Marie-Therese and I have been having tea parties for forever. We have tea & treats to celebrate special Feast Days, to celebrate a regular day, to celebrate rainy, snowy, sunny days.
Before we decided to homeschool I came across Julie Bogart at Brave Writer and immediately fell in love with the style she promotes. It is a lifestyle of enchanted learning....for our children and for us as adults. I slowly began to incorporate some of her ideas into our days. Slowly because I know me and I will get overwhelmed if I do too much at once and then everything will fall apart!
Last summer I came across Julie's idea of Poetry Tea Time and fell in love. Ever since then every Tuesday (for the most part, every so often it will move to a different day of the week) is Poetry Tea Time.
I love it because it can be as simple or as involved as we want. Most Tuesday's we bake cookies or pumpkin bread...other weeks we buy a special treat such as cinnamon buns or store bought cookies or donuts. It varies but it's always a special treat that is only for Poetry Tea Time.
I try to match up poems with the seasons or holidays but other weeks it's just a book of poems that I've grabbed from the library or from our own book shelves. Marie-Therese takes the books and looks through them and decides which ones she wants me to read.
Some weeks poetry tea time lasts long enough for Marie-Therese to eat her treat, sip some water in a fancy mug (she has decided recently she doesn't like tea anymore) and listen to a couple poems. Then she's done and off.
More often then not though we sit and enjoy our treat & tea, I read poems and then we get out the crayons and art supplies.
We both treasure this quiet time together, it is helping both of us to slow down and be present in the moment, love to read/listen to poetry, and chat with each other.
Poetry Tea Time has brought the feeling of enchantment to our Tuesday's that I am seeking in our homeschool & family life and it is also spilling over into other days too.
In the picture above is our Saint Patrick's Day Poetry Tea Time from yesterday. There was candle light, cinnamon buns, tea, shamrock napkins and poems about leprechauns, shamrocks, green & gold nature and an Irish Legend.
We are hoping to begin having a poetry tea time party once a month or so with a few friends, that is all in the brain storming phase right now but Marie-Therese has some big ideas!
For right now I share all our poetry tea time pictures on Instagram using the tag #poetryteatime where you can also check out all the other families who are having tea time!
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Our Poetry Tea Time Recipe:
candles
treats
tea (or water or juice)
a few poetry books (or poems printed off from on-line)
a center piece (or not)
friends to gather together
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There is also a new website all about Poetry Tea Time, right now it's the pre-launch page with some goodies, namely a free guide on how to start this tradition in your family. It's beautiful and promises to be a rich resource for sharing poetry & tea with your families.
