Morning Basket

Once in a while you grab an idea from Pinterest and you actually do it! This idea is one of them. Inspired to Action shared a great little Hello Morning Basket (I'm having an awful time with the link, please check back and I'll try to properly give credit. In the meantime, you might try www.inspiredtoaction.com for the post) in early August and I had the pleasure of reading her post earlier this week. I made our basket the same day.

What is the basket? It's a morning Bible study basket which the original poster offers at breakfast with some inviting hot chocolate. I thought this would be a terrific idea for our family to use at breakfast- to bring everyone together and to do some prayer before we start school.

What's in the basket? Devotional books, Bible, and prayer sticks

What's in our basket? The 6 devotional books listed below, a Bible, and our own prayers sticks.

I had this put together in a few minutes- just the time it took to grab the books from the shelves and find the craft sticks!

Probably my favorite devotional book for kids- you can easy peasy add a craft to this one!

I've had this on my wishlist for years- just a great collection of stories and poems that teach children manners. Each story is followed by a note from the editor and a Bible verse.

We've had this one for a long time- I'll admit. It's not one of my favorites. The kids agreed.

Little Visits with God is a great one for the family.

This is an oldie but goodie...an alphabet of character training with plenty of pictures to keep little eyes busy.

How does it work? We bring the basket to the table- it sits next to our pencil tree on the floor and I grab it and while the kids are eating breakfast. I had been looking for the perfect opportunity to share from Everyday Graces which I've wanted for years and was recently gifted to me. The stories are just right for the morning and give us some talking points. I'm sure we'll choose other books as well, but the kids are all enjoying the stories from this simple book on manners. Interestingly, the book was edited by Karen Santorum (wife of the former presidential candidate, Rick Santorum) and has a forward by Joe Paterno- sort of interesting to read his words on the topic of manners and integrity in light of what has happened in the last year.

How do we use the prayer sticks? I have to say one of the things that attracted me the most to the basket was the prayer stick! The first morning the kids made the prayer sticks while I read the story. We added things like family members, missionaries, local ministries, friends, places around the world, and our leaders. I also suggested we add to the jar as time goes on or a situation comes up. The kids decided the best way to pray is to each choose a stick and then pray around the table. We've done the morning basket every week day since. Everyone from our 9th grader to our 2nd grader loves it. They don't like to start without and remind me if I look like I'm forgetting!

Now before you decide our homeschool is perfect, keep in mind that my kids scramble in and none of our mornings with the basket have looked the same and the sibling interactions are not always super positive for every moment of that time, but like the author at Inspired to Action reminds us: Perfection is not the goal, faithfulness is.

Make this (Pinterest) idea one you try at your house too. It only takes a few minutes to put together a small basket to get your day off to a great start and what a great way to teach our children to be faithful and steadfast.

And a little hot cocoa now and then doesn't hurt either!