Brave Writer

Julie,

May 5 is Boys’ Day in Japan. Since I discovered Boys’ Day, we celebrate it every year, though not in the traditional fashion of the Japanese. However, we did celebrate all day! We began the day with boy-made chocolate-chip pancakes. Following breakfast, we went to our local gymnastics room, and played Nerf-dart tag for an hour.

Our tea-party day included gunpowder tea, which initially is in the form of little pellets. They “explode” in the water, creating a mild tea. This is one tea we don’t make in a teapot, because it is too much fun to watch the action! Though it is not dramatic, it is science!

Each of the boys chose a piece of art to discuss, and at least one poem to read. Among other boy-themed poems, I read The Barefoot Boy, by John Greenleaf Whittier.

Dinner included sweet-and-sour turkey on rice. At least it was a hint of Asian cuisine!

~Teresa

Hi Julie-

Here’s some pictures of our Tuesday teatimes. As I wrote to you recently, we read poetry constantly—anywhere, anytime. Jack Prelutsky is definitely one of our favs! We first encountered his poems through a book cd from the library. Such a joy to hear him read his own work. Very funny!

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Dear Julie,

We just got back from a two week vacation to New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Cincinnati (The Creation Museum).  My children remembered that Cincinnati is your city, but we didn’t have time to look you up!

Our last tea was a lovely, very proper (albeit in the kitchen vs. the dining room) St. Patrick’s Day Tea on March 17.  We served British scones, green kiwi slices, orange (We’re Protestants! ) clementine segments, Earl
Grey Tea in my “Irish Cottage” teapot, and leprechauns’ gold pieces (Werther’s caramels in the gold foil).  We even had Irish place cards at the table.  No poetry this day.  We just listened to Irish music on You Tube, with scenes of Ireland on the computer screen.  The sun shone and it was light (…Ahhh….these longer days of March!) and lovely.  So were the scones!  Light, flaky and wonderful.  I thought some might like my recipe, so I’ll share it here.

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“Mom! It’s tea time!”

“Okay, I’ll put the kettle on.” I mentally decided to make this quickly-thrown-together tea a little nicer than our usual quickly-thrown-together teas. So for this tea…a beautiful autumnal tablecloth and a couple of faux leaves under a plain autumn harvest scented votive candle for a simple centerpiece.

Next thing I know, ten year old son Josh is out the door and back in again in a flash with a, “Close your eyes, Mom!” and then a handful of REAL autumn leaves to make the centerpiece more beautiful. (After all, it is October!) Add a little Bach for background music, Anna’s thin and crispy pepparkakors, red and yellow apple slices and a pot of Country Cranberry Tea and our little-bit-nicer-than-usual autumn tea is on!

From the Book of 1000 Poems:
“Swinging,” by Irene Thompson and “The Song of the Bath,” by Margaret Gibbs, chosen and read by Hannah (11).
“October’s Party,” by George Cooper, selected by Josh(10)
“October,” by Christina Rosetti and “Rich Days,” by W.H. Davies were Mom’s picks.
(The last three were all repeats from last week’s tea-time readings.)

Finally, we practiced our elocution (as suggested by Linda Fay on higherupand furtherin.blogspot.com) by reading about whales and whaling from McGuffy’s Reader– and Tea Time is done for another week (if all goes well!) If truth be told, I have the nagging fear (certainty?!) that my children’s love of tea time has more to do with the FOOD than the poetry (sigh…), but I also know that whether THEY know it or not, they HAVE been nourished all the same by what they have read and heard, as well as from what they’ve eaten!

Thank you, Julie, for blessing and inspiring so many of us.
Judi