Circle Time

A coming together.

Daily.

Huddled close - talking, singing, reading...

Circle Time sets the tone for the day.

I believe I first heard of the concept about circle time from the blog, Preschoolers and Peace, several years ago.  At that stage, most of my life was 'circle time' with only a toddler and baby in the house...  But this last year, it has become a fixture in our home.  It is what gets our mornings going!

It is especially helpful for the two younger boys because it is a time of relational connection and communication.  I just love how this brings us together.  After this is done, the little boys are often thrilled to run off and play, especially when the weather is nice outside.  This gives Xander and I time to focus on his brief spelling/phonics and math lesson for the day before we resume 'everyone' activities.

So what does it look like?

Each morning around 8, will find us piling on the couch or sometimes sitting in a 'circle' on the floor.  We start each day by singing the Invitation Song and inviting Jesus into our day.  Then I usually open it up for whoever would like to pray.  Sometimes they all do, other days it's just me.  It is a precious time of modeling what it means to talk to Jesus and giving them the opportunity to do so.

Other elements we rotate through include:

• Picking a song and singing it every day for a week.  I've done this with children's Bible songs, regular worship songs and even traditional childhood favorites.  We sing, dance, play our rhythm sticks, etc.
• Read through a Bible book.  We recently re-read The Big Picture Story Bible and Trey is getting The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name for his birthday in two weeks, so we will probably read through that as a family too!
• I spread out books that relate to our topic of study (Middle Ages/Kings/Knights currently) and let them pick out one or two to read aloud.
• Free reading - where EACH child gets to pick out a book of their choice! 
• Nursery Rhymes - I'll read from a book and we'll practice having them repeat after me.  They like the silly tongue twister ones!
• Finger Plays - like "Where is Thumbkin", "Five Little Monkeys", etc.  These are always a huge hit with everyone and just perfect for the littlest. (Ideas can be found here and here!)

Up next in my series on "Incorporating Little One's Into the Learning Journey": Multi-Level Teaching