A Secular Circle Time: A Guide to Morning Baskets and Morning Routines

Circle time is a cherished tradition for many home educating families. It’s a special time carved out at the beginning of the day to come together as a family, engage in meaningful activities, and set the tone for a day filled with learning, connection, and discovery. Most resources you will find will guide you in creating a religious circle time however we know that some home educating families choose a secular home education approach. In this guide, we’ll explore what a secular circle time can entail including a morning basket, how to incorporate circle time into your morning routine, and what could be considered a comprehensive circle time in that it covers all the beauty subjects.

Do I Need to Add in Circle Time?

I must note that some families do not take part in any form of specific circle time and some have it at different times of the day such as bedtime or mid afternoon and that is perfectly fine too. Do not feel that you have to implement a circle time or morning basket or even a morning routine into your home education schedule if it doesn’t work for you and your family.

How Do You Start The Day?

One of the many questions I received as a Home Educator was how do you start the home education day? Well whatever you call it, be it morning routine or rhythm, circle time or morning basket or something else, one of the first things most home educating parents want to get sorted is how the day is started. As the knowledgeable Mary Poppins says, “Well begun is half done!” and I find that when we get a good start on the day we all work better for the rest of the day. But before we get into the details of what can be included lets have a look at the hierarchy of routines as pictures below and define what I mean by basic daily framework, morning routine, circle time, morning basket and loop of subjects and activities.

What is a Basic Daily Framework?

A Basic Daily Framework is the simplest form of schedule to outline a typical home education day. It doesn’t take into account days like field trips as it is basically an initial outline to hang all the other parts of your day from; such as morning routine, afternoon routine, bedtime routine.  The basic outline allows you to think of your day in large time chunks and after that you can add in the details.

What is a Morning Routine?

A morning routine is a set of activities, rituals, and habits that individuals engage in upon waking to kickstart their day on a positive note. It serves as a structured guide for the early hours of the day, setting the tone for productivity, well-being, and success. When I was planning our Home Education days I considered the Morning Routine to last from 7am to 10am roughly. When a morning routine is created for a home educated child then it can incorporate simple activities such as getting up, dressed and washed as well as circle time and morning basket as shown in the checklists below. The key is to create a routine that works for your family and that provides structure and predictability to the day, while also allowing for flexibility and creativity.

What is Circle Time?

Circle time is a designated period within the morning routine when the family gathers together. Normally it lasts anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour. The name circle time comes from a school background where all the children sit in a circle around the teacher. The term has however been adopted into home education terminology too and can simply mean coming together. During circle time families participate in shared activities, such as reading aloud, looking at the weather and the calendar, singing songs, reciting poetry, engaging in discussions, or working on hands-on projects.

What is a Morning Basket?

A morning basket then according to my definitions is a portion of circle time. Morning Basket is a home education concept where a collection of books, activities, and resources are kept in a designated basket or container for use in the morning. The contents of the basket may vary from family to family and may include items such as read-aloud books, art supplies, math manipulatives, music instruments, and educational games. The purpose of a morning basket is to create an engaging and stimulating learning environment. The basket can be customised to suit the needs and interests of each individual child and can be used to cover a variety of subjects and topics.

The morning basket concept is not limited to children and can be adapted by anyone looking to add structure and learning opportunities to their morning routine, for instance there has been a lot written on Mother’s Morning Baskets and how they help to cultivate motherhood culture through literature.

What is a Loop of Subjects and Activities?

Looping subjects in a home education routine refers to a flexible scheduling method where subjects are rotated or “looped” through a predetermined sequence rather than adhering to a fixed schedule. Instead of assigning specific subjects to specific days of the week, looping allows home educating families to cycle through a list of subjects in a continuous loop, moving on to the next subject once the current one is completed. This approach offers flexibility and variety, allowing families to prioritise certain subjects or activities based on interest, readiness, or opportunity. Looping subjects can help prevent monotony, accommodate varying learning paces, and provide opportunities for spontaneous exploration and enrichment in the home education environment.

Our Basic Secular Circle Time

Now that I have defined the terms I will be using lets get into the nitty gritty of what we include in our secular circle time. I don’t know about your family but we are not ready to sit down at the table first thing so all of our circle time can be completed in any room of the house or even outside if we want. Some mornings we may even go for a walk before starting into this.

The basic rhythm we follow is:

• Morning Basket
• Movement & Clapping Songs
• Calendar & Weather
• Nature Study
• Singing
• Memory Work

With children, and especially when you have children in a range of ages, keeping their attention can be a challenge, injecting some fun and movement and giving each child a challenge has been my aim during planning our circle time. With that in mind, I implement a looping schedule so there is some variety depending on the day, while there is also the predictability of the rhythm. I will outline the looping schedule in the sections below.  Looping allows the older two to anticipate what is coming up and have the pleasure of being able to carry out most tasks with ease, while in turn it allows us to repeat songs and tasks for my younger children so they can begin to master them. I have found that providing tasks that I know my older two can complete first gives them confidence to attempt the more difficult independent work later. For me circle time is about connection and fun to start the day on the right foot.

