Symposium

I have had people ask me about my family’s symposium time.  You may have heard it referenced as ‘basket time’ or ‘morning time’, but we simply call it symposium. If you're curiosity is piqued, then enjoy this glimpse:

Our symposium time came out of two observations:

1. I have a family of morning people and night people
2. Pulling individuals from their to-do list is really hard

Before symposium, at 7 AM, my house would be a combination of sleepy pajama clad boys  and singing jumping monsters. They each ate breakfast at different times, some started on their schoolwork while others were just trying to remain sleeping. This simply was not sustainable. 

With symposium, at 7 AM, my house still contains those sleepy boys and those singing boys, but we are all together and we are all ready.  Yes, some of us are barely awake and some of us are chomping at the bit, but we know what’s expected at 7 AM and we respect each other’s needs.  My singers don’t sing until after symposium, and my sleepers must wake up before it.

Symposium is a starting point. It is when we come together in the morning to snuggle, listen, and plan. 

It starts with the Bible. 

Each day at 7 am, we gather and read a portion of the word of God. Depending on the passage, we may comment on what stuck out to us, narrate what the reading was about, or ask each other questions. Bible reading may go like this:

1. Review by narration the main point from yesterday’s reading for context

2. Read Hebrews Ch 11

3. Ask: What did you hear?

4. Ask a child to narrate the chapter

5. Give overview of the chapter highlighting the big points or application

It takes us around 30 minutes to do this together each morning.  The benefits to digging in the word together are limitless.

The second portion of our symposium is reading a book. 

Most of the time this is a fiction book that I have chosen for us to read.  It may be connected to the time period we are studying in history or a biography or a a classic. I read one chapter, and then recap the chapter or ask a child to narrate it back to us all.

We finish our symposium time with schedule and prayer.

I remind my guys of the schedule for the day, who’s going to be where when, and what they need to focus on in regards to schedule. To finish, one of us prays over the day, often including the schedule and what we learned about from the word in the prayer.

Afterward, we break for what we call “Enrichment Hour”, but that’s a whole other blog post.