A Brave Writer's Life in Brief

Hi, Julie,

Thank you so much for the wonderful idea of poetry teatimes; we’ve been loving this new addition to our week. I run a family child care program as well as homeschooling my 6-year-old daughter. This year, I dropped down to only 3 kids enrolled on Mondays, so we can all fit into my car. We’ve been going hiking those mornings, coming home for nap, and getting up to have poetry teatime. What a dreamy day!

Here’s a photo from yesterday’s teatime. I don’t usually crowd the table so much, but my daughter wanted to prominently display all the (slightly burned) popovers, because “you bake the best things, mama!” She is making her “proper British face” to go with the tea, while 2-year-old Josie wonders what the heck she’s doing.

Another favorite part of the photo: “The Big Golden Book of Little Verses,” a vintage copy which I gave her as a Christmas gift after we saw a Mary Blair exhibit at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. She was thrilled with it. Like the baking, it’s all tied to warm, connected memories.

🙂 Lise

Visit our NEW Poetry Teatime website!

Inspired by Brave Writer, I started doing poetry tea times with my kids a few weeks ago. It’s turned into one of our favorite times together during the week.

I pull out different poetry books for the kids to look through and pick from. My readers choose new poems or old favorites to read to us and my younger nonreaders pick out poems that I read aloud for them.

My kids are finding a love for poetry through these special times and we are enjoying special time together.

Thanks for the inspiration Brave Writer!

Alison

Visit our NEW Poetry Teatime website!

We are a new homeschooling family as of this past September and have had several struggles in the journey. A friend of mine referred me over to Brave Writer with the hope that it could help us. I immediately loved all the ideas…..I was getting inspired! Yes, we could do this!

One of the struggles we have had is that my youngest does not like school and writing. (We just had her assessed and are awaiting the results…we suspect dysgraphia.) But I knew there was a way that I could help her love learning. So I started watching lots of periscopes and voila…POETRY TEA TIME! That’s it! I had to try it!

So, one morning I surprised the girls with our kitchen table all prepped for Poetry Tea Time. I had put out my china tea cups out, hot tea (and yes, I even bought PG Tips), crumpets, muffins, fruit, candles, and duct tape flowers the girls had previously made. With the help of the BraveScopes FB page, I had selected a few poetry books from our library. It was the perfect setting.

The girls woke up to it with huge smiles on their face. Yes…a big win!!!!!!

We read, we drank, we ate, we laughed….it was perfect! After one hour, they didn’t want it to end! Wow, were these the same kids?!?!

It was such a hit, that we decided to alternate who was in charge of planning it each week. Remember, the youngest who hates school and writing? Well, she begged to be the first in charge. ? She pulled out her journal and WROTE out her whole plan. The menu, the decorations, and she even wrote out special messages on cards to each of us. And she went to the library and picked out the poetry books….I didn’t even help…she asked the librarian to help her so that I was surprised. She has made special decorations to hang as well. This child is learning, having fun, and she doesn’t even realize it! WOOHOO!!!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Poetry Tea Time was our first Brave Writer experience and it will not be the last…..such a huge impact in our lives! It has given me the confidence to continue homeschooling and know that we can do it with fun, laughter, and peace.

Valerie

Visit our NEW Poetry Teatime website!