Last summer, I asked Alexie what she wanted to learn and do in her homeschooling this year. She had a few suggestions. One of them was to have more tea parties.
That’s certainly an idea I can get on board with.
Poetry teatime was an idea from “Brave Learner” author Julie Bogart. The concept is simple. Host a tea party with your kids and share some great books and poems.
If this is an idea that you think your kids would love, let me walk you through how to host the perfect poetry teatime.
1.Make Some Snacks
We love to make some food for our party. We often make some kind of baking, whether it’s cookies, muffins, or loaf. Because of Alexie’s food sensitivities, we usually have to make 2 different recipes, but it’s just a normal thing for us. We also like to make seasonal choices or to connect with a book or poem that we will read. By doing a little baking we are adding some math and science to our teatime.
2. Set the Scene
It’s important to take some time to set the scene for our tea parties. We set the table with our nice china, little plates, and cute napkins. We light tealight candles, arrange some flowers, and make it a pretty place to sit. It’s also a great idea to set the ambiance by playing some soft music in the background.
3. Serve the Tea
Serving the tea is very important and how we kick off our tea time. Feel free to serve whatever liquid you would like. Favourites at our house include pink lemonade, iced tea, and hot chocolate in the winter.
4. Start Reading
Julie Bogart started poetry teas as a way to foster a love of poetry in her children. And while we often read poetry from one of our Shel Silverstein books or others, we’ll also read things other than poetry, too. We’ve read Christmas stories during the holidays, picture books by some of our favourite authors, or even a chapter or two from a chapter book the girls were already reading.
While the idea of poetry is nice, I also love the idea of teatime just being a time to read and share a love of literature. And when the girls get older, they’ll be able to take turns reading aloud and might even take the opportunity to read one of their original stories or poems.
