Several years ago, I dove fully into the “Morning Menu” routine – where you put morning time materials into a plastic menu folder. Let me tell you, these menus keep me on track and feeling polished, even on a dragging morning! Now I have these helpful Classical Morning Menu series available for your homeschool!
My classical morning menu is filled with beautiful monthly content selections to bring rhythm to your homeschool day. Serve up truth, beauty and goodness to your family with Charlotte Mason’s affirmations, Scripture, poetry, and artwork.
Classical Morning Menus for Homeschool
What makes these menus Classical?
The materials I’ve included focus on core subjects like history, geography and literature. The method of using the Morning Menu daily means kids are repeatedly experiencing the selections. By month’s end, they have a strong knowledge base and perhaps have even memorized the passages.
These menus cultivate the grammar stage (concrete thought) of learning, which is about the absorption of facts and knowledge. Plus, in my menus, I’ve also included “Connection” ideas for discussion or thinking about how the pieces tie into another aspects of learning. So, there’s potential for kids in the dialectic stage (logical thought).
Morning menus and Classical Conversations
Neither myself or my menus are endorsed by or affiliated with the company Classical Conversations. We have attended CC campus in our area for eight years. Because I love the CC program and their Cycle content, I created our morning menu to supplement and dovetail with the CC memory work for the cycle we are currently studying (2023-24 is Cycle 3, U.S. History and Geography).
Using your Classical Morning Menu
The menus start with Charlotte Mason’s affirmations (I am, I can, I ought, I will), which I’ve paired with a finishing phrase and supporting Bible verse for our family to consider and pray through. I keep this page in our menu year-long. I evaluate and adjust as my kids grow and we continue working on character-building.
The content pages (Scripture, Poetry, Picture Study, Hymn Study) are changed out monthly.
Each day, we begin with our morning menu, which I keep in our Morning Basket. We read our affirmations and Scriptures daily, and cycle through poetry, Latin, and picture study weekly. Then we move on to other items in our morning basket like devotionals and read-aloud, map work and CC memory work.
Exactly what is in a Morning Menu?
You can put anything you like into a morning menu. Truly, I am not sure who originated the idea, but if I find out, I’ll link them!
For Classical study, here’s what I’ve included:
- Charlotte Mason’s affirmations with finishing phrase and Bible verse (KJV).
- Scripture passage – We’ve memorized the CC suggested passages each year, so my children know the passages pretty well after six years! The full passage is included in each menu, so keep it in the menu each month and simply study a verse or two a week.
- Poetry – I align my menu selections with Classical Conversations Cycles, (Ancient History, Medieval-Modern History, U.S. History. I’ve selected poetry from authors and art artists who created either during that period, where possible, or who wrote/created about that time period (Ancient History is hard to find kid-friendly resources!). I also included author bios and a connection note for further discussion, which parents might use with their children.
- Picture study/ Art – Each month, I include a piece of art that is in the public domain. Because I can’t afford the fees to include copyright protected works, I am unable to include artwork from the artists studied in the CC Curriculum. However, I think the selections included offer much to converse about and can be compared/contrasted with the Great Artists from the CC schedule if you get books from the library or pull images up on your phone. The artwork selections also lend themselves well to connecting with the Drawing lessons from the first part of the year.
- How to use page – Maybe you’re new to morning time, morning menus, or classical education. I’ve included a few tips about how we use our menus, what is included and why (similar to this blog post), and questions for Picture Study.
NOT included in my printable, but I put these into our menu:
- Happy Hymnody’s Hymn of the Month – I highly recommend her hymn choices and YouTube Channel. I see no need to reinvent such a good wheel! Get her free printable monthly hymn printable to include with your menu pages.
- Classical Conversation Memory Work – Because we own the CC Curriculum book, I can copy their Memory Master sheets for study. I often include math facts and the blackline maps for study in the extra pages of my plastic menu sleeve (I get the 4 page/8 sheet kind).
- TalkBox.Mom Spanish words and phrases – We’re enjoying learning Spanish together as a family! Although we practice Spanish throughout the day, I often include Spanish review in our morning time. So I’ve placed the phrase sheets into a separate menu.
Although this menu is in color, you can print in black & white to save ink.
Download a FREE Classical Morning Menu!
Try using Classical Morning Menus in your homeschool for a month to see how it feels! Grab this sample of the DECEMBER Classical Morning Menu (Medieval to Modern theme – Aligned with CC Cycle 2). Sign up in the form below to get your sample!
Check out these FULL YEAR Morning Menu Sets!
Ancient History Classical Morning Menu FULL YEAR set
Medieval to Modern History Classical Morning Menu FULL YEAR set
U.S. History Classical Morning Menu is available as a NEWLY DESIGNED FULL YEAR set!
(Also available on Etsy)
Looking for the menu covers? Find 4-page menu covers on Amazon (2 pack)! Here is a single menu cover. Getting the 8.5×11″ will fit these pages, but I look for the larger menus that fit A4 paper so I can have some wiggle room.
Single month issues of the U. S. History morning menus are also available for September-May through my Etsy Shop! These are currently in the older design and without the 2023 updated bios/connections (to be updated soon!). Click images to purchase:
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Please let me know if there’s anything else I can help you with! I pray God gives you many blessings and good success in your homeschool!
