Review: Circle Time: Plan the Best Part of your Day! ebook (TOS Review)

 

I really enjoyed reading the book for this review!  Circle Time:  Plan the Best Part of your Day! from Preschoolers and Peace.  Having been a preschool teacher, circle time, is no foreign concept to me, however, this ebook shines new light on the concept!

It is a quick and easy read filled with lots of ideas to get your gears turning, and questions and answers to help you implement circle time in your own homeschool, regardless of how young or old your children are!  It also has printables to help with planning.
I have to be honest, since implementing circle time, our homeschool days have changed – and for the better! 
My kids are 2.5, 4 and almost 7.  With suggestions taken from the book, I was able to implement a circle time that works for all 3 of my children (though sometimes my 2.5yo wanders off before we are through, but that’s okay). 
We have been doing circle time at our Kitchen Table.  I set up a circle time wall, everything was stuff I already had but was under utilizing (or not utilizing at all). 

Here is a picture of my kids enjoying circle time

Our circle time starts at 9am and can last from 45-60min.  It consists of the following:
1.  Spiritual Song of the Month (coincides with our Family Home Evening lesson)
2.  Prayer
3.  Pledge of Allegiance
4.  Calendar (day of the week, date, weather)
5.  Virtue
6. Scripture of the Week (coincides with our Family Home Evening lesson)
7.  Art Appreciation (from Fine Art Pages)
8.  Read a story from Friend Magazine (LDS publication)
9.  C reads a story from the Storied Scriptures, Old Testament (LDS Publication)
10.  Chinese Song and Story
11.  Science – Read a story to go with science theme, 2 days a week we will do an experiment or lab.  We may watch a short video that goes with the topic.
12.  On the non-lab days, we have more time, so we will usually check out the video of the week on BrainPopJr.com or the video of the day at BrainPop.com 
13. If they are still interested, we will go ahead and do History, listening to SOTW, while they draw or color a page to go with the topic.  Otherwise just my oldest and I do History. 
At the start of the new school year I plan to institute calendar notebooks for each child, the youngest just doing a ABC color page. 
The Circle Time book is only 33 pages long and cost $4.99.  It’s in PDF format and is downloadable instantly.  It really is a great read, an awesome guide to organizing your own circle time and making it work for your homeschool.  I highly recommend it!  I am not exaggerating when I say it has changed our homeschool!  Days run so much smoother when we start this way!