Find materials to add to your November Morning Basket so you can begin your homeschool day together with goodness and beauty.
The holiday season seems to start earlier and earlier each year. Take time to slow down and enjoy your studies through a November morning basket.
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A morning basket, or morning time, is a perfect chance to gather all of your children together to start the day sharing beautiful read alouds, art, poetry, and other goodness. Whether you choose a theme to work your materials around, or just use this time to work through group work, it’s a great way to begin the homeschool day.
Resources to Add in a November Morning Basket
Below I’m sharing what we’ll be adding to our November morning basket. Your basket will probably look different than mine because your family has its own unique needs. However, I know that I like seeing what others do in their homeschools because sometimes I find materials that I haven’t seen before. So hopefully you’ll find the list of what we use helpful for your homeschool.
We don’t follow a central theme in our morning basket. Rather, we use our morning time to cover subjects everyone can do together, such as art, nature study, and read alouds.
Prayer Time
Prayer is a great way to begin your morning basket time each day. We pray a decade of the Rosary every morning, with the boys all taking turns leading the prayers.
Skill-Boosting Games
After prayers, we gather at the table to play a quick brain-boosting game. This is something new to our morning basket. I got the idea after watching a masterclass on brain training. At the beginning of the year, we alternated between several games, but lately we’ve been playing Disney’s Eye Found It. It’s the easiest game for my 4-year-old to play too.
Vocabulary
Each morning we go over the definition to one vocabulary word from the Vocabulary Cartoons book. We recently moved to book 2. I cover the definition and show the boys the cartoon while reading the caption. They try to guess the definition and then I write it on the whiteboard so they can see it all day.
Life of Fred
On Mondays, we read aloud a chapter of the Life of Fred book we’re on. We just started the Farming book in the series in October, so we’ll be continuing that one this month too. It’s a cute living math book that teaches more than math. My kids, from 13-4, all enjoy it. The story is about a 5-year-old college professor named Fred, and each chapter continues with a day in his life. We use this as a supplement to our regular math curriculum.
Art History and Lessons
For the past year, we’ve been enjoying art history lessons from Art History Kids. Everything I need to know about the current month’s artist or topic is emailed to me weekly. And I never have to get special materials for projects unless I want to. It’s a great way to add art to your homeschool. In November, the focus is on learning about the Renaissance and Mannerism with the creative works of Giuseppe Arcimboldo.
We also really enjoy being members of You Are an Artist Clubhouse. There are hundreds of chalk pastel and acrylic lessons to choose from on a huge variety of topics. Also, each month we can click on the calendar for a direct link to lessons that match the month, like Charlie Brown Thanksgiving lessons in November. The early colonists lesson will be a perfect addition to our current Early America History unit.
Nature Study
On our land in November, we see lots of squirrels hiding acorns as they prepare for winter. We also begin to see a family of turkeys from time to time. So we decided to study them a little more this month. Plus, the leaves are changing colors late this year, so we’re just now able to enjoy those.
We keep our nature study very simple. We usually take a nature walk or some other outside activity, like visiting a pumpkin patch in October, one day a week. Then we’ll spend another day or two reading books about our topic. Generally we also have a related activity as well. Many times art is included in our activity, especially chalk art lessons, because it’s something all of my kids can do together.
Our November Nature Study Themes
- Squirrels and Acorns
- Turkeys
Find more fall nature study ideas for additional topics, books, and activities.
November Nature Study Books and Activities
Squirrels & Acorns: I don’t have a ton of books about squirrels. So this nature study may be more observation. I’d like the kids to learn about the anatomy of a squirrel. They can draw a squirrel in their nature journal and label it. I also have them add information they’ve learned to their nature journals as well. This information may be from observing the squirrels in our yard or through books.
I also figured that an acorn study would complement a squirrel study nicely. Besides reading books about acorns or searching our yard for some, we’ll also enjoy an acorn chalk pastel lesson. I’ll also have them record observations about acorns from our nature walk in their nature journals.
