A Brave Writer's Life in Brief

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We share poetry titles on our Poetry Teatime Pinterest board.
Suggested books often come from the featured teatimes of Brave Writer families.

Poetry Books Featured in 2014

Five were by Jack Prelutsky:

A Pizza the Size of the Sun
The New Kid on the Block
My Dog May be a Genius
It’s Raining Pigs and Noodles
Be Glad Your Nose is on Your Face

Two by Kenn Nesbitt:

The Tighty Whitey Spider
My Hippo Has the Hiccups

And two by Calef Brown:

Flamingos on the Roof
Soup for Breakfast

The others:

Don’t Bump the Glump! and Other Fantasies by Shel Silverstein
Custard and Company by Ogden Nash
Pumpkin Butterfly by Heidi Mordhorst
Ten-Second Rain Showers: Poems by Young People complied by Sandford Lyne
The Arrow Finds Its Mark: A Book of Found Poems edited by Georgia Heard
A Visit to William Blake’s Inn by Nancy Willard
The Children’s Classic Poetry Collection complied by Nicola Baxter
The Random House Book of Poetry for Children
Mosquitoes Are Ruining My Summer! by Alan Katz
Toasting Marshmallows: Camping Poems by Kristine O’Connell George
Alligator Pie by Dennis Lee
The Real Mother Goose illustrated by Blanche Fisher Wright
Child’s Anthology of Poetry by Elizabeth Hauge Sword
Silly Verse for Kids by Spike Milligan
A Child’s Introduction to Poetry by Michael Driscoll
Tea Rex by Molly Idle
Poetry for Young People by Walt Whitman
Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot
Lemonade and Other Squeezed Poems from a Single Word by Bob Raczka
Favorite Poems Old and New selected by Helen Farris
When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne
Snow Snow by Jane Yolen
Poems to Read to the Very Young by Josette Frank
Summoning the Phoenix: Poems and Prose About Chinese Musical Instruments by Emily Jiang

 Enjoy!

Image by Jenn Durfey (cc cropped and text added)

Visit our Poetry Teatime website!

The Original Poetry Teatime Guide

Poetry Teatimes offer you and your children a break from the fast-paced demands of homeschooling, parenting, and household running. Everyone sighs a collective “ahhhh” as they settle into their chairs, tea cups or mugs in hand, poetry books scattered across the table.

How to Make a Pot of Tea

Plus muffin and scone recipes!

7 Teatime Tips

Some fresh advice for your teatimes!

The Value of Poetry

Poetry teaches us the beauty and potential of the English language. The innovative use of language—of diction (word choice), metaphor and simile, other figures of speech, punctuation and capitalization—encourages our fledgling writers to take a chance with language.

34 Poetry Books for Teatime

We share poetry titles on our Poetry Teatime Pinterest board. Suggested books often come from the featured teatimes of Brave Writer families. Here are the poetry books we shared in 2014.

More Poetry Teatime Titles

Features poetry books our family has enjoyed during our teatimes. Also, check out the recommendations from readers in the comments!

How to Read Poetry Aloud

“A poem will live or die depending on how it is read.” ~Billy Collins, former U.S. Poet Laureate

Our First Teatime of the Year

Over and over, they had to read the poems aloud and remember all the times we’ve read them before. At one point, I had to explain why other people didn’t read poetry the way we did: “It’s because a lot of people are intimidated by poetry. They don’t know that you can begin with rhymes and jokes, kids poems and limericks. If they started there, they’d ease into the adult stuff without noticing…like you have!”

No More Fantasy Teatime

Don’t fall victim to “Fantasy Teatime Syndrome.”

What If Your Kids Don’t Like Teatime?

The idea here is to keep experimenting with new venues, new options, trusting the overall thrust of your time with your children to be the good that they need. Remember how critical their own input is to a successful home education.

Sometimes Mom Needs a Teatime Just for Her

Find a private moment to sip, to observe, to take in a little written inspiration, to pause and enjoy the flavor of the hot brew on a cold day.

Then there are the many awesome Brave Writer families who have shared their teatimes with us.

And don’t forget our Poetry Teatime Pinterest board. It’s filled with ideas!

Enjoy!

P.S. Thinking of poetry, our Playing with Poetry online workshop is the most fun you can have with your kids while working on writing. Taught by our own Susanne Barrett (MA in poetry), your family will not just learn to appreciate poetic forms, but will have the satisfying pleasure of writing them!

Also, Brave Writer’s Arrow Poetry Guide is a helpful tool! Four weeks’ worth of poetry lessons that use popular poems for children.

Still life image by cbransto (cc cropped, text added)

Visit our Poetry Teatime website!

This year we added a new element to our plans: Brave Writer! I totally wish Julie would adopt me, and show me her homeschool ways. Fortunately, because she has a writing program, she is a fabulous writer that often shares her wisdom on her blog and via Facebook [and The Homeschool Alliance!].

One of the elements of the Brave Writer Lifestyle is Tuesday Teatime. We didn’t get out our finest china this time, but I may have to dig it out. I already know my boys love being read to. I didn’t know how they would like reading poetry to each other. They both actually had a lot of fun!

I collected some of the poetry books Julie had recommended. The boys really enjoyed these. I hope to collect a few more along the way.

I made Lemon Cream Scones as our snack because what proper tea wouldn’t have a proper scone? These are very simple, but every time I make them someone asks for the recipe. They’re not dense like typical scones, but rather more biscuit-like [see Tara’s recipe!].

My boys love chai lattes. I heated 2 bags of chai in water on the stove, and then added some sugar and soy milk. Yum!

~Tara

Read more at Tara’s blog, Monarch Room.

Images shared with permission.

Stopping the rush for a restorative cup of tea creates the perfect space to contemplate rhymes, limericks, and sonnets. When you pair poetry with tea, your children create a connection between contemplation and rest, while also creating memories of serenity and joy.

Image (cc)

Visit our Poetry Teatime website!

We added Poetry Tea to our lineup for school this year, and it has been an enormous hit.

My 6yo daughter was adamant we have our teatime a couple of days early last week so that we could include her grandparents, who were visiting from out of state. My mother-in-law is the person who gave us two of the children’s poetry anthologies that we use regularly for our teatimes, and I knew she would be delighted to participate.

My father-in-law snapped this picture of me and her, leaving through books, taking turns reading our favorites aloud. We did this for quite a long time, even after the children had lost interest in muffins, lemonade, and poetry and had skipped off.

It was our most delightful Teatime so far!

~Erin

Image (cc)

Visit our Poetry Teatime website!