Productive Morning Basket Ideas for Muslim Homeschool Families
Productive Morning Basket Ideas for Muslim Homeschool Families
When I say "Productive morning basket," I really mean it! Trust me when I say this morning basket routine will change your life! If you’re anything like me, once you read the words “morning basket” you’ve already started scrolling away.
I did that for so so many years! When I finally caved, I couldn’t believe I waited so long!
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A lot of people find that with home educating, we have so much we want to squeeze into the day that sometimes the very basic things like a read aloud, poems etc can be put on the back burner and eventually missed out altogether.
This is why I created these Productive Morning Basket Ideas for Muslim Homeschool Families. It works wonders for us so hopefully it will for you too!
OK Let’s get into it!
1.We start with a read aloud.
Ideally this will be something that has good language, with new words the kids can learn but sometimes we go for silly, funny books.
We are currently reading a famous five book by Enid Blyton set which we are really enjoying.
2. Next we recite poems.
We take turns to read some poems (sometimes we read 1, sometimes we read 7, it’s up to the kids).
We bought these books by Oxford Reading Tree so long ago and we’ve never read through them collectively. So, this really was a great opportunity to just sit together as a family and just read through them.
The morning basket is nothing like a lesson. It’s very relaxed with hot chocolate, homemade cookies, some kids be colouring, others playing play doh. If time allows, we even go through it during breakfast.
3. Then we memorise a dua.
So, the dua is actually a part of our morning routine but we read it again during the morning basket just to help with memorising it.
We use these dua cards by learning roots. We recite it out loud together a few times and discuss the meaning.
4. Learn 99 names of Allah
We use this really cool memory game by faithful kids. (You can get this awesome FREE printable from Allamah Education rather than buying the cards)
The whole game can be quite long, so I only pick around 6 names (including the one we are trying to memorise) and we play a quick game. Then we read the meaning.
Allamah Education just created these Ah-mazing worksheets and is offering them as a FREE download.
(I will try to incorporate these at some point in the day if possible. But I try to keep our morning basket writing free.
5. Finally we do our loop subject.
So, loop subjects are not allocated days, they’re allocated positions.
So, for example if you are due to do geography on Tuesday, and you don’t manage to do the morning basket that day, it just rolls over to the next day rather than being skipped and waiting for the next Tuesday.
This is a great way to make sure you don’t miss out on these subjects.
THATS IT!
It takes less than an hour but done consistently I feel like the morning basket is a must in any home-school. I honestly can’t recommend it enough.
The beauty of the morning basket is that you can literally add anything you want! I have so many ideas that I plan to include as time goes on. For now, we are loving our routine.
It’s important to note, you don’t need to do the morning basket in the morning only.
Our mornings are already pretty busy so we like to do it during the day, ideally after lunch.
This does mean that on many days we don’t get to do it as we are out a few afternoons a week.
As homeschool parents we have soo much on our plates!
When you really think about it, it's shocking how much we get done given the consequences. (Give yourself a pat on the back because you truly deserve it!)
Morning baskets can take a lot off your plate and actually create a calm atmosphere when the children can enjoy some bonding time together without feeling like they're doing another workbook.
We usually try to read a few funny/silly poems and have a lot of giggles.
Sometimes we take turns to read our book (which is a win especially if we haven't managed to have one on one reading time that day).
Also, because that's a time for (homemade) treats, the kids get excited about baking for it.
We spend library time looking for recipe books (obviously not just recipe books - but I'm using it as an opportunity to steer them away from the weird fiction books currently on the library shelves!)
They spend time at home looking through recipe books deciding on what they would like to bake and then take turns baking (I've tried to get them to bake together but they rarely do, they prefer baking alone - and as someone who also prefers baking alone I don't interfere).
This is an additional bonus to the morning basket but it's not something we do all the time.
There are so many ways to utilise the morning basket so definitely try to incorporate what you think would benefit you and your family.
If you have little kids and you have time for the morning basket in the morning, you could even add things like day/date/weather which are so important. And over time you could get them to write words like the day which would help with spelling the words as well as letter formation and motor skills. If they're still learning to hold a pencil you could give them a paint brush and some paints.
Honestly morning baskets are extremely versatile so you can make it benefit your family in a way that suits you.