Tuesday Teatime: When it comes together
Hi Julie,
We are just starting with The Writer’s Jungle this fall. The idea of Tea Time caught my fancy and I decided it would be a good excuse to get out the formal tea cups that have been stuck on the shelf, like forever. I knew my 8 yo daughter would be excited about the idea, but I was less sure how to sell it to my 6 yo son. Inspiration hit when I ran out of time to make cookies the day before. We were at the store picking up something else, so I told each child they could pick out one package of cookies for our Tea Time the next day. With pink and white frosted animal cookies in one hand and Nilla wafers in the other, we headed home.
The kids could hardly wait for Tea Time the next day, knowing their cookies were waiting! So, for our first tea time, we had animal cookies and Nilla wafers with formal tea cups and read poetry from a random selection of books I hastily pulled off the shelf. I counted it a success and thought I’d try it again in a couple of weeks.
The next Tuesday came around, and I was quite surprised when my son was the one to ask, “Mom, are we having Tea Time today?” I hadn’t really planned on it, but he insisted he wanted to. (I think his motivation was the animal cookies, which were long gone by this time…) I used your suggestion and made “lady fingers”, and while the tea was brewing both kids found books to read from. My daughter read several poems by Shel Silverstein, and my son read from You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You.
After two weeks, my kids consider Tea Time an integral part of our week, and my good china tea cups are getting more use than they’ve ever seen. I couldn’t be happier!
One more story about Brave Writer Lifestyle and our home… We’ve been doing copywork several times a week. The kids are choosing whatever they want to copy, and there is often a scramble and lots of page turning when I announce it is time to find something to copy. I have been enjoying taking the time to start my own copywork journal alongside them.
Yesterday, as I was reading to them, I came across a particularly descriptive passage that I wanted to call their attention to. I stopped, went back, re-read the passage, and asked for their comments. My son, surrounded on all sides with Legos, looked up and said, “Mom, I know what you can do! If you like that section that much, you can do it for copywork!”
It is amazing how quickly they catch on! Thank you for introducing us to new ways to make Language Arts fun!
Jennifer
