A Brave Writer's Life in Brief

My children’s absolute favourite part of our week is tea time Tuesday! We have been reading Shel Silverstein and they want to read the poems over and over. I’m amazed at the deep belly laughing and giggling that they express with every poem. I would never have thought to read poetry to my kids, but I’m so thankful for this prompting to try it! Here we are on another rainy Vancouver Tuesday morning. We have our hot chocolate in hand and our pumpkin candle burning!

My kids are 8, 6, and 4! Thanks!

Melissa

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We used Brave Writer all last year (Arrow and Boomerang) but never made the jump to Teatime Tuesdays as there never seemed enough time to get all of our “stuff” done. I fluctuate between “going with the flow” and needing all my boxes checked off to make sure progress is being made. After seeing the English/Literature standardized test scores from my two eldest daughters at the end of last year, I was completely floored. My eldest daughter has always had a natural inclination towards reading and writing, but my second daughter struggled and was a least a grade to a grade and a half behind. Both girls had scored a grade above in this area and even more importantly they absolutely love to read. That being said, I figured we could spare a little more time and include the “indulgent” teatime Tuesday this year.

It is the highlight of our week. The girls all get dressed up, help me set the table with our fancy tea set, and get out the books we are currently reading plus a bunch of poetry books. A new favorite is “Vile Verses” by Roald Dahl. To be honest, I didn’t think the poetry would stick, but I hear the kids speaking verse and rhyming with each other all of the time. My youngest (6) plays a game with my husband during bedtime and they try to outdo each other with a new original poem each night.

At the end of the day, I know the girls will progress and move forward in their studies, but they will not remember any of the “stuff” that they had to get done–they will remember Teatime Tuesdays.

Thank you.

Rachel

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We’ve just started using Brave Writer end of last year and the beginning of this school year we started the Teatimes. The kids were really excited to share poems together. My son (age 12) bought me a book “Sixty Poems” by Rudyard Kipling this summer at a used book sale in anticipation of these teatimes, so we tried some of those out, in addition to our Robert Louis Stevenson favorites.

One funny thing that happened was that we set the teatime up on the front porch area due to the amazing weather we were having. As soon as our teatime started, the neighbor across the street starting using some kind of really loud saw or grinder. We kept laughing about how it “disturbed the dignity and repose of the tea party.” (which is a quote from the Tale of Tom Kitten). Every poem was accented with a loud grinding/sawing sound.

Last weekend the kids asked if we could buy a half gallon of apple cider for our next Tuesday Teatime, which shows how much they are enjoying it!

~Angie

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Poetry teatime is my absolute favourite part of the Brave Writer lifestyle.

Setting the scene

I lit a candle and put a posy of summer flowers as a centrepiece. Often we gather flowers from the garden. Today I grabbed the fake flowers that normally live in our downstairs loo!

Food and drink

This morning’s poetry teatime was mid-morning, so I set out raspberries, cherries, blueberries and brioches. I made cocoa for the children, and tea for me.

Choosing poems

Everyone chooses their poems beforehand. They can take as much or as little time as they like over this. There are no rules. J(8) almost always chooses poems from The Puffin Book of Utterly Brilliant Poetry. Today he said he was going to make up one of his poems – “I’ve got the first line, I’m just playing with the rest in my head.” C(9) spent much of last term writing out poems for copywork. She chose to read a few of these. I selected a few short, funny poems from Read Me And Laugh.

Poetry Teatime

Poetry teatime usually kicks off with the children commenting appreciatively on how good the table looks (apparently it’s a rare thing!). Then we tuck into food and poems, taking turns around the table to read.

Both my kids adore reading poems aloud; they do it with gusto. For J(8), especially, this is an excellent opportunity – his desire to entertain completely overcomes his reading difficulties, and he amazes us with his fluency!

~Lucinda

Read more at Lucinda’s blog, Navigating By Joy.

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We have TWO teatimes to share today! The first is from Brave Writer newbie, Ksenia:

We recently started Poetry Teatime, a Brave Writer Activity. The children loved the first one so much that we decided to do it again, Hallowe’en-style.

Dd’s project has been making baked desserts recently. For the last tea time, she made lemon tarts…yum! This time she wanted to make a Hallowe’en-themed treat for tea time, and after deliberating she chose to make shortbread cookies with icing. We picked Martha’s shortbread cookies and her Royal icing. A warning about her cookies – read the recipe through first to figure out if you have time for them! Dd is getting really comfortable in the kitchen lately.

We set the table with a candles, including a “dripping blood” one, spooky napkins, and a dreadfully wilted bouquet. Tea was peppermint with honey and sugar cubes, with pumpkin-iced cookies and Hallowe’en candy. Dd’s cookies were perfect!

Even though they can read, the children enjoy it when I read for them. I had picked out a stack of poetry books from the library a few days before.

Ten-year-old ds preferred the poems from Cobwebs, Chatters, and Chills: A Collection of Scary Poems compiled by Patricia M. Stockland. The poems are short and easily read. At the bottom of each page, there’s a little blurb that draws attention to the poem type (haiku, limerick, etc.) or elements including onomatopoeia, rhythm, metaphor, etc. Seven-year-old dd indulged in too much candy and was distracted from poetry by a sore tummy. My favourite was the 1907 book Cautionary Tales for Children by Hilaire Belloc. School Library Journal describes these as “sprightly little rhymes that speak of the foibles of children and the horrible consequences thereof”. Loving British humour as I do, I really appreciated them. They are best for children who aren’t overly sensitive however. Also enjoyable was Vile Verses by Roald Dahl. His poetic critique of Goldilocks and the Three Bears had us amused.

Sharing poetry has proven to be a lovely activity for a lazy autumn afternoon.

Next, Mara sent us this adorable video with Dahlia and McKenna. So cute!

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