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I was beginning to dread starting our school day and I noticed myself procrastinating.

I had read about Morning Time for years, but seeing others’ Memory Work binders intimidated me and working with my children to memorize poems seemed like just one more daunting thing to stay on top of.

One morning after seeing Pam’s mini-class on teaching poetry, I decided I’m just going to try this Morning Time thing without worrying about memorizing poems. verses or prayers. After morning prayers that day, we just started with singing an English Hymn, a Latin Hymn, read a poem to appreciate the language of poetry, asked a few of the discussion questions on Pam’s poetry worksheet, and read an Aesop’s Fable (since we are doing Greek History this year).

It was short, simple and joyful! No binder, no worrying about memorizing – though even my 5-year-old has already memorized the Adoro Te Devote hymn. Maybe one day I will graduate to a binder and be more organized about it, because they are impressive and memory work is important.

For now, I just needed to begin where I was to infuse some joy into our day, mostly, to encourage me to begin our school day without dragging my feet. Now after Morning Prayers the children always say, “Mommy, it’s time for Morning Time!” and I usually can’t get away with just reading one Aesop’s Fable.

Morning Time can be so simple, yet, so pleasant, I was overthinking it for years!

Diane Paulitz