When I first saw morning menus popping up on Instagram, my first thought (like when I discovered Pinterest!) was: “THAT IS FOR ME!” And it was, and is. I immediately set about creating a morning menu to fit our family’s morning time routines. Since we do Classical Conversations as well, I wanted our morning menu to include materials that coordinated with cycle 2. In short, for our classical morning menu, I put morning time materials into a plastic menu folder and use them to guide our homeschooling day.
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 printables available for your homeschool. Download a free sample below!
Life WITHOUT the morning menu…
You know that homeschool excitement rhythm: September is great – a fresh start. All the pencils are sharp, and the snowy pages of new notebooks are full of promise. By October, you’d gotten into your groove, the kids are on task and finishing their work. You watch the yellow school buses rattle by and you congratulate yourself because you have nailed this homeschool thing!
November and the holidays hit… and it all starts to unravel. The pencils are dull. Notebooks are torn and grubby–or lost altogether. And the kids are deflated and dragging themselves down the stairs for breakfast. School again?
Suddenly, you question your curriculum choices. Or maybe even your entire choice to homeschool. This is exactly where I was a few years ago when I felt my homeschool days slipping by in a scrambled haze of “trying to keep up.” We were going through the motions and I needed to get our homeschool rhythm back before our homeschool year imploded. It all changed when I heard about the “morning menu” concept. By the end of December, I had created our own classical morning menu to fit our study topics. I was finally excited again to call the kids to the couch in the mornings.
What a Classical Morning Menu Looks Like
A Classical Morning Menu is a curated, monthly collection of Scripture, poetry, art, and affirmations arranged in a menu-style folder to create a consistent morning learning rhythm. 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 other aspects of learning. So, there’s potential for kids in the dialectic stage (logical thought).
You can put anything you like into a morning menu, so they can be adapted to what your school day looks like in your home.
For Classical Study, here’s what I’ve included…
- Charlotte Mason’s affirmations with a 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 I 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. The artwork selections also lend themselves well to connecting with the Drawing lessons from the first part of the year.
- “How to use” page – For the parent: 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, and questions for Picture Study.
These items are personally added to our menu, but not included in the printable, as these sections are up to each family.
- Happy Hymnody’s Hymn of the Month – Get her free printable monthly hymn printable to include with your menu pages.
- Classical Conversation Memory Work – I often include math facts and the blackline maps for study in the extra pages of my plastic menu sleeve.
- TalkBox.Mom Spanish words and phrases – I often include Spanish review in our morning time. So I’ve placed the phrase sheets into a separate menu.
You can add what works for your family. Also, even though this menu is in color, you can print in black & white to save ink.
Benefits of the Morning Menu
If mornings feel chaotic, inconsistent, or half-finished, a morning menu gives you a simple, rhythmic tool to anchor learning without burning you out. After several years of using my Classical Morning Menus, I’ve discovered six reasons WHY morning menus work for our homeschool schedule:
- CONSISTENCY
We can maintain a consistent rhythm / habit of study because the materials are always there, ready to go. Charlotte Mason says “Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life.” It’s easy to stay disciplined with a tool that helps you be consistent.
- SIMPLICITY
The menu is a self-contained bundle of materials that I use all month long. Limiting the quantity of information allows us to maintain consistency as well as not feel overwhelmed.
- FOCUSED
Because we study the same content for four weeks, we can go deep and have extended conversations over time. It creates an atmosphere that invites depth of learning. Every ocean has a shore, that is true, but I would rather teach a few things simply, but deeply, so my kids retain these memories longer.
- LOW / NO PREP
A morning menu is a “decide once” type of curriculum. Once I print out the menu, all I need to do is switch out the pages monthly. I do not spend my year frustrated and frazzled over “what comes next.” It’s really open and go!
- CROSS-DISCIPLINARY
My Classical Morning Menus offer a selection of Scripture, Affirmations, Poetry, and Picture Study. This means you’re getting a cross-section of subjects and disciplines to explore each morning. I have often seen my children make connections from the poem to the picture, or from the scripture to the affirmations. Or, even from one month to the next. It truly is a beautiful thing! Once, we were in an art museum and we “knew” who the artist of a painting was even before we read the plaque, simply because we recognized his artistic style! Amazing!
- CUSTOMIZABLE
There are four key components to the Classical Morning Menu: Affirmations, Scripture, Poetry, Picture Study. However, we do expand on these topics by adding a few things we also enjoy. I use an 8-page plastic menu sleeve, so I can include additional content like our Hymn of the Month or our TalkBox.Mom Spanish pages. You can customize your menu too by adding in a few other pieces that fit your curriculum plan. Want to try it? Grab our free one page sample below.
Applying the Menu to our Morning Routine
Morning time is simply a family gathering around a collection of books and materials to help set the tone and routine of your day. You don’t have to homeschool too long before you’ll hear the name Pam Barnill, because she’s like the Queen of Morning Time with her morning baskets and podcast of the same name. She says:
“Morning Time is very much like a big group hug at the beginning of our school day. It sets the tone and atmosphere for learning. It gives us something to contemplate and mentally gnaw on for the rest of the day. And most importantly, it puts us in a right relationship with each other and with God.” -Pam Barnhill, Homeschool Solutions with Pam Barnhill
Quite right! Morning baskets/morning times are as varied as each family. I know some families who keep it to a light 20 minutes and others who will spend 60-90 minutes together in morning time. Mine runs about 30-40 minutes.
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. I have LOVED the idea of putting the pages into a restaurant menu cover. You can purchase restaurant menu covers on Amazon. That link is for a single cover, 4 pages, 8 sides, which is what I use. You can also buy in bulk.
Our Morning Basket, used every day, is where we keep the Classical Morning Menu. 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.
The menu printable also includes a version without the verses, and one with only the statements, so you could customize by writing in your own statements and verses! The other pages I swap out monthly to have fresh material for each season. Each day, we begin with our morning menu and review most of the pages daily. Then we move on to the items in our morning basket.
Get Your Morning Menus Now!
My Classical Morning Menus were created specifically to help you go from stressed to serene just like me. You don’t have time to waste on endlessly searching the internet or library for the perfect addition to your morning time. You don’t have money to waste on scripted programs or curriculum with tons of bells and whistles you never use.
Now, you CAN just read from the morning menu on your device (phone/kindle) if you want to save time or don’t want to print it out. Or, you can purchase the plastic menu sleeve and print your menu out for a tangible resource. This method looks so beautiful and adds value to the visual + hands on learners out there.
And if you are one of the families that have used and loved these menus as much as I have–feel free to drop a comment. I love hearing from you!
There are menus available for Ancient History, Medieval to Modern History, and US History. As an FYI, Literature is drawn from a bit later in the time period because this is geared for children ages 4-12.
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.
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 updated bios/connections from 2023.
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Or, Download a FREE Classical Morning Menu to try!
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!
NOTE: The menu you can download at the end uses my 2022 Menu design so it will look different than the photos. Sample pages of the new version are shown at the end of this post.
My favorite part is that in using a morning menu, my kids got quality reading and conversation every morning, AND my life was finally feeling like it had a rhythm that made sense to me. I was being consistent without feeling last-minute. FINALLY! Best. News. Ever!
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! Check out my full collection of homeschool posts HERE!
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.
