Whether your homeschool carries into the summer or not, we love the idea of putting together a Morning Time basket with favorite books and simple activities so you can easily gather children together for learning. 

Though daily rhythms will inevitably vary in different seasons, starting the day with learning, beauty subjects, and simple activities is an intentional way to encourage children to come together. Though it is different for each family, the bottom line is that Morning Time is a way to start the day by bringing everyone together. These subjects are intended to span different ages and often emphasize character training, connection, truth, goodness, and beauty.

Whether you are continuing your homeschool studies into summer or looking for suggestions for light learning, here are some ideas for curating your own Morning Time basket to enjoy this summer.

In this blog post:

• What is Morning Time?
• Summer Morning Time basket ideas: Curating learning ideas children will love

What is Morning Time?

Morning Time is a simple practice in homeschooling that brings all of the children in a home together to learn. You may know this as Morning Basket or Circle Time. This time focused on exploring subjects that everyone can do together. 

Morning Time often includes subjects like Bible and Scripture memory, character training, poetry, art studies, folk songs, composer studies, handcrafts, history, science, nature study, and read-alouds.

A Morning Time basket is a collection of books, curriculum, or activities you can pull out to start Morning Time, curated so you don’t have to spend extra time prepping or planning. You can just grab your basket, gather your children, and get started.

Summer Morning Time basket ideas: Curating learning ideas children will love

Here are some of our current favorite studies to try this summer. These are fun to rotate though each and “loop” together subjects that are more challenging to do individually.

Summer nature study

The summer season offers a lot of ways to enjoy learning by studying and exploring the natural world. A summer study of seashells or marine mammals may help build anticipation about visiting the beach. You could also take the opportunity to dissect sunflowers together or do some fun activities together to learn about the sun. 

Treehouse Nature Study: Summer offers dozens of activities that engage children with the wonder of nature during summertime.

Summer-themed poetry

Poetry is a quick and simple way to introduce children to new beauty subjects. Here are some favorite poetry collections to flip through during the summer: 

• Sing a Song of Seasons is a collection of lovely nature poems for every season.
• Treehouse Nature Study includes a poem for every week of nature study.
• Patriotic Poetry would be fun to dig into in the weeks surrounding July 4.
• National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry pairs classic poems with stunning photography.
• A Nature Poem for Every Summer Evening is a collection of classic poems for the summer season.

Another fun idea is to study the poems of a particular poet and learn about their life, like Robert Frost or Walt Whitman. 

Summer family read-aloud

Treat your family to an adventure story this summer with a classic read-aloud. Reading aloud is a wonderful way to expose children to literature, new vocabulary, and rich stories, and summer is always a great time to unwind with a new book. Some of our favorite summer read-alouds are:

• Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls
• The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois
• Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright
• Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
• Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

We recommend pairing your summer read-aloud with a guide from Treehouse Book Studies for reading schedules, rich discussion questions, hands-on activities, and more.

Watercolor and drawing activity books

Summer is the perfect time to pause and spend some time learning or growing a new art skill. The watercolor workbooks by Emily Lex are beautiful and give step-by-step instructions to learn how to watercolor animals, flowers, and more.

Art instruction books for drawing paired with graphite pencils can also be a fun activity for children. We like these books for learning to draw animals and other things like unicorns, astronauts, and cupcakes, or you could browse the shelves at thrift stores and see what you can find.

Quick math games 

Simple card games that emphasize math skills are a fun way to explore and reinforce number learning in a fun way and can be played quickly without a lot of setup. Plus, playing games together is a wonderful way to spend quality time together or encourage sibling bonding. 

Here are a few math games we love:

• Math War addition and subtraction or multiplication cards are a quick way to reinforce math principles.
• Sleeping Queens practices adding up numbers to get to 50.
• Skyjo is a simple addition game that can be enjoyed by many ages.
• Math Dice Junior is a fun game that give kids an opportunity to practice mental math.

We also love the Wonder of Nature Number Bundle for little children who are learning numbers for the first time.

Handcrafts

Summer is a great time to try out a new skill or project. Handcrafts like knitting, embroidery, or woodworking are great ways to encourage creativity while making something new and fun. These are also good to have on hand to do during read-alouds.

Here are some fun ideas to try: 

• The Woobles Crochet Kit animals
• Weaving Loom kit
• Kid-friendly embroidery kits with cute designs
• Sewing keyring kit with cute animals
• Creative woodworking kit with a STEM focus

Music and hand rhymes 

Including music and hand rhymes are a great addition to Morning Time because they give children an opportunity to move around and learn new songs. Learning through song is also a great way to learn new ideas. 

Here are some of our favorites:

• Hand rhymes from Treehouse Nature Study, Primary Years (YouTube)
• Children’s songs from Treehouse Nature Study, Primary Years (Spotify)

Family devotionals and memory verses

Summer is a wonderful time to encourage Bible reading and family devotionals in your home. Doing Bible studies together as a family is a great way to build a habit of coming together to learn about God’s Word and model a habit of being in Scripture. Here are some devotionals we have loved over the years:

• Rooted Family Bible Curriculum teaches about Christian devotion, wisdom, and identity.
• Flourish Family Bible Curriculum explores the fruits of the Spirit and what a Christian life looks like.
• WonderFull: Ancient Psalms Ever New is a kid-friendly way to read through the Psalms together.
• Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing is a collection of simple yet profound thoughts about faith for children ages 6-10 by the author of The Jesus Storybook Bible.

We also love the practice of memorizing Scripture together as a family.

Summer journals

Summer is a fun time to encourage children to journal, even if they are beginner readers and writers. Children can fill their journals with creative thoughts, private moments, or by documenting their adventures of summer. Young children can dictate a sentence for you to write down and color a picture to pair with it. Be sure to date each page as they go to timestamp their summer memories.

Any journal would work but these are come in fun, bright colors.

Does your family do Morning Time during the summer? Share your favorite summer learning items in the comments below.