Here’s what we are currently doing for our February Morning Basket time. This is a typical homeschool morning for us. If you don’t know what Morning Basket time is, go here. This is our routine for homeschooling after we have done our Morning Devotional and breakfast. Morning Devotional is where we as a family study the scriptures together, our “Come Follow Christ” study time where we do personal scripture reading, journal writing, and then as a family we read together the assigned reading that is in The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. Breakfast is breakfast which needs no further explanation.

At this point, I only have two children who I am homeschooling, ages 18 and 14. The 18-year-old just got accepted to college on scholarship! She hasn’t been part of our Morning Basket for over a year now as she is pursuing her self-directed scholar studies. So, it’s just the 14-year-old that I’m homeschooling. So, keep that in mind as you see what I use below. If I had younger children I would definitely use books that appeal more to younger children.

First we read a picture book. You are never too old for a picture book! We can all learn a lot from reading picture books on a regular basis. I love, love, love picture books because they can pack a lot of information and beautiful pictures in a small little package, leaving me feel so satisfied at the end, if it’s the right kind of picture book. Picture book biographies are my absolute favorite type of picture book. I use the lists I created over here on my other web site, Christian Family Books and Traditions, to pick books. I like to pick at least one book that goes with the month and/or season. The books below are examples. Then at the end of Morning Basket I like to do one that is a picture book biography that inspires us to heed the call to create or invent something. More on that at the end. The Ballad of Valentine, shown below, is an example of a book I used this month of February. It’s a funny story about just how far someone will go to express love to a valentine. I also love to find humorous books to brighten up the wintry mornings. Sometimes I can even fit it three picture books in a morning. If I can fit in three I will do one seasonal, one seasonal and/or funny, like this one, and one picture book biography.

(Image Credits below are from amazon.com and goodreads.com)

Then we go through the following books pictured below. My 30-year-old son gave the family the book shown below several years ago for Christmas.

It’s so fun! I’ve decided to read a little bit every day for our MB. I can’t even say we do a page a day because sometimes the pages are so detailed it’s overwhelming and we can’t fit a whole page into Morning Basket (in an hour’s time, with the other stuff). I love that the author uses common words like big, small, hole, box, boat, thing, holder, cleaner, etc. to explain science and technology concepts. I love this book! I have a bachelor’s degree in science, so I studied chemistry and physics in college, but I can’t remember what elements are used for what, like sulphur and polonium. This book has a chart for the periodic table that explains each element in very simple terms. I love it!

Below is a list copied and pasted from amazon showing more of what the book explains:

• food-heating radio boxes (microwaves)
• tall roads (bridges)
• computer buildings (datacenters)
• the shared space house (the International Space Station)
• the other worlds around the sun (the solar system)
• the big flat rocks we live on (tectonic plates)
• the pieces everything is made of (the periodic table)
• planes with turning wings (helicopters)
• boxes that make clothes smell better (washers and dryers)
• the bags of stuff inside you (cells)

Right now, we are reading about one or two elements a day presented on the periodic table in that book. It doesn’t show the names though, just phrases like “thing that is in a salt shaker” for sodium. So, because I haven’t memorized the periodic table, to find out what that element is, we have to go to the periodic table in the book shown below. Then we read the two-page spread for that element in the book below.

Then we read the shorter description of the element in this cartoon-y book below. For some reason, it skips over krypton. Go figure.

Then we do Action Bible. After doing one story a day for over a year, we are almost done with this book! We listen to the narration using the Audible version. When we finish this we will replace it with some other scripture storybook, I haven’t decided what.

We started the above book before Christmas. It’s very thick and will take us a long time to get through. Maybe we will be done by Easter? It’s the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and her husband Joseph, starting well before the Nativity. I got it at the public library and had to return it last December, when we started it, but I was totally OK with that as God led me to find a copy while I was out thrifting for only $3! So, I snagged it and can keep it forever! Yay! It’s very good! I love how it puts me into Jewish culture before Jesus’ birth, helping to understand the life and times of Mary and Joseph, and the politics of the time.

That covers some science, religion, and literature for the day. Then we get some political history in with a few pages in the book below.

It’s so interesting!!! I knew some about some of the stuff but not all. Fascinating!

Sometimes if we have time, we do a Mad Lib from the book below. My son enjoys these because he is in a Shakespeare class right now at our homeschool co-op. We take turns being the writer and the word-giver. So he is learning parts of speech with this.

Then we wrap up with another picture book, like this one below. I just love reading about real people who overcame obstacles to invent things and/or pursue a passion, like Leo Fender, shown below, who invented the Telecaster and Stratocaster guitars. So, this is also some history for the day. You can see lists of my favorite picture book biographies here, and over here at my other website, under the October heading, over here, in the Fall section. Scroll down to the October heading to see it.

That takes an hour, so that’s it! I’ve committed to my son that I will only take an hour. We then stop looking at the books while being on the soft comfy couches in the living room and move to the dining room table. We then play a board game, for up to 30 minutes, and then he moves on to math and his other studies.

You might ask, does he really just sit or lie on the couch, listening to you read the whole time, being still? Sometimes he does if he was up late the night before, and then went to his morning religion class (seminary) but other times, he has more energy and wants to be doing stuff with his hands. I used to let him play a billiard video game on the iPad but I really prefer him to do non-digital stuff so I’ve been having do any or all of the following.

He can either play with something like these things while he listens:

or/also he can draw using these books, in a dedicated sketchbook that is for homeschooling.

Some of his drawings from these books are below. I feel strongly about teaching my children how to draw. I have done with all of them, some more than others. It exercises the brain and helps them grow in confidence as they learn to produce recognizable sketches. Being able to communicate visually is a valuable skill! Plus, it’s fun! These are simple enough drawings that he can draw them while listening to me.

Sketching and seeing my son sketch just makes me happy! I like the books below even better though because they break the sketching down into steps better, whereas the Draw Cute series don’t always have steps. Public libraries have scads of how-to-draw books you can enjoy! Look for them while thrifting too.

All of these lend to a great start for our day!