Poetry Teatime: Robert Louis Stevenson and Mint Tea
I love this picture. It completely captures each of their personalities! And low and behold, the one who is usually checked out during any poetry reading looks chipper.
My kids respond very positively to any time we have food on the table and candles lit. So for our tea time I just grabbed what was on hand – mint tea with xyla, jello, fruit leathers, strawberries, oranges, and gluten-free crackers with raw peanut butter and raspberry jelly. Since we have had to switch to gluten-free products I have not found many easy-to-make and tasty baked goods but they were troopers and enjoyed the spread.
This particular poetry time we were reading Robert Louis Stevenson’s “My Shadow”. My kids really like when we act out what we have been reading. The poem also makes more sense when we act and put expression into the reading. That also helps me understand since I have not had much exposure to poetry. My middle daughter, our performer, would also like to learn our “parts” to the poem so we can act it out for our family and friends.
I have to admit that the beginning of our year was a little stale and boring. I fell into a pattern of a schedule instead of routine. I KNOW that my kids like interactive activities and our read-aloud times. But because the curriculum guidebook told us to read certain books and to do certain activities on certain days I tried to stick with that but felt bad about my or the kids’ performance based on that standard. How silly. After looking over your website, listening to your podcasts, reading your blog, ordering and reading through Writer’s Jungle, Jot it Down, Partnership Writing, The Arrow (can you tell I’m into immersion?) and implementing those liberating changes to our days we are all so much happier!!!! What do you know!!!! School can be fun! Hahaha! I just laugh at myself. And fortunately my kids are laughing again too!
Kim
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