Turkeys: Ever since we started seeing turkeys on our land a couple of years ago, I’ve been so fascinated by them. They are very interesting to watch, but also very difficult! They run away at the slightest sound. I like doing this study in November because I like pointing out the differences between wild turkeys and farm turkeys. A Venn diagram is a great way for kids to express the similarities and differences. Turkeys are also fun to paint with watercolors. Additionally, this turkey chalk pastel video lesson is perfect to add to a turkey nature study (scroll about halfway down the post).
If you’d prefer to let someone else do the nature study lessons, Cindy West does an amazing job in her No Sweat Nature Study LIVE classes. They are great for a wide variety of ages and include downloads to print if you’d like. She explains so much about each topic in a way that kids completely understand. She also brings beautiful nature journal illustrations and descriptions out of the kids. The classes are perfect as a complete nature study curriculum, or you could use them in addition to your own nature study with your kids.
The live classes are on two Tuesdays a month at 2pm, so it’s technically not in our morning basket, but the rest of our nature study is so I’ve included it here.
Since there are so many past video lessons that we have access to as well as the live classes, I try to do the two new live lessons plus watch past lessons on the off weeks. This month we’ll enjoy learning about volcanoes and legumes (might try to fit in a small George Washington Carver unit) in the live lessons. I plan to add in past lessons of squirrels and turkeys in the weeks without live lessons. My kids from PreK through 8th grade really enjoy these classes.
Preschool Morning Basket
My preschooler joins us for most of our morning basket. He has a little learning binder with skill-building activities he can work on for those times he doesn’t. Sometimes he’ll also work on his own preschool chalk pastel lessons that are easier and designed for preschoolers.
On Tuesday mornings he also enjoys a live preschool music class at 11am. This class is part of the All Access Membership that includes all of the courses plus live weekly classes and quarterly specialty classes. It includes The Four Seasons: Music and More curriculum, which has video lessons with fall-themed music that we’re enjoying. My preschooler loved hunting for leaves outside and doing leaf prints with them as part of the STEM lessons, included in the and more part of the course.
Are you new to morning baskets or need some help setting them up? When you join the Homeschooling in Progress email community, you’ll receive homeschooling tips, ideas, and encouragement in your email inbox to help you simplify your homeschool day. PLUS you’ll get a FREE Morning Basket Quick Tips & Monthly Ideas quick start guide to set up your morning basket today.
November Read Alouds
Farmer Boy: We started Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder in October. We’ve read most of the other books in the series, but for some reason had never read this one. The boys and I are loving it! We’ve learned so much about farm life, which was one of our topics in our October morning basket. This book is a great choice for any time of the year.
The Bark of the Bog Owl: After Farmer Boy, I plan to read The Bark of the Bog Owl by Jonathan Rogers. I’ve heard good things about this book, so I decided to give it a try. It’s an adventure story, which my boys enjoy.
Additional Ideas for Your November Morning Basket
In addition to the above resources we’re using, you may also enjoy these ideas as well.
Good November Morning Basket Themes
Other Books to Enjoy in November
Starting your day by gathering your kids for a morning basket time is a perfect beginning to every homeschool day. It’s a chance to share good and beautiful resources with your kids. Plus it’s time to spend together. As we enter into the holiday season, take time to slow down and savor goodness with your children during your November morning basket.
Hi, I’m Christy!
I’m a homeschooling mom of 4, from preschool to high school. Homeschooling can be overwhelming, but I believe you can simplify your homeschool day so it’s manageable and enjoyable. When you join the Homeschooling in Progress community, you’ll learn ways to simplify your homeschool through emailed tips PLUS receive 5 Easy Steps to Create a Simple Routine for Productive Homeschool Days guide so you can start simplifying your homeschool today!
Hello, Christy! My name is Hannah Logan, and I’m a fellow homeschooling blogger 🙂 First of all, thank you for putting time into this in-depth post about your morning basket! There are so many neat ideas, here. I love that you took the time to actually document the things you and your family enjoyed in yours 🙂 I have heard of some of the books you mentioned, but not all of them. I’m hoping to read some of your recommendations! Thanks again ♥️