Homeschool Morning Time With Lots of Littles: Interview with Jo

Every so often on the blog, I love to give you a sneak peek into “our life” collectively as homeschoolers by sharing interviews with everyday homeschool moms just like you! I am especially excited to share this interview I had with my sister, Jo, a mom of four kids, 7 and under. I hope you will be encouraged by reading this interview with Jo as she talks about how she does homeschool Morning Time with lots of littles.

Video: Homeschool Morning Time With Lots of Littles: Interview with Jo

Introduce Yourself

My name is Jo Meservy. We are a family of six: my husband and I, and four kids seven and under.

What attracted you to homeschooling?

To be honest, it’s hard to judge exactly how long we’ve been homeschooling because in hindsight, I feel like I’ve always been doing it. As a former public high school teacher, education had always been important to me, but I never intended to homeschool.

Like every mom, the early days with my babies were filled with “activities” that are essentially, a foundation for homeschooling–sorting colors, counting, introducing letters, etc. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, COVID hit right around the time we planned to send our oldest to preschool. We were left with no choice but to homeschool.

My sister homeschooled, so how hard could it be, right? We took what we were already doing and gave it just a smidge more focus and attention.

Shortly after we began, I helped launch a co-op with a few other isolated and COVID lonely moms like me. Before I knew it, I had fallen deeply in love with homeschooling, so four years later, we’re still going.

At no point in this journey did I feel unequipped, ill-prepared, or unqualified and that is 100% due to the encouragement of my sister, Sheri. She encouraged me at the start, and she still encourages me to keep going. Although my husband is my best friend and an incredible teammate–Sheri is my homeschool cheerleader. If COVID hadn’t forced me to jump into the homeschool pool, I’m confident that she would have eventually convinced me to dip my toes in the water.

1. How do I prepare for a successful morning time?

I do my very best to wake up before the kids each day so that I can have time to myself.

There is a quote by Toni Morrison that I have begun to live by, “When a child walks into a room, do your eyes light up? Because that’s what they’re looking for.”

Generally speaking, I don’t greet my children well when they are the ones to wake me up. I have made it a priority to wake up before them, to enjoy the quiet, so that I’m ready to greet them with enthusiasm. The same principle bleeds into morning time. Each day I try to show an eagerness to dive into morning time with them. If I treat it like a chore, no one will want to do it. If I am excited, there is a better chance the day will go smoothly.

Practically speaking, I keep a basket with our Morning Time content inside (Bible, poetry book, Hymnal, Classical Conversations review booklet). I also have a closet full of activities for the kids to choose from. Only one of my kids is a reader, so activities are an important part of the process for us.

Before morning time each day, I close off all stairs and bathrooms, and set a 5-10 minute timer. We’ve done this enough times for the big kids to know they must be ready and at the table with an activity of their choice by the time my timer goes off. We meet at the table and hope for the best.

2. What does morning time look like on a typical day?

It’s not pretty. I have my content and activities prepared, and still nothing goes smoothly. Everyone has an activity, the baby is strapped down with a snack, and I’m excited and ready to go. But something will always go wrong.

Kellen might not like the activity he chose and will want to go get something else. Cam, my three year old, might want the activity Sadie chose and they will try and convince me that they can share and listen at the same time–spoiler alert: they can’t.

By the time I get resettled, Raleigh (the baby) has finished his snack and wants to play. I put him down and let him run amuck, because I know I’ve closed off all the exits already. So then, we start again. I’ll get halfway through the Bible passage before there is another interruption. We talk again about waiting until we are between subjects to speak, and then we keep on going.

We aim to read a chapter in the Bible (right now, we’re reading through Psalms), a few poems by Shel Silverstein (he’s an easy way for littles to dip their toes into poetry), we sing through our hymn of the month (thank you Sheri for the idea!), and then we go through our CC review work.

In all, I try to keep it under 30 minutes. On the best of days, they sing and recite along when they’re supposed to, and they keep ears open, hands busy, and mouths closed when they’re supposed to. If things fall apart past the point of recovery, we call it quits.

But as long as I can continue with patience and joy, we stumble through each subject as best as we can. By the time we are done, the baby has torn the house apart, and my three year old has most likely abandoned the table at least once to help him. So then… we begin our chores.

3. How do I handle it when babies and toddlers aren’t interested or insist on interrupting?

If my little littles want to go off and play during morning time, I let them. They are only under legal schooling age for a few short years. The rule is: if you’re of school age, you must stay and participate.

As for the littles, I don’t want to deprive them of the joy of free play–especially when there are so many intellectual benefits from it! They might go off and make monumental messes, but that’s just the phase I’m in. I choose to embrace the mess. I let the littles leave the table when they can’t handle the structure anymore…most days they come back.

As they age, I try to make morning time the hot spot of the house. I behave as if the morning time table is quite possibly more fun than the temptation of free play.

Although I can’t sustain a Pinterest level activity bin system to keep them entertained, I do have a box of random supplies and activities for them to choose from every morning. When those stop working and my older toddlers begin to get too loud and wiggly, I ask them if they’d like to go play. Sometimes they say yes. Often, they say no. This is the goal.

I want them to want to stay with us, even if it makes the morning time session harder.

4. What is the primary objective in Morning Time?

My two biggest objectives in morning time are cultivating a desire to be a part of it and establishing sustainable habits and routines.

For the most part, I’ve met these two goals with my oldest two chidlren. I think that’s why I have patience for the mess and the chaos–because I have two older ones that are finally where I want them to be. They don’t interrupt often, they know the drill and morning time has become easy with them. If I keep fighting the good fight with patience, the others will get there too.

We slowly instill boundaries, rules, and routines, and the habit becomes a little easier as each child grows older. Slowly, ever so slowly, I’m seeing things piece together into the picture I’ve been hoping for, but we still have a long way to go.

The second goal is sustainable habits. I’m not the mom who has a constant flow of activities up her sleeve to keep them seated and quiet. I come up with a great idea every now and then and it’s great–but I can’t bring that to the table on a daily basis.

They have their activity closet, and I don’t put in more effort past that. I don’t want them to come to morning time each day expecting to be served up creative entertainment on a platter. I don’t have it in me. So to make morning time sustainable–I keep it simple.

I also try to keep it short. We stick to about twenty minutes, maybe thirty if too many interruptions set us back. I keep my vision of our morning time routine as something we can realistically and daily achieve. Once we hit a good rhythm I add in another expectation or content piece to cover.

I think the biggest goal is to not let morning time take the joy out of the slow mornings that homeschooling provides in these early years.

All the old ladies we run into at the grocery store are right–the days are long but the years are short! In ten years, I won’t mind the messes and the interruptions, but I will regret it if I waste these years stressing over getting it all done and losing my temper trying to make it happen the way I planned. The goal is to use morning time to add to the joy in our home. So far, despite the constant interruptions, it seems to be working.

Favorite Resources

*This post contains affiliate links which means I may make a small commission at no cost to you.

Teaching From Rest
Read Aloud Family
Your Morning Basket Podcast (Now called Homeschool Better Together)
Read Aloud Revival Podcast(basically anything with Sarah Mackenzie’s name on it)
I’m a huge fan of Classical Conversations–I know it’s not necessarily a resource, but the habits of CC align really well with families who prioritize morning time.
Surprised by Motherhood by Lisa-Jo Baker (reminds me to take joy in this incredible job!)