A Brave Writer's Life in Brief

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

Visit our Poetry Teatime website!

My name is Rebecca, my children are Roman (almost 8) and Simone (5). Poetry Tea Time gives our family rhythm and respite – some quite time among the complexities of math, of learning to read. It easily blends into many other aspects of life. We use it to practice proper table manners or to learn to cook the goodies we will eat.

I wanted to share with you a photo from our most recent Poetry Tea. It took place while camping in the Santa Fe National Forest, about an hour from our house. No fancy tea cups and pastry this time. However, campfire s’mores, tall Ponderosa Pines and cool mountain air are a good trade.

I love listening to the giggles of my children as I read Hat by Shel Silverstein. The poem is about a child who is wearing a toilet plunger as a hat. The reader can only assume he must have been told this by an older sibling. I think as mother’s we can all relate to the plight of our youngest children. I feel as though I have come full circle when I read poems by Silverstein, my parents read them to me as a child, now I am sharing them with my children. They are silly and deep at the same time.

Sometimes our Poetry Tea is fancy and proper, sometimes it is lemonade and cookies in the park, sometimes it is mud pies and sticks in the river and sometimes it is up in the tall pines of the mountains. In the photo we are enjoying what we love most about homeschool, independence. We are camping, during the middle of the week, in an empty forest.

Visit our Poetry Teatime website!

My name is Rebekah and my children are Micah (10 years old), River (5 years old), and Iris(2 years old). In these photos we are having tea and muffins of course, but my oldest son is also working on the Jabberwocky poetry activity from The Writer’s Jungle. We also had some fun math time with the little ones, and continued to read from A Midsummer’s Night Dream.

#          #          #

We joke that poetry teatimes are the ‘gateway drug’ to Brave Writer. They’re the lure, the enticement of all we’re about. And they’re free—no product purchase necessary.

You can read the details of how to hold a poetry teatime here.

But let’s look at why it works and what it does in your family, if you’ll just give it a go (even if right now, you think you hate poetry).

Here’s what happens when you take an hour a week to read poetry and drink beverages in tea cups or mugs with a few sweet treats for munchies.

EVERYONE stops.

Everyone. The whole bunch of you gather and every person is equally important to the teatime—baby, toddler, little kidlet, middler, teen, parent. It’s a moment in the day where the whole gang comes together.

Everyone STOPS.

The workbooks, the calculator, the DVD instructions, the playing with toys, the reading to oneself, the “moving a load of laundry from one machine to the other.” It all comes to a halt.

READING begins.

Poetry books are passed around the table. The readers, read. Long poems, short verses, paired-reading poetry, recited tongue twisters and limericks. Everyone reads—at whatever level they can—the exact poems they want to read. This is not “drumming out a few pages to prove you can read” reading, but a joyful dive into material selected by oneself to share with others!

Reading BEGINS.

Even non-readers read. They hunt for clues on the page that tell them that this poem, this verse is worth hearing. They look at fonts, and pictures, and words they recognize and they make good guesses—”Hey! I think I’d like hearing that poem.” They pass the book to a neighboring, willing reader and almost always want to follow along. Their selection is being read! They picked it! Reading is elevated to a goal, to a sacred practice, to being as cool as the big kids, to “I can almost read because I picked that poem!”

POETRY connects.

Poetry is a stealth writing form. It sneaks in through the backdoor and jumps you when you don’t expect it. T. S. Eliot says that poetry is “a raid on the inarticulate.” Rhymes, riddles, verse, ballads, sonnets, villanelles —whether you “get” the poem or not, there are words for pleasure and pondering, tickling and testing in your mouth. Laughter and puzzlement are part of poetry. Poems enrich vocabulary, imagery, and the pairing of unlikely ideas… which gets a writer’s juices going! Poetry says “Come out and play with me.”

Poetry CONNECTS.

A poem in your pocket, or shared over a bagel, or savored later in the day, once you take time to reread it, is like opening a love letter. There’s a little thrill—What will this set of words show me today that I never thought of before? Next week, and the next, you’ll notice favorite poems recycle and certain poetic forms revisited. Slowly, your family creates a shared poetic language that is uniquely yours. It’s different than story—poetry spans the ages more readily, and more quickly.

TEA and TREATS are enjoyed.

Or the beverage of your choice or your kids’ choice. Hydration (we forget to drink enough already, which causes headaches and crankiness), the soothing ritual of tea (blowing the steam off, slowing down to sip, adding milk, sugar, or honey, stirring and tinkling the cup), tipping a teapot and being careful not to spill…. rituals that alter the rush and race of life.

Also, sweet snacks, like brownies or scones or muffins or cookies or sliced cinnamon-sugar oranges or apple crescents or bunches of grapes, equal ‘happy’ smack dab in the middle of the day. The boost of sweet, the chance to munch, the shared pleasure of rare treats guarantees pleasant attitudes.

Poetry teatimes SHIFT your priorities.

When learning shows up as pleasurable and free, undistracted and rich, it’s harder to go back to dead forms of education. Other ideas to enliven the tedious or difficult subjects will dawn on you, as you move toward connection over completion.

So find a poem, put the kettle on, lay out a few Oreos on a small plate, and get started. You can add a flower arrangement and table cloth next week. Just jump in.

Life gets better with poetry and tea.

Visit our Poetry Teatime website!

Dear Julie,

Thank you for the inspiration to take our teatime to another level. My son was so keen on the idea that he baked scones for our first poetry tea, cut and arranged fresh flowers for the table, and even made up his own poetry during the session. Needless to say, I was a happy mummy! Our first trial has been so successful that my son wants to do it every day if possible.

~Hwee
The Tiger Chronicle

Visit our Poetry Teatime website!

Images from The Tiger Chronicle. Used with permission.