Morning Basket

A morning basket as stated above is a collection of read aloud books, stories and poetry. It can also include activities, and resources that can be used for individual or small-group learning. It is often tailored to the needs and interests of each child and can cover a wide range of subjects. Below is a picture of the books I selected for one of our morning baskets. We would have read from one or two of the books a day and then looped through them as we finished a section or chapter.

While I was reading I was happy for the children to be busy with their hands doing activities such as colouring or building or for the youngest to complete jig saws or sticker pictures.

Movement and Clapping Songs

In this section I selected movement and clapping songs to learn for the month that were seasonal if possible. I would use youtube to help with demonstrating the songs at first with the plan to move away from having to rely on the videos by the end of the month.

This was the section that my older two would have grown bored with as it was aimed more at the younger two and so I started to incorporate clapping songs for the girls for them to learn.

Calendar and Weather

To start discussing the calendar and weather I created an interative display. I simply used a portable folding board and some laminated manipulatives that I downloaded and printed from Twinkl. To make your own board you will need a large piece of cardboard or mdf, the printables downloaded and laminated and some velcro dots.

I would have let the younger two come up and stick the days, dates, months and weather symbols on to the board and we sang songs that helped us memorise the days of the week and months of the year. During this stage of circle time my older two were keeping weather journals and recording data such as rain fall, temperature and day length along any biological changes they had noticed when we were out on our daily walk.

Nature Study

We had a loop of activities for nature study and it was mostly for my older children as we kept a phenology wheel and a book of firsts. Nature study for the younger two was more of a discussion of the signs of the changing seasons and looking at nature finds together. The younger children would have been encouraged to draw or paint during this time.

Singing – Folk and Traditional

Every month I choose two songs for the children to learn, one being an irish folk song and one being a traditional song. If possible the girls would have learnt the songs on the tin whistle as well as learning to sing them. I used YouTube again for the initial learning stage.

Memory Work

Our memory work was looped and apart from the times tables and Spanish it changed every couple of days covering poems, quotes, map work, personal information such as address, english and maths facts, musical notes, history timelines and science facts. I didn’t have any hard or fast rules about when to move on to something else it was more when I felt they had learnt what we had been covering. We would do an overview at the end of each month.

I hope this discussion each of the sections of our circle time and examples of what activities I included has given you some ideas on how to create your own circle time. Now lets look at how you could incorporate circle time into your morning routine.

Incorporating Circle Time into Your Morning Routine

Incorporating circle time into your morning routine is a simple yet powerful way to start the day off on the right foot. Here are some steps to help you seamlessly integrate circle time into your mornings:

1. Set a Consistent Time: Choose a consistent time each morning for circle time to establish a predictable routine.
2. Gather Essential Materials: Collect books, poems, songs, art supplies, and any other materials you’ll need for your circle time activities and place them in a designated area.
3. Create a Welcoming Space: Set up a cosy and inviting space where your family can gather comfortably for circle time. Consider using blankets, cushions, or rugs to define the circle area.
4. Choose Meaningful Activities: Select activities that reflect your family’s interests, values, and educational goals. Mix and match elements such as read-alouds, memory work, singing, nature study, and hands-on projects to create a rich and varied morning routine.
5. Engage in Discussion and Reflection: Encourage open-ended discussions, reflection, and interaction during circle time. Use this time to share thoughts, ideas, and experiences as a family.
6. Keep it Flexible and Enjoyable: While having a plan is important, remain flexible and adaptable to the needs and moods of your family members. The goal is to create an enjoyable and enriching experience for everyone involved.

What Constitutes a Comprehensive Circle Time?

This section is not intended to be prescriptive but more of a checklist so you can see what you might like to include. Circle time can encompass a broad range of subjects and activities, these are often referred to as the “beauty subjects,” which nourish the mind, soul, and spirit. These may include:

• Literature and Poetry: Reading aloud from quality literature and poetry selections to cultivate a love for language and storytelling.
• Art and Music Appreciation: Exploring works of art, listening to classical music, and engaging in artistic expression through drawing, painting, or crafting.
• Nature Study: Observing and appreciating the natural world through outdoor exploration, nature walks, and journaling about discoveries.
• Memory Work: Memorising poems, quotes, historical dates, and famous speeches to exercise the mind and cultivate a rich cultural heritage.
• Character and Virtue Development: Discussing character traits, moral values, and real-life examples to promote empathy, integrity, and resilience.
• Foreign Language Study: Introducing basic vocabulary, phrases, and cultural aspects of a foreign language through songs, games, and simple conversations.

Conclusion

Hopefully from this guide you can see that by incorporating meaningful activities, fostering discussion and reflection, and embracing a holistic approach to education, you can create a comprehensive circle time that nourishes the hearts, hands and minds of your children and sets the stage for a day filled with beauty, wonder, and learning. Let me know in the comments if you have a circle time in your house.