My Mom’s Morning Basket

I’m so excited to share my Mom’s Morning Basket with you!!

Several years ago, as apart of our homeschool, I decided to try something new. I got the idea from Ashlee at ‘Grace and Grit’ on YouTube. Ashlee is a homeschool Mom and she uses ‘The Morning Basket‘ technique, by Brave Writer aka Julie Bogart, with her homeschool curriculum. I really liked this idea and couldn’t wait to try it out during our 2017-18 school year. Honestly, in our family, it’s been a huge hit and to this day, we still use a morning basket.

Additionally, back in 2018, I even put a Christmas spin on our typical morning basket. To learn more about it, click the link to read, “Blogmas Series: Our Christmas Book Basket” now.

This year, I wanted to try something completely new for myself. You see, I always have my Bible, journals, books I’m reading, devotionals, and more floating around the house. There hasn’t been a central location for these items, which means I can’t always find them when I need them. It’s frustrating and takes away from my time with the Lord when I have to search all over the house for my Bible or a pen.

As a result, I thought it would be nice to buy a basket for myself where I would keep these important items in one central location. I did a quick Google search of “Mom’s Morning Basket” to see if this was even a thing and I was inspired by lots of other articles, which helped me narrow down what books to put into my Mom’s Morning basket. I’ll share more about those details below.

Immediately, I drove to Hobby Lobby, where I found the perfect basket on sale!! Seriously, it was less than $5.00. Thank you Jesus!! I was excited to bring and discover it was the perfect fit for all the books I have right now. Thank you Lord for providing just what I needed during this season.

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What’s In My Mom’s Morning Basket?? 

1.) Cultivate What Matters: PowerSheets 2020 

2.) Val Marie Paper: 2020 Yearly Prayer Journal 

3.) Non—fiction book (Currently “Sacred Marriage” by, Gary Thomas) 

4.) My personal journal

5.) My ESV Bible 

6.) Devotional (Currently, “My Utmost for His Highest” by, Oswald Chambers) 

7.) Write the Word journal (Currently, “The Garden”) 

8.) My pouch for pens, pencils, and Cultivate Faith Sticker Book

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In case you’re wondering, I’ve used PowerSheets for years!! They help me break down my big goals into small baby steps, so I can work on a little each month. I keep this book in my morning basket, so I can easily access my monthly tending list and record my progress on action items. Click the link to read all about, “My 2020 Cultivate What Matters: PowerSheets”.

Currently, these are the books I reach for most often and it’s nice to have them all in the same spot. Once, I finish reading my non-fiction book, I will replace it with something else. The same goes for my Write the Word journal. I’m not a huge fan of devotionals, but it’s nice to have one in my basket on busy days when I don’t have a lot of time to sit down and study the word. It’s always an encouragement of my weary soul.

One more things, during my research about Mom’s morning baskets, many of the ladies said they have a book of poetry in their basket for themselves. I don’t have one yet, but I thought it was a cool idea.

Now it’s your turn, what’s in your Mom’s Morning basket?

2020-21 Homeschool Curriculum Choices

On Monday, July 20, we kicked off our 2020-21 school year. We typically start school sometime in July, because it provides us with some much needed structure and routine. Starting early, also always us the flexibility to take off from school when necessary without worrying about not finishing our required 35 weeks of school. On top of everything else, we’re still supposed to be social distancing, which let us to finish our previous school year more quickly than I anticipated, because extended family couldn’t come into town.

Every family is different, but this is what is working best for us right now.

Before I tell you our curriculum choices, I wanted to announce our updated homeschool name. It’s something I have been praying about since last year. Previously we were “The Newsham Academy”, but I wanted something more original that I could use for the theme of our homeschool room. Drumroll please!!

I’m so excited about our new school name “The Storybrooke Schoolhouse”, because everyone in our family loves books and reading stories together. Even my girls like our new homeschool name, so it is a win, win!! Don’t forget to follow our homeschooling adventures at #thestorybrookeschoolhouse

Without further ado, here are our curriculum choices for our brand new school year.

2020-21 Homeschool Curriculum Choices 

EVERYONE TOGETHER
When it comes to teaching my large family, I try to have as many group subjects as possible. Currently, our family does Bible, Memory Verses, History, Read-Alouds, Write the Word, and Science together. We’re excited to use Sonlight’s new Core K curriculum, which is a study of American History. Additionally, we’ve switched science curriculums from Exploring Creation to The Good and the Beautiful. The girls can’t wait to dive into our first unit study of Meteorology.

Bible, Memory Verses, History, and Read-Alouds: Sonlight Core K
Write the Word for Kids: Cultivate What Matters Write the Word for Kids: Plant Seeds of the Word
Science: The Good and the Beautiful Meteorology; Kingdoms and Classifications; and Botany
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3RD GRADE: Olivia
It’s hard to believe my girl is already in 3rd grade. Olivia is an avid reader and you can always find her nose stuck in a book. She just finished reading The Penderwicks series and can’t wait to move onto Ranger’s Apprentice and The Chronicles of Narnia. She has been excited to start her new curriculum and currently her favorite subject of typing, because she gets to work on the computer. 

Language Arts: The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts Level 3
Handwriting: The Good and the Beautiful Handwriting Level 3
Vocabulary: Wordly Wise Level 3000 Book 3
Creative Writing: The Good and the Beautiful Creative Writing Notebook #1
Math: Math-U-See Delta and The Good and the Beautiful Musical Multiplication
Typing: The Good and the Beautiful Typing 1
Readers: Sonlight Grade 4 Readers
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2ND GRADE:
Sophie My precious, Sophie, has such a sweet and gentle spirit. She likes to get her schoolwork work done as quickly as possible, so she can have time to do other things. She enjoys Legos, coloring, painting, reading books, and playing board games like Catan Jr. Whenever I am in the kitchen, she likes to help cook and bake. She’s also very proud of herself, because she taught herself to ride her bike one handed.

Language Arts: The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts Level 2 
Handwriting: The Good and the Beautiful Handwriting Level 2
Vocabulary: Wordly Wise Level 3000 Book 2
Creative Writing: The Good and the Beautiful Creative Writing Notebook #1
Math: Math-U-See Gamma and The Good and the Beautiful Musical Multiplication
Typing: The Good and the Beautiful Typing 1
Readers: Sonlight Grade 2 Readers
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KINDERGARTEN: Matilda
Last year, we started Matilda in Pre-Kindergarten and she passed with flying colors. She has learned so much already from being around Olivia and Sophie. She finished reading her very first book, which is such a great achievement for a young learner. She’s excited to start Kindergarten! Additionally, she wants to do everything just like the big girls like complete her own typing lessons and practice The Good and the Beautiful Multiplication Songs just like her sisters.

Language Arts: Sing Spell Read and Write “Off We Go” and “Raceway Book”
Handwriting: The Good and the Beautiful Handwriting K
Phonics: Explode the Code 1, 2, 3
Math: Math u See Alpha
Enrichment: Developing the Early Learner 1, 2, 3, 4
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TWO YEAR OLD TWINS:
Evelyn and Zoey Homeschooling with toddler twins is hard. I try my best to keep them occupied with a variety of fun activities like puzzles, books, coloring, a cardboard castle, shapes, and so much more! If we don’t complete all of our schoolwork, I wait until the twins nap time to play catch up and get everything else done. Honestly, I could probably do an entire blog post just about this, so let me know if you’re interested.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
For more information, here are the links to the homeschool curriculum we are using this school year.

- Sonlight
- The Good and the Beautiful
- Math-U-See
- Rainbow Resource
- Cultivate What Matters


Please let me know if you have any other questions about homeschooling.