Circle time is a ritual activity performed to come together and create something, i.e, a story, a song, a craft, a snack, a game, or a series of yoga postures. The purpose of holding regular circle times is to create a calming and centering daily routine, which provides an anchor and sense of safety and stability for the children.
Homeschool programs such as Waldorf and Enki use the circle time format to cover core content areas of their curricula. Homeschoolers can use circles in a number of creative ways. In Waldorf education, a child's day follows periods of free play, work, circle time, outdoor play, and a story. The child's week follows a predictable rhythm, as do the seasons of the year. Circle time activities for young children often center around calendar and weather activities.
Circle time can become a healthy, rhythmic, and a happily anticipated part of a homeschooling day, especially if it corresponds to the children's natural patterns of activity. Each person has an internal clock, which is influenced by the daily environmental cycles, or circadian rhythms, of ambient illumination and temperature. Rhythms that occur during a circadian day include the ultradian rhythms of temperature and digestion.
Circadian Rhythms
The environmental cycles of day and night, shifting through the seasons, as well as of temperature and digestion, influence human behaviors and body processes, such as
- Level of physical activity,
- Body temperature,
- Eating,
- Sleeping,
- Sensory processing, and
- Learning capability.
Certain human activities and biological processes, such as alertness and sleepiness, synchronize with circadian intervals of lightness and darkness, including dawn and dusk, as they shift throughout the year. BBC Science and Nature provides a Daily Rhythm Test to demonstrate a person's natural pattern of alertness and sleepiness, or "internal body clock." Most people experience a dip in alertness in the early afternoon.
Circle Time Activities to Raise Energy
During natural periods of alertness, homeschoolers can use circle time activities to further raise or lower the energy level as desired.
- Singing
- Dancing
- Making crafts
- Playing outdoors
Circle Time Activities to Lower Energy
During natural periods of sleepiness, homeschoolers can use circle time activities to wind down and relax.
- Storytelling
- Reading poems
- Stretching
- Meditating
Circle time must be voluntary in order to provide benefits. The routine of circle time promotes a sense of balance, as well as fun and interest, within a homeschooling day, given that the children desire to participate. Allowing the children to choose activities, or planning activities around the children's current interests, increases the likelihood that everyone will want to join and will enjoy the day.
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Sara McGrath - Sara is a veteran homeschool mom of three, Usborne consultant, and the author of Unschooling: A Lifestyle of Learning.
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