A Brave Writer's Life in Brief

I wanted to share a special tea time we had at our house.  This week we are working on displays for our homeschool Passport Fair booth.  We’re studying England and so I thought an English Cream Tea was in order along with poetry from some favorite English authors.  We chose our favorite “World of Winnie the Pooh” and “Tales of Peter Rabbit and Friends” as our centerpiece books.  After serving our tea and munching scones with cream and jam, we each read aloud from some of our favorite English authors –  A.A. Milne, Robert Louis Stevenson & Geoffrey Chaucer.  We were so full of “tea” that we had to have late lunch.  It sure was a nice little break in our busy day.

Sincerely,

Brave Mom in

Alzada, MT

 

P.S.  My children are in their teens, but they still appreciate some of their childhood poetry.

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Isn’t this great? Keep those teatime photos coming!

–julie

Hi Julie!

I just received my copy of The Writer’s Jungle last week and have really enjoyed reading it and receiving your daily emails. I’m so glad I found you!!  Today we had tea time and read poetry and the kids just loved it. We also did the Friday Freewrite and they actually didn’t mind it. My 14 year old daughter said it felt like we were “goofing off” instead of doing schoolwork. I take that as a compliment from her!  Thank you so much! That’s my son, 16, my daughter, 14, and my other daughter, 11, in the picture.

Brave Mom in
Irmo, SC

So glad to have a teatime featuring teenagers. If you pick the right snacks (and provide enough of them), they can’t turn you down.

Send me your photos!! Remember, teatime photos enter you in a drawing to win a Brown Betty teapot (drawing will be held in June). All those who send either teatime stories (what you did, ate and read) and/or a photo will receive a free back issue of the Arrow or the Slingshot. So keep those pictures and teatime narratives coming.

–julie

Snow came to PA and we built ourselves an Igloo. Third photo we are inside the igloo. 

My son, daughter and I had teatime in the Igloo one day after we returned from our Wednesday co-op day. This teatime we listened to the world from inside our igloo.  Safe, warm and peaceful. We talked about how warm we were as we were sitting in the snow out of the wind.  As you can see from my daughter’s mouth we had hot chocolate. 

My daughter read Hedgehog Bakes a Cake and had the idea to make Hedgehog’s cake. There is a recipe at the end of the book she wanted to bake. The making and eating of the cake turned into our Teatime.

My mother has been living with us since last October so she joined us for cake and tea along with my husband.

Brave Mom in Lancaster, PA

Is this a brave mom, or what? Any experience requiring a trip into the cold gets a high five from me. Don’t you love an igloo teatime?

What will we see next? Teatime in a treetop for spring? What about on a hike or at a park? On the rooftop? A French Cafe or an Indian Chai?

The sky’s the limit. Let’s see what other teatimes you can dream up, enjoy and share with the rest of us. (Drawing for a teapot in June and a free back issue of the Arrow or Slingshot to everyone who participates by sending me a photo and/or a short description of your experience.)

–julie

I have been enjoying your thoughts and guidance all month and wanted to share a picture of our teatime we had last Tuesday.  My in-laws (still on the fence about homeschooling since she taught for years in the public school system) were visiting and they joined us.  We all read some funny poems we had found both online and in a library book (except for 3-year-old Molly who just giggled).  When we had all read a little and I declared my son (age 6) “free” he actually said, “I want to do more!”  Wow!

Since it was a warm day we substituted chocolate milkshakes for tea but the candles still made it cozy.

Thanks again for all you do!

Brave Mom in VA

And to go with today’s teatime, here is a poem for February (Black History Month). If your kids don’t know about the Civil Rights Movement or the Jim Crow laws, this poem is a powerful way to introduce them to that darker period of our country’s history.

The following poem is one of my favorites by Hughes.

Langston Hughes

Merry Go Round

COLORED CHILD AT CARNIVAL

Where is the Jim Crow section
On this merry-go-round,
Mister, cause I want to ride?
Down South where I come from
White and colored
Can’t sit side by side.
Down South on the train
There’s a Jim Crow car.
On the bus we’re put in the back—
But there ain’t no back
To a merry-go-round!
Where’s the horse
For a kid that’s black?