Morning Meeting II

[Michele]

Life got crazy and now ...planning for the new year, I still REALLY want to get my girls together in the morning. We have so little time left all together...
We haven't done "Morning Meeting" (or any group morning activity) for many years. Have any of you resumed after a very long absence? How did you "market" the concept of taking time together when teens have busy schedules? I'm really grateful for any assistance. Thanks so much!!!

[Heather W]

Michele, I read your first post the other day and sadly that post I spoke about is almost done but not quite. I was working through a few things and it sat. Life has been crazy this summer.

However, I spent time today finalizing some of our plans and I can share a few things.

First, it has always been our practice to read together in the morning. Morning meeting is just an extension of that in some ways. It really is often the best part of our day.

so, I would present it as this is a time for us to begin together and you explain what you'll be doing during that time. Then sweeten the deal with a special snack or or have it over a meal.

what do you want to accomplish for that time? do you want them to learn something particular? I have some thoughts on this, but it's good to know what you want it to look like first.

[Michele]

Michele, I read your first post the other day and sadly that post I spoke about is almost done but not quite. I was working through a few things and it sat. Life has been crazy this summer.

However, I spent time today finalizing some of our plans and I can share a few things.

First, it has always been our practice to read together in the morning. Morning meeting is just an extension of that in some ways. It really is often the best part of our day.

so, I would present it as this is a time for us to begin together and you explain what you'll be doing during that time. Then sweeten the deal with a special snack or or have it over a meal.

what do you want to accomplish for that time? do you want them to learn something particular? I have some thoughts on this, but it's good to know what you want it to look like first.

Heather, what do I want to accomplish? To be completely honest, I really miss having the girls together for school (they're scattered around the house reading and on their computers). My primary "want" is to share time and space together, make a few memories and start the day off as a family. There is a discrepancy in waking time but I can gently work on that. It would be a bonus to share...something educational. In my fantasy life, we would use the time to memorize or explore something...On a pragmatic level, two of the four girls remaining home train 24 hours a week and leave the house at 2:30 every afternoon to return home around 7:30. They aren't early morning people (their bodies demand sleep). One is taking 5 AP classes this year. So, their time is limited. Thank you for your guidance and observations.

[Shelly L]

I just opened up this thread today, mainly because I was listening to a morning time podcast this morning and was inspired once again to give morning time a try. We have done it off and on for several years, and my plan is to implement it strongly this fall.

My reasons are like Michelle's -- I love the time together! But I have to say -- I have one child, a teen daughter, and this semester she is doing all of her school work from home, no co-op classes or the like, save for an occasional chemistry lab she does with a friend who is doing the same curriculum as we are. (She has several outside activities and lessons, so it's not like we are home all day every day, however.)

So, you might ask -- Aren't you 'together' anyway? Why separate out a morning time on top of all that?

We are together a lot, it's true (as in, we are in the same room much of the day. My daughter has never been much of a 'study in her room' sort of person). We do school at the dining room, or she reads and watches any DVDs from the living room couch. I'm 'around' cleaning or school planning or whatever, helping her if needed or if I'm needed for a particular school lesson or task.

But I do find that we need to touch base first thing in the morning. My daughter has never really balked at this.... especially for just detailing the day, handing off of any new assignments, etc. I do plan to continue, however, to incorporate other learning into that time... I just need to solidify my plans for this semester.

She is hoping to do some apologetics this year: so we will work through that together until she gets the hang of the curriculum question and answer 'system' (based on speech and debate outlines).

I hope to plan some big, juicy (or not so big and juicy) read-alouds, as we still love them, and have fallen off the bandwagon lately....

She and I both enjoy catching some 'current events' newscasts online.....

We might review some latin or greek roots for fun....

I have a couple of devotionals that we will take turns reading from....and bible reading also.

I consider subjects that have her interest right now: modesty issues, blogging, gardening, canning, homemaking skills, exercise, music -- I am trying to think of ways to incorporate subjects of interest into that morning time space, and enjoy learning them with her.

I love art, and though we have an art curriculum we are going through this fall, I still would like to just sit down and work through some basic art techniques with her, maybe doing it while we listen to classical music....

which.. (an idea I got on the podcast today).... I would like to use that time to teach my daughter more variety of music. She is very talented musically, and I need to broaden her listening horizon a bit with some variety, but especially classic composers, music from different modern eras, the show tunes that she loves, hymns, etc.

