Circle Time from Preschoolers and Peace: Review

My girls are only two years apart and we school all together in the same room at the same time, but for the most part their learning has been separate. With the exception of morning devotions which we have done for a while, all other subjects are separate. To be honest, it was easier this way. I could focus on teaching one while another did independent work. This has worked very well so far and I’m not anxious to change up our structure at this point, but I do see the benefit of corporate learning especially now that my youngest will be entering her k-4 year.

I was quite excited to have the opportunity to review CircleTime ($4.99) by Kendra Fletcher of Preschoolers and Peace. Before I read e-book I thought it would apply mostly to Grace (rising K-4) and not so much Rose (rising 3^rd grader) or Beth (rising 1^st grader). After all, traditional school circle time is pretty much reserved for pre-kindergarten and sometimes kindergarten. I was pleasantly surprised to find this is intended for all of your children to learn together, no matter their ages. I love this!

It took me about 25 minutes to read the 33 page PDF eBook  which I was immediately excited to start implementing! Unfortunately we were in Tampa at General Council for the Christian and Missionary Alliance, so implementation wasn't going to happen for a few days. Instead I spent a few hours planning out what I wanted. I followed the guidelines for planning your circle time although I did not use the included forms. I prefer to keep everything planned out on my computer for quick access. Even though I didn't use them, the forms are a great starting point and I modeled my own plan after the. 

My list of what I wanted to include started getting long…really long. There have been several things in the back of my mind which just don’t fit in the day anywhere. They are good things, but not absolutely needed at this age. I broke down what I would like to do each day, just like the author suggests. Our Mondays and Wednesdays are different anyway because both Rose and Beth will be taking classes at Deerstream Learning Center in the fall. This means our circle time is lighter on those days and longer on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. I estimated my plan to take about 15-20 minutes on Monday and Wednesday and closer to an hour on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

I made out my plan, decided what day we'd cover what subjects, and making notes of what I wanted to go over under each subject. Then I had to decide on a name for our circle time. I didn't want to use the name circle time because I wanted to be more creative. We've been learning some Latin which the girls have absolutely loved, so I settled on...

phari mane conventu

...which is Latin for Lighthouse Morning Meeting. The reason for the title is our school's name is Lighthouse Christian Academy. This is not only fun to say, but the girls won't outgrow it as we move forward throughout the years. I put my plans, ideas, and lists into this notebook and was soon on my way!

The next step for me was to create a board I can change and use each week. I don't have everything I want to cover each week on here, but it is a starting point and a nice visual. I am including some things like artists, North Carolina history, hymns, and composers. My girls watched me piece it together and were equally anxious to give our morning meeting a try. As with everything I plan to be flexible and see what will work best as we move forward throughout this year. This is already an excellent addition and I anticipate it will only get better! 

The Circle Time eBook is a great resource to help you plan and implement your own circle time. There are no limitations to what you can do with this! Don't forget to check out other reviews from my Crewmates!