As I wrote about in an Easter post on my blog, instead of giving something up for Lent this year, I decided to add something good into our lives. In order to include my three year old, Mini Me, and my now 10 month old, Little Lady, I came up with the idea of reading a Bible story at breakfast. I used to read my way through breakfast and lunch in my pre-mommy days, before I had the joys of spoon-feeding applesauce and getting up from the table four times in one meal to refill cups, grab an extra rag for spills, etc etc etc. I thought my book-loving children might also enjoy an extra excuse to read during the day. We have a great toddler Bible so that was the first resource I brought to the table.

Mini Me loved our breakfast reading from the get-go, which was no surprise since he adores reading any other time of the day. Little Lady could have cared less at first – she was still pretty little. We would read the short story, talk about the picture, and say a little prayer. It took about 3 minutes, and then it was back to brekist, as Mini Me says. After our 40 days of reading a Bible story at breakfast (okay, maybe only 36 or so because a few days breakfast got hectic what with the applesauce spooning and cup filling, and Mommy forgot), we thought it was so much fun to read at breakfast that we should just continue past Easter.

I added a few resources to the pile and then discovered we needed a basket. We have our toddler Bible (which I have entirely committed to memory at this point) and a set of Bible touch-and-feel story and picture cards. We don’t do the touching part at breakfast or Moses’ basket in the rushes would be covered in oatmeal. We have Little Visits with Jesus that I was very excited about, but it is still a bit too advanced for Mini Me, so that doesn’t get much use yet. We have a couple sets of flashcards – ABCs and 3-letter words for our budding reader, as well as the first set of BOB books since Mini Me is starting to read(ish). We also have a set of Brain Quest cards for 3 year olds that are a daily favorite. There aren’t many things geared specifically toward Little Lady, but for now she loves looking at the pictures and hearing the words of anything we read. She has also learned to fold her hands and pray so she participates in that (provided the prayers only last 2.5 seconds). In addition, I grab any other book off the bookshelf if I have a second.

I never intended our breakfast basket materials to be entirely educational… it is filled with things I quickly grabbed one day that I knew would last us more than a day at a time, unlike a book with a single story in it. Single stories work fine but for my own sanity I need something that is slightly different every day instead of reading That’s Not My Monster every morning.

Also, don’t be fooled by the name of the basket. We also dig into it during lunch or supper if we feel like it – or if Mommy forgets during breakfast – and I know I can always count on Mini Me to remind me about the basket at some meal during the day. We have always been a chatty bunch at mealtimes, but pulling an item out of our breakfast basket just adds a twist to our conversation. The teacher inside me also has to admit that I like squeezing in a few extra minutes of literacy time, too.

As much as milk and toast, our breakfast basket has become a staple of our daily breakfast tradition. Bon appetit!