I hope to start working through more Shakespeare with her... in snippets of morning time... reading it aloud, reading abridged versions to get the 'gist' of the story, etc. We experienced a Shakespeare festival this fall and I can tell she would enjoy more of that.

My situation is different from most peoples, and while I don't 'insist' that my daughter sit down with me for a morning meeting, I do remind myself that I am the mom, and this is what I have on tap for the day before she is off and working on her own on school. She is compliant with that, and seems to enjoy it depending on what we are reading or delving into, and I think that is key -- adjusting my morning time expectations to meet a growing young woman's needs. I have to remind myself of that.

I mainly wrote this for my own benefit, and I needed to get my thoughts down! I'm sure Heather has gone way beyond this with more good ideas! I think with some discussion with your teens, maybe you can jointly come up with some fun things to share together before the day gets away from you? I know that time is precious, I'm feeling it myself!

[Heather W]

I missed your response Michele and I will come back to this later today. I have a co-op class to make sure I have ready and the last of a college app to make sure gets DONE.

Then the rest of my life can resume.

Shelly, I have some thoughts on this. I had a huge win yesterday because of morning time content. So, it's worth the time you put in and remember it does not need to be long!

[Kendra AU]

3 out of our 4 terms always start with Family Time, or Book Basket, or whatever you'd like to dub it. {The fourth term is when we lose an hour so for a portion of it we lay aside our morning basket & only do the first thing listed below in order to accommodate to the loss of time.}

In our home this usually means kids are curled up with smoothies {yep even in the winter} & quilts {even in the summer} & while they wake up we put on an audio Bible. We've done the Bible through in a school year, a quick version of the Bible in a school year, Various OT books & various NT books. Right now we are relistening to John, & then will move back to I Kings for a few favourite "stories". Sometimes I follow a pre-made plan & sometimes I just pick one, other times I left the kids say what book they'd like to listen to. You can listen to the Bible in Audio fashion for free at BibleGateway.com. They also have an app, which is what we generally use. Audible has a few beautiful Audio Bibles too, the downer is that they are not properly marked so if you download it you can't skip around to specific chapters/verses. The upside is they have a beautiful version of the NKJV in which there are sound affects & voices for each writer/speaker. We loved HEARING Paul write his letters while his quill scratched, his chains clinked, & so on. Really brought it to life.

Next we move on to our Vocabulary Cards which are Marie's Words. I've slipped 9 into a baseball card sleeve {see here} & we go over the words each morning. I have one who is more readily awake than another so sometimes they both participate sometimes they don't. When we have the words down we hang the whole sleeve on the wall & fill another. We've been on our current words for a while merely because of a new term in our home.

From there we move into a poetry book. We've worked through a half dozen or more this way & are currently on the hunt for a new poetry book, all though I'm tempted to toss our favourite back in: Favourite Poems Old & New. It is, hands down, our favourite poetry book. We've read through a fair few which were all delightful, some beautifully illustrated some not, but this one has such a lovely mix of poems that it was a delight each day. You could easily read this over & over

Family Read Aloud comes last. Generally this is an audio book that we are listening together to. We read through a dozen classics last year {& possibly the year before as well} this way. Our list of "together" books has gotten long enough that we had a hard time selecting a book last time through & ended up with one some of us had previously read & one of us hadn't, it all ended in disaster though when my "in order book reader" {I'm so with him} found out that even though it was published first we totally should have read the prequel prior. Oh the horror!

That's about it. It can take us anywhere from 30-90 minutes depending on how carried away we get with the last item on our list. Sometimes I have to set a timer because in a really good book we can find it hard to put down, & some of our books haven't had proper chapter markers which as resulted in an, "Oh dear look at the time!" type moments.

My kids do grammar & writing together, but other than that they are solo. Thanks to IEW it's pretty easy to slip various ages together for those two subjects. My eldest and I meet earlier in the day & have our own quiet read together & Bible study time. My youngest & I meet after the IEW time to do things. It works well most days, except on Mondays when you lose an hour.. and didn't sleep well. Then it's just an impromptu Fire Pit night in which you all argue over books & shadow puppets.