I have had so many comments and questions about our Morning Basket, that I figured I'd throw a post together on it...
This was the first thing that I have introduced into our Daily Rhythm for Bear which is just a small basket filled with activities that are intended to be worked through alongside breakfast.
To begin with, this basket just has a few things to spark interest and to start to build up the idea of focussing over breakfast time. I used shape and colour as the basics for the first few weeks, both topics that Bear already had a grasp of so that it wasn't introducing too many new things at once, but this is where I will introduce phonics and numbers. The plan is to do it at breakfast time because it is a time which I can guarantee we are sitting together at the table, and it happens every day... it makes sense for us as it then leaves the rest of the day free for other activities.
For these first few weeks, this is what our Morning Basket included:
> Bear's Busy Book - a book with wipe-clean pages that I make and printout pages for, including doodle space linked to the time of the year, encouraging a recognition of the calendar, name recognition, mark-making practice, and other bits as we develop over time.
> Date magnets with a magnetic board to begin looking at what day/date it is and the significance of that, linked to him, so for example, if we have a group that day, or if we are counting down to a specific date like birthdays etc.
> A book - the first was Miss Caterpillar's Colours
> A mindfulness activity - I bought a pack of Mindfulness Activity cards from The Works recently which are beautiful, I intend to use these as prompts for our day/week, depending on what they are. The one I chose for the first week was A Rainbow Hunt which linked to his book.
> A toy/fidget toy for while I am busy and to prevent him bringing other toys to the table which will cause unnecessary clutter when I want to encourage a learning space.
> A storybook - a different story each day, linked, if possible to the theme for the week.
> There will also be something in there for The Cub, to help keep him occupied :)
For now, it will be none compulsory, but gently encouraged, until it kind of becomes the norm for Bear. We don't have to get through everything every day, or not necessarily at breakfast, if we are struggling one day we could maybe give it another go at lunch, for example!
He has done amazing these first few weeks, and loves the activities, getting involved in pretty much everything. There have been odd days that he hasn't been interested, and that's okay, yet I have found that he asks at lunchtime to have a go instead. He often asks to have a second look at lunchtime, even if we have done the activities at breakfast. I couldn't be more proud of him right now, he's been a little superstar.
Any questions, feel free to drop me a comment...
Momma Bear x
❤️
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