Our Poetry Teatimes are rarely elaborate, but I find if I keep it simple it is more likely to happen. Here are five of my six children, my only little boy is in his highchair to the side. It’s was a wonderful, rainy day and I made tea time special by lighting candles.
Thank you for always being so encouraging.
Bethany
We started our first school day of 2015 with a breakfast tea. Honestly, it all came together wonderfully at the last minute. I had other plans originally but I am so thankful that poetry is the way we began our school year. On Sundays my husband makes coffee cake for breakfast. So, I put coffee cake on a pretty platter, eggs on a platter, I whipped up some homemade whipped cream, and cut strawberries. These were all items I had around the house! I already had the fresh flowers on the table. They are from my garden. I pulled out a tablecloth and fancy china. We were all out of tea so I used orange juice instead.
I feel like modifying is one of my strengths with 6 kids between the ages of 3 and 12. I pulled out a lot of poetry books that and set them at the end of the table. Each child took turns picking a poem and reading it aloud. My 5 year old isn’t reading but she still picked out a poem and one of her siblings read it for her. Even my 3 year old got up with a book and pretended to read from it. She probably received the most applause. It was such a perfect way to begin our new school year and I am confident my kids will remember it. This week we are going to do a baseball themed poetry dinner and daddy will be included.
Have a most blessed day,
Heather
Thanks so much for inspiring us to tea time! Here are the kids at our first. They chose a theme and read poems about cats while one of ours joined in.
We were eating Peppridge Farm cookies, which I had carefully hidden in the pantry. I knew homemade was not going to happen and these were a great treat. In the pot – hot chocolate.
John, 9, read The Owl and the Pussycat. Hannah, 11, read The Cats Have Come to Tea by Kate Greenway. I have had a lot of fun keeping my eyes open for poetry books with illustrations at used bookstores and library sales, and they opened one called Curious Cats in Art and Poetry.
I read a poem about fairies and then went on with our read aloud. I didn’t really think the kids were that enthralled at the time, but later comments about how much they loved the teatime really encouraged me to keep this up. It was a lovely break from more traditional activities. The animals loved it, too!
My husband has sweet childhood memories of reading poetry as a family at holidays, so I hope the kids will enthusiastically participate this Christmas.
Kristin
Over the last year I have been incorporating the Brave Writer Lifestyle into not only our writing, but our home. The one thing I could not get on board with was Poetry Tea Time. I have two VERY busy little boys and the idea of having formal tea just seemed absurd to me. I just KNEW that the boys would not be interested. I also KNEW that Julie Bogart must be a little crazy for even suggesting it! Sorry Julie!
Fast forward a year and I am still loving Brave Writer and then I stumble across the Read Aloud Revival. The girls over there LOVE Poetry Tea Time! I caught the enthusiasm and decided to try it out for myself, fully expecting it to flop. Remember, I have two busy boys. I just can’t imagine them sitting nicely around a table enjoying tea and cookies while reading beautiful poetry. No way. But, I’ll try nearly anything once, so we gave it a shot.
I was blown away. Those antsy little boys loved every minute of it. They ate up not only the cookies, but the tea, the fancy tea service, the poetry. They ate it all up in one big gulp and then asked for more. It was a smashing success.
So, Julie, I’m sorry for ever doubting you! Thank you!!
Cassie
Read more about Cassie’s Poetry Teatime on her blog, refashion Mom.
We had a lovely poetry tea time today. I pulled out my china set that I bought in Hong Kong when I spent a summer there. The girls loved hearing stories of the tea set itself.
We also made Chai tea with honey and added cool whip from the spray can. This ended up being the highlight. A bit nontraditional but loads of fun.
They were having so much fun with the tea that after poetry I read one of their history books to them while they were listening and sipping.
THANKS for that amazing idea.
I’m also on your Alliance website which has been so nice. I appreciate all that you are doing.
Thanks,
Suzanne
