Poetry Teatime: Most delightful

Poetry Teatime

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!

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Give Your Children the Gift of Presence

The Gift of Presence

In the season of gift-buying and gift-giving and gift-thanking, it’s easy to forget to be “present” with and to your children. It is nearly impossible to remember most presents people buy for you. You might remember the Singer sewing machine for kids that your mom bought you at age 9, or the new bicycle, or the pocket knife you longed for. But the vast majority of trendy dolls and toys and sweater vests and art kits and Nerf guns and Lego sets—these are happily enjoyed until they wind up lost in the basement.

What is remembered with the gauzy haze of happy are the shared traditions—where kids got to do what adults do, and were enjoyed in the process.

  • Mashing the potatoes
  • Rolling out pie crust
  • Creating a center piece
  • Singing holiday songs while cleaning the kitchen
  • Hand-drawing place cards with gold ink pens
  • Hanging lights
  • Lighting the fire in the fire place
  • Touch football after turkey in the backyard
  • Lounging with family in front of the TV
  • Taking walks in the neighborhood bundled in scarves and hats
  • Eating as many turkey sandwiches as a person wants without asking permission
  • Staying up late
  • Sleeping in
  • Sparkling cider toasts to the out of town relatives in for the weekend
  • Taking turns bouncing the baby…

Ask your children what traditions they love. You will be surprised that some of the things you’ve done once (!) are on that list and now you know you’d better put them on the list for this year too!

One of our holiday traditions is to make an apple pie with a top crust made from maple leaf cut outs. I did it once—it became firmly cemented in all future Thanksgivings forever and ever, amen. Everyone wants a turn cutting the leaf shapes. My kids are adults. See what I mean?

Be present. Pause occasionally and appreciate the splendor of family that lives under one roof without the need to fly them in from anywhere. Look at the way the children light up thinking about their favorite foods when your energy flags. Ask for hugs and someone to tell you jokes while you cook to keep your own energy high!

Give to get to give to get to give to get… This is how the exchange works.

Be present to yourself, to your family, to your joy this holiday season.

A Gracious Space series

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Friday Freewrite: If you lost your memory

NaaD 45 Christa -blog

Today’s writing prompt is a twist on one by Homeschoolingmom4two:

If you lost your memory and couldn’t remember your friends and family, what could they do and where might they take you to remind you of the relationships.

Image by Brave Writer mom, Christa (cc)

New to freewriting? Check out our online guide.

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It All Counts

It All Counts

Today’s thought: It all counts

  • The dish washing,
  • the foot rubbing,
  • the tub bathing,
  • the skip counting in the car,
  • the singing at the tops of your lungs together off key,
  • the carefully copied passage,
  • the shopping for groceries,
  • the spontaneous walk in the neighborhood,
  • the sorting the laundry into the right colored piles,
  • the charging of the dead phone,
  • the pause to text your sick mother-in-law,
  • the five minutes you take to regroup,
  • the gentle way you overlooked your child’s Big Mess,
  • the fifth book read after lunch when you usually only read three,
  • the naps (oh yes, the naps count!),
  • the petting of the dog,
  • the recitation of a few historical facts,
  • the listening carefully when your child explains how to beat level five,
  • the cuddles,
  • the enthusiastic cheer for small successes and big ones,
  • the science experiment you finally got through with all the right ingredients,
  • the trampoline jumping,
  • the needed and taken break…

This stuff also counts:

  • The short word,
  • the worry,
  • the rushing,
  • the aimlessness that takes over when exhausted,
  • the bickering,
  • the harsh tone when a child is simply being a child,
  • the endless pages of material a child already knows,
  • the push, push, push to work harder on what a child isn’t ready for,
  • the conversations with a spouse overheard by the child,
  • the missed opportunities to play,
  • the loss of contact with a teen,
  • the blankness that sets in when sick of homeschooling,
  • the lost moment when a child was excited but you were distracted,
  • the anxiety that something’s wrong,
  • the blues,
  • the bad math book that you spent too much on,
  • the co-op where a bully mistreats your one child,
  • the much-needed, not-taken break…

You get to choose what will count in your homeschool.

Brave Writer Lifestyle

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Movie Wednesday: Watch a film adaptation

Babysitting

In Reading the Movies, William Costanzo notes that it has been estimated that a third of all films ever made were adapted from novels. If you count other literary forms, such as drama or short stories, that estimate might well be 65 percent or more. Nearly all of the classic works students study in high school have been adapted for film, some several times in several different eras. —From PBS’s Adaption from Novel to Film

It can be fascinating to see favorite characters from a book spring to life on screen. Whether we like the adaptation or not, it can give us insights into the story that we didn’t see before.

Here’s a helpful list of children’s books that have been made into films. After you’ve read the book and watched the movie adaptation, you might discuss:

What were the similarities and differences between the book and the film?

Did the cast fit the characters in the book?

If you’d been the director, what changes would you have made?

Were there scenes in the movie that were better than in the book?

Imagine that the author and the screenwriter met for dinner. What might they say to each other?

Happy adaptation watching!

Also, this winter we are offering a twofer movie club!

  • Four movies about Brave Girls, four about Gutsy Boys (and a number of titles are adaptations!)
  • Two movie clubs united by their intrepid protagonists.
  • Sign up for one or…
  • Join both clubs and save!

Click here for more information about our upcoming Movie Discussion Club!

Image by Emily Hildebrand (cc cropped)

Need help commenting meaningfully on plot, characterization, make-up and costumes, acting, setting and even film editing? Check out our eleven page guide, Brave Writer Goes to the Movies. Also, tell us about a film you and your kids watched together (along with a pic if you have one) and if we share it on the blog you’ll receive a FREE copy!

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