Homeschoolers - what does your circle time REALLY look like?

[scheelimama]

*I wasn't sure if this should go in the Waldorf or Homeschooling forum so feel free to move it if I went wrong here mods.

Anyway, I've really struggled with integrating a circle time into our daily routine. I think part of the reason is that my personal feelings are that it's hokey. I KNOW my kids will enjoy it and benefit from it but I just can't get into it personally. But, I really want to do this for my kids at least when we begin 1st grade next year with the oldest.

So, aside from what circle time is suppose to look like, what does your circle time REALLy look like? Do you do it everyday? What activities do you include? How long does it last? How do you integrate the younger children? I feel like the expectations are not something I can live up to for what circle time is suppose to look like and really want to know how other families have changed and integrated it into their rhythms.

[Attached Mama]

We do ours on days when we are home. It's one of my 3 and 1/2 yr olds fave activities! She loves the songs and poems and verses. We are going to make a Spanish circle time for one day per wk, but haven't yet. Anyhow, here is a link to what we are currently doing.

[scheelimama]

Thanks!

[mrsalf97]

I can't wait to read your link.

[Renaissance Mama]

I just wrote a post a few days ago about this on my blog, here's the link

[blumom2boyz]

Circle time here is hit or miss. I think it is just up to how my 4.5 yo is feeling b/c he can really make it miserable if he decides he doesn't want to participate (but won't leave the room either . Anyway, we are using a song to start (circle round...same one we use in our co-op) and then I throw in some movement activities and a couple of fingerplays to accomodate my 3 yo, although my oldest loves doing them too. We usually end with lots of activity b/c we then go straight into main lesson. They love to do ring around the rosie and london bridge is falling down. We finish with our closing verse and then blow out our candle. It is usually about 10 minutes although I would love to incorporate a little more to stretch it to about 15 minutes. We took a long hiatus from circle time so we are just getting back into it. I keep hoping that it will go smoothly one day

[blumom2boyz]

Originally Posted by Attached Mama

We do ours on days when we are home. It's one of my 3 and 1/2 yr olds fave activities! She loves the songs and poems and verses. We are going to make a Spanish circle time for one day per wk, but haven't yet. Anyhow, here is a link to what we are currently doing.

I love your circle time! We use a couple of the poems/fingerplays in ours too, but you gave me some good ideas for a few more.

[zansmama]

We sort of just sing and do finger rhymes through-out the day... Ds strongly objects to doing circle time at home although he loves it at co-op.
Also, when we are doing our Nature Walk (as we're supposed to every day) We sing our circle songs during our walk.

[luvmyrory]

subbing!

this is a great thread. one of my goals for the new year is to incorporate more rhythm into our days- particularly a circle time.

Attached Mama and Renaissance Mama, your blogs are beautiful! And your circle times are very inspiring. Thankyou!

[mama_mojo]

My kids are older (9,7,3.5), but our circle has always been a bit short. When no one was school age, I made a list of songs and finger plays I wanted to be sure to do during the day. I also had little circle activities right before lunch. Really, though, it was hard to do a real circle until we were also doing a more structured school day.

If you have the Gateways books, it's pretty easy to find circle ideas. Now, I pick a theme (which is strongly seasonal with a dash of whatever main lesson we're doing), and build a circle. I look closely at gross and fine motor, games and songs, poems we're learning, and new gross motor activities. (We jump rope at least one week a month during circle, because it seems necessary for DS). Some elements are the same all year, some things rotate in one week at a time regularly, and some last only about a month. The only time I re write the whole circle is at the beginning of the schoolyear, and even then, I pick up where we left off.

Resources- Gateways Press, Paths of Discovery, Christopherus Publications, Journey Through Time, and whole stack of poetry books I love.

ETA: Games Children Play and The Extra Lesson are also great for game ideas for a wide age range.

[harmat]

I choose a bunch of movement songs and rhymes, some of them seasonal. We do them mid-morning just before the morning lesson. Dd loves them, but this month I haven't got enough songs for her. I think she enjoyed our Autumn circle a lot more. We also do beanbag counting and things.
As for what it looks like. I am often holding a card with the words on it, or am peaking into the book between verses:, dd usually learns them before I have. Again, the songs were better there. We skip (or whatever the rhyme calls for) up and down the room, sometimes in and around some chairs.
When we are short of time, we don't do all of them (I'd rather get on with the lesson), but don't leave it out altogether. Those days we'll often do the ones dd initiates or likes, as well as the one or two I think she needs right then.

If a former circle doesn't work for you, you might want to do something different. Like tagging on a few movement songs after a walk or outdoor playtime. Or (what Enki describes as 'Adventure Walk') come up with a very simple story, an adventure you are going on, and do the actions (climbing the mountain, chopping the wood, carry the heavy sacks, etc), perhaps with a rhyme or song that goes with each.

[LuxPerpetua]

We are very relaxed here. We actually do "circle time" activities at breakfast because dd is a very slow eater. We light our candle with breakfast, and then I usually tell or read stories (some seasonal, some not), do finger plays (we like to do one where my pinky is an inchworm who goes and eats the vegetables that dd plants on herself, and it ends up with me tickling her), we sing some songs (nothing with forced movements, as that goes against our unschooling philosophy). At the end, dd sings are blowing out candle verse. It is probably 20-ish minutes all total.