Image by Nick Webb
“The very act of preparing and serving tea encourages conversation. The little spaces in time created by teatime rituals call out to be filled with conversation. Even the tea itself–warm and comforting-inspires a feeling of relaxation and trust that fosters shared confidences.” ~Emilie Barnes, If Teacups Could Talk
I have been slowly gathering up supplies for our first “Tuesday Tea and Poetry” day in the tradition of the Brave Writer Lifestyle. Lots of books have been purchased and we are continuing to gather tea cups and fancy dishes as we come across them in thrift stores or on other outings.
Today, my son helped me get everything set up while his sister was playing with a friend. He was very excited and thought we should call it “Fancy Day!” We used an old quilt for a tablecloth and brought in flowers. We put out snacks and books and then let the girls in on the surprise. They had been on their way outside to play, but agreed to try it out.
Success! From the moment we started reading, they loved every minute! We took turns sharing and listening. We heard poems about a drumstick, a werewolf, William Tell, a man with clothes made out of food and dead animals, summertime and a baby cow, pranks played on a dad, and more. My son surprised me the most. I wasn’t sure how he would like it, but he seemed to enjoy it best of all and wanted to stay and read stories when we were done.
So he did read to me – “Just So Stories” by Rudyard Kipling. He has listened to the audio book many times (all 3 1/2 hours of it) and he liked reading the first story and poem to me in his fancy, expressive voice with a bit of a Brittish accent.
Everyone is looking forward to next week! I will need to dig up a stash of special snacks.
~Kiersten
See more first teatime pics at Kiesten’s blog, Growing Free.
We had another lovely Poetry Tea Time on Tuesday this week. We are trying to keep a regular day for it, but we do enjoy reading aloud and having tea more than just one day a week!
I had found a fun looking poetry book at the thrift store a few weeks ago. The art and the poems appealed to Celeste right away and she asked for more non sense poetry. I put a few titles on hold at our local library.
Polka-bats and Octopus Slacks is a collection of 14 stories by Calef Brown. Celeste’s favourite was The Lonely Surfer:
“In a dry and dusty desert town
the lonely surfer hangs around.
Perched upon a prickly pear,
he usually wears a worried frown.
People ask the surfer dude,
“Why so far from the ocean blue?”
“Because I’m so afraid of sharks,”
he says, “and water too!”
Alexandra has many lovely teatime posts on her blog. She’s also shared about her daughter’s writing journey and her experience with Brave Writer. Check it out!
I love the idea of Poetry Teatime, and the times we have done it, all of us have really enjoyed it. The truth is, though, that we haven’t done it very often. Tea is an afternoon thing, right? But there’s the baby’s nap, and swim practice to get to, and dinner to start, and frankly, most days, there’s already too much to do. Teatime gets delayed, then rescheduled, and then forgotten for months.
This day was different, though. It was a beautiful, perfect spring day in late May, a rarity in Texas. Here, it goes from cold and drizzly to beastly hot nearly instantaneously, and usually in April. We all wanted to be outside, but the kids needed lunch, and really, we needed to do some schoolwork, didn’t we?
Poetry teatime al fresco! I quickly gathered up some lunch and made tea while my 12 year old set the table outside. I retrieved the too-long-neglected stack of poetry books from the dining room (where else would they be?), and we all sat down with a collective, nearly audible sigh.
The 12 year old chose a poem from Caroline Kennedy’s A Family of Poems, which was just a starting point. We got to the section of silly poems and stayed there, relishing each one. The two-year-old, an avid participant in just about everything, surprised us by not wanting to choose a poem. Instead, she insisted that we needed to sing “I’m a Little Teapot,” and so we did. Six times!
Teatime al fresco was perfect. We really do need to make time for it more often.
~Janeen
Our first Tuesday Teatime was back in 2005. We enjoyed it, but for some reason didn’t do one again until recently. Alas, I have a whole new group of kiddos that didn’t remember that long-ago tea experience or who weren’t here to experience it!
I gathered several poetry books from the library and the children enjoyed looking through them to find something to share. They took turns reading, as did I, and we all enjoyed the snacks.
I look forward to continuing this tradition, hopefully more frequently than every 8 years!
Thanks,
Erica
