Morning Work and The Word of the Day

 

When E and N's adoption was final this past fall we made a huge decision to bring them home for school.  It was not an easy decision.  It was daunting to say the least to consider how easy I had had it before with the three older kids who have all been doing the same level work for the last 7 years. Not only would I have elementary aged learners again...they have special learning needs that would need to be taken into account.  Needless to say our school day looks a little different now than it did just a few months ago.

One of the new concepts that I picked up from E & N's public school teachers this last year is morning work.  In a public school setting this is an established routine that the kids follow as they trickle in to the classroom each morning and into their seats.  I decided to adapt it for our homeschool. I frequently have other things I need to attend to in the mornings.  Having established morning work gives the kids the opportunity to start school on their own and get out of the way several things that can be done independently while I manage other issues.

 

I gathered all the elements of their morning work binders that I wanted to use and I put in subject dividers.  The original ones were actual three ring binder subject dividers I had purchased at an office supply store.  The ones I added recently were actually just card stock that I three hole punched and then added a Post It Tab to. (Amazon Affiliate Links)

Little Boy's (3rd/4th Grade) Morning Work:

-Write The Date Page from Our Aussie Homeschool

-Memory Verse of the week. (I use www.worksheetworks.com to make those.)

-Word of the Day Page using Notebooking Nook's Vocabulary Practice Pages

-Reading Log from The Notebooking Fairy

-Spelling Words and Activities

-Writing Prompt of the Day using Notebooking.com pages (Affiliate)

-States & Capitals Study using Homeschool in the Hills

-Language Arts using All About Homophones and Super Teacher Worksheets

 

I really am loving both the addition of The Word of the Day and the Writing Prompts.  I am using these with both the little boys and the big kids.  They are enjoying it too.

 

The Big Kid's (8th Grade) Morning Binder includes: 

-Memory Verse Page

-Word of the Day using The Notebooking Fairy's Vocabulary Study Page

-Writing Prompt pages again using Notebookingpages.com

-States & Capitals Study using Homeschool in the Hills

-Reading Log from The Notebooking Fairy

-Language Arts using All About Homophones

 

Now all I have to make sure and do each morning is update the white board with the date, word of the day and writing prompt of the day.  Then the kids can get started on their school day independently and Mom can get some desk work accomplished at the same time.  As they each get done with their morning work they then know they can move on to a predetermined reading assignment until I am ready.