Beauty First

Some homeschool advice recommends tackling the hardest part of the day first. And there seems to be a logic behind using your best energy for the most difficult tasks. For homeschoolers that often translates into beginning the day with math.

At our place we start with the ritual of Morning Time. Beginning here means that we begin our day together. We are recollected again, reminded of what’s most important. We start our learning day the way we mean to go on: encountering beauty first.

One of the secrets of Morning Time is picking selections that I like, ones I want to hear over time. Often by 9am when we gather to start school, there have already been conflicts. Morning Time gives us the chance to get quiet and tune our hearts to the grace of the moment

We aren’t aiming to memorize the selections. Just to be exposed to them over time. I love that image of exposure. Light sensitive paper can be exposed and a photograph develop. Good things come from simple, repeated exposure. Putting ourselves and our children in the way of beauty builds lasting connection and belonging between each member of the family and between what’s beautiful in this world.