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Jennifer Mackintosh has been practicing Morning Time in her home since her oldest, now a homeschool graduate, was a 4th grader. At her blog Wildflowers & Marbles, she has written extensively about how she creates her Morning Time plan and about how she develops thoughtful book lists for read alouds. She joins us on this episode of the podcast to tell us a little more about choosing those great books, but she doesn’t stop there. She also divulges some of her best time-tested tricks for wrangling energetic toddlers while reading aloud, as well as some helpful advice for continuing to draw teens into the Morning Time conversation. Jen shares about how Morning Time has been a place for her children to develop and practice important habits like attentiveness, and describes the fruit she has seen as those habits have been shared and passed down from older children to younger children in a natural, organic way.

Perhaps most importantly, Jen urges us moms to be attentive ourselves during Morning Time and to learn alongside our children as we wonder at the natural world, at beautiful poetry, and at living books together.

Pam: This is Your Morning Basket, where we help you bring truth, goodness and beauty to your homeschool day.Hi everyone, and welcome to episode 6 of the Your Morning Basket podcast. I hope you guys are doing great and I thank you so much for joining me today. I am Pam Barnhill, your host, and this is going to be a fun show. I am talking to Jen Mackintosh from the blog Wildflowers and Marbles. Jen is a blogger that I’ve read for a very long time. She’s done Morning Basket for about 10 years now and yes, she really does call it that. And she always puts together really fabulous Morning Basket plans and really fabulous booklists, and so that’s what I’m talking to Jen a little bit about today. Now we also get into some of the in’s and out’s of doing Morning Time with a wide age range of kids and what do you do about teens who might be a little reluctant to do Morning Time and she has some really awesome advice. Now, before we get into the interview I wanted to let you know that I actually a second podcast that I do. Your Morning Basket is my second podcast, and then I started with the Homeschool Snapshots podcast. That one I’ve been doing a little bit longer and if you like interviews with homeschooling moms, like Jen, the one we have on today, you will really enjoy the Homeschool Snapshots podcast. So I just wanted to make you aware of that. In that podcast I interview homeschooling moms every other week and they’re a lot of fun interviews and you can find that one in Stitcher or on iTunes as well. Let’s get on with this homeschooling mom interview and enjoy the conversation with Jen Mackintosh.

Links and Resources from Today’s Show

The Little HousePinThe Little HouseThe Harp and Laurel Wreath: Poetry and Dictation for the Classical CurriculumPinThe Harp and Laurel Wreath: Poetry and Dictation for the Classical CurriculumFavorite Poems Old and New: Selected For Boys and GirlsPinFavorite Poems Old and New: Selected For Boys and GirlsHoney for a Child's HeartPinHoney for a Child’s HeartLittle Britches: Father and I Were RanchersPinLittle Britches: Father and I Were RanchersThe Chronicles of NarniaPinThe Chronicles of NarniaMinn of the MississippiPinMinn of the Mississippi

 

Key Ideas about Building a Considered Booklist

Morning Time is a place

  • to nurture family relationships.
  • to interact with big ideas.
  • to turn our attention toward beauty.

Morning Time can bear fruit as children

  • develop valuable habits and virtues.
  • learn to act as an example to younger siblings.
  • hone narration skills.

Morning Time is an opportunity for mom to model

  • wonder, as she engages with books and ideas alongside her children.
  • attentiveness, as she sets aside distractions and gives her full attention to the task at hand.

Find what you want to hear:

  • 3:00 how Jen got started with her Morning Basket
  • 8:05 Morning Time as a setting for developing important habits
  • 9:22 using Morning Time to develop narration skills
  • 10:43 Jen’s “typical” Morning Time
  • 13:46 Jen’s toddler-wrangling strategies
  • 19:15 getting dad involved
  • 21:46 the qualities of a “living book”
  • 32:22 group narration during Morning Time
  • 35:38 the importance of mom bringing her full attention to Morning Time
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