Bringing Back Tea Time and Poetry

Tea time, that idyllic time for a hard-stop in the day, to snack and drink, rest, and enjoy the company of others, is making a comeback in our house. After being inspired by the idea from Brave Writer, I plan a tea time weekly and actually follow through at least twice a month. I have posted before about our tea times here and here.

So back on topic, we enjoy our tea time! The poetry part isn’t the kids’ favorite, but I sense a growing appreciation for that, too. The idea is to spend time simply reading and reciting poetry, while enjoying tea and snacks. I begin with reading a poem I’ve chosen for fun, something seasonal or funny or new. Then, I invite and strongly encourage each of the kids to recite or read their current poem for us. In this setting, they are less intimidated to perform perfectly, and seem genuinely excited to show off how well they have memorized their poem. This alone makes tea time and poetry so worth it for me! There is little more encouraging and heart-warming to me as a homeschool mama than to see my children excited about what they have learned, and excited to share it with others.

Now for the yummy part! Tea and snacks make this little event appealing and comforting. Really, who doesn’t love to gather for a special snack? Especially when sweet treats are involved? I love the “excuse” to bake a little more often, and the kids love to have brownies and cookies or whatever I’ve chosen for our tea snack as an extra treat.

Last week, we had oatmeal cookies, sesame snap candies, and homemade apple cider. <<Not tea, I know. The point is not the tea, but the coming together. We’ve spent our tea times in the dining room with a lovely centerpiece and table runner, in the kitchen, on the floor with a blanket, and in the yard picnic style. One week, we took our poetry books on a hike, and had juice boxes and store-bought cookies while we sat in a small grove of trees with our poetry.

In all honesty, about half of our tea-times end up a bit haphazard, because I want to have them on Tuesday, but those are “out of the house” afternoons…still, coming home to intentionally rest and sit together with our special snack and poetry is a nice “hard-stop” and relaxing half hour.

Try it yourself! If you have poetry at home already, start with that. Or, you can look up famous poets online and print the poems. Also, libraries are FULL of poetry books for children. If you need ideas, this post from Pam has great poetry ideas.

Let me know if you give tea time a try!

For the rest of the Imperfectly Domestic series, 31 days and ways of how I do my best even if not *the* best, click the image!

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