercise) and Recitation (I just realized this week that memory work and recitation are not exactly the same thing and each should have its place on my schedule – Vol. 1, pages 222-226).

It doesn’t have to be an hour or two of nothing but read alouds, and like the posters above mentioned, it should be mixed up to avoid brain-fatigue. I have never called it Morning Time and sometimes when I listen/read I think “Man, I am not reading book after book like Cindy says she did – nor do I read Shakespeare or Plutarch or do grammar daily”, but we are managing to progress along the path I need to take for OUR family. I really think that these articles/podcasts are really a plea to us to be sure to spread the feast as the veteran moms are seeing the real benefit of that in their adult children’s lives. Many younger/newer to the methods moms leave these out for various reasons.

In CM Vol. 1 pg.  227, Charlotte reminds us that we need to be cautious about too much reading aloud – she wants the children to be reading their own books as soon as possible so that they learn “the studious habit of using books as a means of interest and delight.”  So depending on the ages of your children your Morning Time, your time spent reading school books aloud will possibly  look different each year/season.

Anyway, to show you how our Morning Time/Family time is divided out here is our daily schedule each week (I will be tweaking a bit for next term):

Monday – Hymn Study/Prayer, Memory Box, Poem, Read Aloud Literature, PE/exercise DVD, Character (Laying Down the Rails for Children), Nature Study, Handicrafts, and Life Skills. (My DH is off on most Mondays so we do the things that are more fun/energetic/time consuming.)

Tuesday – Hymn/Prayer, Memory Box, Poem, Read Aloud Literature, PE/exercise DVD, Fairy Tales, Picture Study, History.

Wednesday – Hymn/Prayer, Memory Box, Poem, Read Aloud Literature, PE/exercise DVD, Character (Everyday Manners), Music (composer study), Geography/Map Drill.

Thursday – Hymn/Prayer, Memory Box, Poem, Read Aloud Literature, PE/exercise DVD, Tall Tales & Legends, Poetry Study (aka Poetry Tea Time), history, and foreign language (ASL).

Friday – Hymn/Prayer, Memory Box, Poem, Read Aloud Literature, PE/exercise DVD, Shakespeare/Drama, Creative Art, Swedish Drill.

My older kids and I read together other subjects/discuss with the younger kids listening in while doing their quiet activities. Those include Logic on Mondays, Joy of Science read aloud on Tuesday, Plutarch on Wednesday, Ourselves on Thursdays, and Family Relations and Economics on Fridays.

Each subject is timed and we have done this long enough that we have a great flow to the day, so except for Mondays, we spend about 1.5 -2 hours on these subjects. Monday, due to the Nature Walks/Hikes is a bit longer.

I should also mention that each person has their own skill subjects to do (math, reading, writing, etc.) as well their own history, science, typing, literature, etc. Some of these subjects overlap the family subjects a bit, and some are repetitious (character) simply because of the needs of my family at this time.

I have found the layout of the SCM ‘curriculum’/plan wonderful.  It is so freeing to do Family Time work together and feel like we are getting a good chunk done all together.  It is their favorite time of the day too.  We are currently working through Early Modern and we are really enjoying reading together in this time as well as doing art, picture study, bible, hymns, scripture memory, poetry, and habit formation together in this way.