Here we are, happily engaged in a French lesson...
Many people call it 'Circle Time'. Others call it Morning Time. Whatever you call it, it's that glowing hour of the day when mothers demurely call their children to begin their studies. These come skipping hand-in-hand cheerfully, having finished their respective duties, as they are in the habit of always doing something helpful or productive. They then gather eagerly around their mother with fresh and radiant faces all set to profit from every word that proceeds from her sweetly up-turned lips.
It's almost exactly like that in my house every 23rd day or so. :)
Problem is, similar to Cindy's (aka: the Morning Time Master) sage words in one of her extremely helpful MT posts, if I call it and think of it as Morning Time and it doesn't happen in the morning, 3 out of 5 times I'd probably end up skipping it altogether. Which is in fact, exactly what has occurred MANY times.
Hmph.
Then there's the perfectionist in me that still slightly quails at the prospect of circles. They're so perfect. Do you remember, as a child, learning to draw a circle? Have you tried to free hand a perfect circle lately? Try it. How'd you do? Perfectly round? Right.
All of these are reasons why, this year, I've come to call our together time Jovi'Oval Time. Who doesn't need a little joviality every single day? Well, that and 'cause we're just not circle perfect people, ya know? Obviously, this is not meant as judgment on those who DO choose to call it Circle Time. This just how it IS with us. Besides, Circle Time people probably are perfect... ;)
The label 'Jovi'Oval Time' may be, in part, a recognition of just how much grace we require around here! In our diversified and dynamic lifestyle, Jovi'Oval Time has become a way to keep us oriented, get a lot of learning done, and build togetherness. It's become a pretty important part of our everyday. A liturgy of sorts, as Cindy might say.
The name 'Jovi'Oval Time' is new as of this school year, so during this month of Newness I'm gonna share a little about what we do. Hopefully, you'll be encouraged by our experiences and will feel free to share your own!
If you'd like to SHARE your Circle, Morning, Together Time posts, I'd be happy to collect the links in a linky here in this post! Do you have an older post on what y'all do? Are you just formulating your thoughts and plans? Whatever. Share your posts below if you feel so inspired... I'm sure we can all learn from each other!
:)
Posts
6 comments:
Great idea, Amy! I have nothing official to share, although we do have a purposeful Morning Time, because it is all taken from elsewhere. But I want to stay in the loop for any ideas other mamas might comment about. Thanks for sharing what is happening in your jungle world!
We always call it "Singing Time," although that is probably an excessively charitable word for what we are doing, and we certainly do other things that are not even attempts at singing, which generally go better.
Cute name! I am boring, so ours is called Circle Time. The most interesting thing about that is that it's really more of an oval! ;)
thanks, dawn! i too was in the market for improving our 'jovi'oval time' recently, so i totally appreciate you wanting in the loop! with 5 students now, it has become an absolute necessity to do some stuff together, and out of that necessity, 'jovi'oval time' has grown and morphed. that said, with time, it's become so much more! hopefully, people will share what they do, 'cause i know how helpful it can potentially be for many! :)
We 've just called it Devotions because for years I couldn't make up my mind what to call it. But we do a whole lot of other things besides Devotions. I couldn't do mornings consistently so felt stupid calling it MT and I didn't know why it was called Circle time as we sort of spread out and our chairs are never in the same place for long. Sometimes I call it together time...a name is a good idea though & I feel better hearing that someone else also struggled what to call it.
I love the name! We may have to steal it. LOL We call ours "Morning Meeting." How dull! You would have loved it today: the headmaster says a few words, then prayer, pledge, folk song or hymn, and Spanish. Today, the students felt ready to sing "La granja" and it sounded like they had been singing it since they were three years old!
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