Everything You Need to Know About Homeschooling with Interest Led Morning Baskets
I’m a huge fan of morning baskets. Homeschool morning baskets help our family gently begin our homeschool day in a way that works for everyone. I’m not a morning person, so having these activities and books ready to go in the morning has made it easier to begin our homeschool days without a lot of early morning prep work for me.
We have a lot of fun planning our interest-led homeschool morning baskets with a wide variety of themes. If you’re curious about morning baskets and how to use them in your interest-led homeschool, keep reading to learn more about how to get started.
What Are Homeschool Morning Baskets?
A homeschool morning basket is a carefully curated collection of books and activities your child can do independently or together. Morning baskets are the perfect way to incorporate activities your child is interested in outside of lessons. Plus, a great way to learn about subjects you might not always have time for during lessons. For example, art and poetry work well in morning baskets.
Why Are Morning Baskets So Effective in Interest Led Learning?
Morning baskets are really effective for interest led learning because they present the perfect opportunity for your child to explore their unique interests in a way that encourages curiosity and exploration. Kids can choose which activities or books to explore from the morning basket, putting them in the driver’s seat right from the start of your homeschool day.
Additionally, developing interest-led morning baskets together can spark conversations and learning about tons of new topics! Who knows, you might even find some new topics you want to explore further.
My favorite part about interest-led morning baskets are they allow me to fill Emily’s bucket at the start of each day. If she has chosen a topic she is interested in and picked the items she wants to go in then she will be happy to do them. That means each day begins with her happily learning and exploring all while we are connecting over books and games.
Involving my daughter in the process of choosing what goes into our morning basket has helped her learn a lot too. With each new basket we discuss what she’s interested in learning about and then sit down and plan together. She has learned how to make a plan, place holds at the library, manage a budget by choosing what items she will purchase to go into her morning basket.
Examples of Homeschool Morning Baskets
There are so many different ways to do a homeschool morning basket! You can fill your basket with activities you normally don’t get to on a regular basis. For example, if you’re struggling to squeeze in poetry, add a book of poems to your morning basket. Or maybe you struggle to find time to play games, throw one (or ten) in your morning basket to ensure you are playing more.
We involve our daughter in planning our morning basket themes and choosing items for the baskets. When she was younger I would plan our baskets around her interests. Now that she is older I have let her have full control. She picks a topic, makes the plan, chooses the items, places library holds, makes the Amazon order, and even films our YouTube videos.
Here are some of her past morning basket choices:
Shakespeare Themed Morning Basket
If you’re looking for ways to introduce Shakespeare to your homeschoolers, a themed morning basket might be just the ticket! We had a blast learning more about William Shakespeare in honor of his birthday in April.
Harry Potter Themed Morning Basket
Are your kids Harry Potter fans? Then, you definitely won’t want to miss this Harry Potter themed morning basket (or my Wizards & Wands curriculum). There are so many different subjects you can study under the banner of “Harry Potter.”
American Revolution Themed Morning Basket
This is a perfect basket for making American history fun! If you school year round, consider this homeschool morning basket for Summer. It would be so fun for patriotic holidays like Memorial Day, Flag Day, and Independence Day. We planned our American revolution themed homeschool morning basket around my daughter’s love of Betsy Ross.
The Power of Using Morning Baskets in Your Learning
Our homeschool morning baskets have totally changed our morning routine in a good way. They allow us to begin our homeschool day with activities and read alouds that Emily is truly interested in. It starts the day on a great note, setting us up for success for the rest of the day.
Interest led morning baskets have changed the way we do mornings, creating an exciting way to begin the day for our whole family. They have provided ways for us to learn about so many things we might not have explored before! I definitely think everyone should give it a try.
Have you tried creating interest led homeschool morning baskets with your kids? What kinds of items do you like to include in your morning basket routine? Share your thoughts in the comments. I can’t wait to read about all the fun you’re having with morning baskets too!
Plan your morning basket with our free printable planning pages.
This sounds fun. Thank you for the ideas. I have a couple of questions.
How long do you spend on the morning basket each morning before beginning lessons?
How long do you typically use the morning basket topic before switching?
How do you easily transition between the morning basket and lessons?
Thank you!
We spend about 20-30 minutes each morning doing our morning basket. Sometimes if we get really caught up it might go as long as 45 minutes. We typically change things out each month although as she gets older she is wanting to linger on the topics longer so we will be playing that by ear and possible stretching it to 6 or 8 weeks in the coming year. We save our game for the end of the morning basket and move to the table to play normally that way we are there and ready for lessons next.
I like that the baskets can go longer and still feel interesting. I love the idea of the kids planning the basket. Thank you again!
Thank you! After being inspired by you, we started morning baskets this week and it has completely revived our homeschool, especially for my 5yo who has some large swaths of free time while I would with my 7yo. He was constantly complaining of being “bored.” I knew he needed more, but isn’t quite ready for curriculum. This helped so much!! I bought a few new items, but due to my tight budget also put in some items we already had. Having all the themed items together helped him see some of our regular toys with fresh eyes. Both kids have been super engaged this week. Really enjoy learning from you, thank you so much!!