One of the strengths of homeschooling is that you don’t have to adhere to a schedule as strictly as in public school. But does lack of a strict schedule make it hard for you to know how to start your homeschool day?
For my kids at least, I know the schedule freedom of homeschool would make the transition to school time difficult every day if we didn’t have a set routine to get us going.
Let’s face it: Without a school bus, building change, rigorous schedule, or even a class bell to signal the start of school, it might be easy for your kids to feel like they’re still just lounging around at home.
Even if class is on the same couch they’re eating cereal on. (Would you eat at the table, please? Thank you!)
In many of the homeschool forums I participate in, the question of “How should I start my homeschool day?” has been coming up frequently.
We’ve been homeschooling for six years now, and while many things have changed, our “Opening,” as I call it, has pretty much stayed the same.
So I thought I’d share my recipe for our successful start to the day.
Really, even if we don’t get much more schoolwork done for the day, if Opening happens, I feel okay.
Now I’m not going to lie, my older kids moan and groan a lot when I initially call them to Opening.But that’s exactly what my siblings and I did growing up, so I’m not too worried. The kids actually get into it after we start.
I hope you can apply this in your family, too. It makes a big difference in ours.
My Homeschool ‘Opening’ Outline
Every morning we cover patriotism, faith, and learning. My Openings usually vary from 15 minutes to 30 minutes depending on how much time we have available. If we are all enjoying the family read-aloud at the end, I will go even longer.
Patriotism
We Recite the Pledge of Allegiance
Every day of the week, we’ve assigned a different child to hold the flag. That eliminates most arguments about who gets to hold the flag on a given day. My 3-year-old still thinks his turn comes around every day, but we’re working on it and even making progress! It’s fun to see the kids get excited about such a simple act of patriotism.
Faith
We Sing a Song or Two
Singing is a simple way to change moods and lighten the atmosphere. I’ve watched bad attitudes melt away as we sing happy melodies together.
We usually sing a song from the regular or primary children’s hymnbook. Sometimes we add in the Itsy Bitsy Spider; we love singing that with the little ones and watching them do the actions!
We Have Family Prayer
Morning prayers can be difficult when your family fractures to work and school every morning, but with homeschool and Opening, it’s rare we miss a day.
The day just never feels quite right until we’ve had morning prayers. The little ones even are recognizing the importance of prayer.
In fact, just this morning both my 4-year-old and 3-year-old announced to me “We already said our morning prayers” as they paraded out of their shared bedroom.
We Recite an Article of Faith
The Articles of Faith are the underlying principles of our church.
Reciting one daily reinforces faith and augments memorization skills. Double bonus!
Read more about the Articles of Faith.
We Read Scriptures
First, we read the “comic book” version of the scriptures, cycling through the Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants.
These easy-to-understand, art-heavy renditions of scripture stories provide a solid understanding of the gospel and spur tons of great conversations with the kids. Our kids often shock Sunday School teachers with how much they know because of this simple practice.
Second, we read a few verses from the complete scriptures to familiarize the kids with scriptural language and to get them thinking and studying more. My favorite version is the Book of Mormon for Latter-day Saint Families. It has broken the chapters into smaller chunks and has lots of footnotes with word definitions, questions to ponder, and quotes from church leaders that explain and clarify. It also has a lot of great pictures!
Using both the simplified scriptures and the full versions allow my kids to become the teachers to the younger children as they point out stories that have been left out or adding more detail in the full versions they’re reading on their own time. We also have some great family discussions! It’s been a fun journey to watch their understanding deepen.
Check out the awesome scripture sets I use here.
We Read a Magazine Article from The Friend
My kids have often already devoured the entire magazine that our church puts out for children before we can get to it for opening, but if I can play keep-away long enough, I’ll read a story or two aloud to them to transition into our learning.
I Excuse the Younger Children
At this point, I allow my younger boys, aged 3 and 4, to go and play together. They have some good times together during this uninterrupted play time!
Learning
We Do Read-Alouds
I’ve found Opening is the best time to read books that teach morals through example or outright teaching.
We usually read a chapter or section in a book like Bob Schultz’s Created for Work and we just finished the first three books of Ralph Moody’s Little Britches series – some of my favorite books.
At this point I also allow the remaining kids draw or work on a crochet project or something similar that doesn’t require their undivided attention.
Sometimes I’ll tag on history or science here with a read-aloud or actual textbook if there isn’t an activity going on that day, but it varies.
Benefits of Starting Your Homeschool Day with ‘Opening’
I won’t go into great depth on all this format has done for my family, but here’s a few highlights in list form (you like lists, right?)
Opening:
- Teaches my children the gospel of Jesus Christ and reinforces how to pray and study scriptures
- Brings the Spirit into our home
- Helps train my energetic children to learn to sit still when necessary (especially useful at church)
- Helps my childrens’ reading comprehension and vocabulary immensely
- Instills a love of reading in my children
- Gives us a chance to connect with each other
- Instills a sense of purpose to our day
So that’s Opening.
It’s our time to discuss and get spiritually and mentally prepared for the start of the day.
On the rare occasions we skip opening, I feel like something is missing and the day never seems to go quite right.
I’ve even heard the kids say, “We didn’t have Opening today!” in a somewhat panicked voice.
They must not dislike it too much! 😉