Poetry tea - thank you!

[Evergreen Academy]

A week or so ago there was a thread about tea time and poetry, and I was inspired and decided to make Wednesdays our poet-tea days. Today we had the most lovely poet-tea, and I wanted to thank those of you who started and contributed to the thread.

 

We did it fairly simply, with iced tea (it's hot here today), banana bars on my grandmother's dishes, and poems each boy and I had selected. We set up outside on the picnic table, and each took turns reading poetry. I had asked each to choose a poem earlier in the day, and it was fun to hear their selections. Ds 12 chose several poems by J.R.R. Tolkien (one of his favorite authors) and one by e.e. Cummings, and one ds9 chose a psalm. The other ds9 chose a few poems about birds, as his writing assignment this week is about barn swallows, and littlest ds7 chose and read Humpty Dumpty. It was the sweetest thing, and I was amazed at how much my ds took to it - what a blessing to be outside on a beautiful day listening to four little boys read and enjoy poetry!

 

Just wanted to say thanks.

Blessings,

Aimee

Mom to 6 great kids ages 7-19, schooling grades 1, 3, 3 and 6

[lovemykids]

Sounds lovely! :)

[kwg]

It does sound lovely! I have been wanting to start tea time but have been nervous that ds (and well dh when he hears about it) would not ...appreciate it...amd would think it is too girly.

 

Maybe I can come up with another term for it :lol:

[Evergreen Academy]

Well, we like rather British things and I drink tea all day long, so the boys like the idea of having their own tea time. I can see though, if a boy associates tea with tea parties, that it might seem girly. Perhaps in cultural context, of afternoon tea, it might seem cultural and cool rather than silly? Or you could give it a new name. :001_smile:

 

We've done afternoon tea many times (or morning), just usually with our Bible work, so the poetry addition and grandmother's dishes were a fun new change.

 

Blessings,

Aimee

Mom to 6 great kids ages 7-19, schooling grades 1, 3, 3 and 6

[JMDRAD]

This really does sound like a lot of fun. With three little girls, I have no excuse. LOL

[ScoutTN]

How fun! I've gotta do that!

Food might be initial bait for boys - tea is okay, but tea with cake is very good!

[yvonne]

Call it a "gouter" (goo tay) In France, the afternoon snack, around 3 or 4:00, is called a "gouter." But whether you call it a gouter or tea, I'll bet the boys will be just as happy to get a snack as the girls. :)

[Guest Alte Veste Academy]

It was the sweetest thing, and I was amazed at how much my ds took to it - what a blessing to be outside on a beautiful day listening to four little boys read and enjoy poetry!

 

It is so lovely to read this! I'm glad you tried it! It is so wonderful. I find it to be a very calming ritual for us here.

 

If you don't already do nature study, let me just tell you that nature study is to the homeschool week what poet-tea is to the homeschool day here. ;) Calming and lovely, the high points of our school.

 

It does sound lovely! I have been wanting to start tea time but have been nervous that ds (and well dh when he hears about it) would not ...appreciate it...amd would think it is too girly.

 

Maybe I can come up with another term for it :lol:

 

The funny thing is that even though DH is a manly-man, he sees a huge benefit to the boys reading and appreciating good literature and poetry. He is seriously awestruck by dc's love of books and poetry, because it's something that was never made attractive to him as a child. It's something he feels he missed out on as a kid.

 

Can you sell it that way? :D

 

P.S. I tried really hard to think of a catchy name for your poetry time but my brain is fried from too much housekeeping. :lol:

[amlee]

what a wonderful time you had with your four boys, some lovely poetry, and tea . . . !

thank you so much for sharing it here

 

i have 2 boys (12 and 17 now) and we still do "sunday family tea time" each week

one person presents (we rotate between the 4 of us) and the one who presented the week before is in charge of treats

we love the time together, we all learn something new each week, and our public speaking skills continue to improve :)

[m4given]

A week or so ago there was a thread about tea time and poetry, and I was inspired and decided to make Wednesdays our poet-tea days. Today we had the most lovely poet-tea, and I wanted to thank those of you who started and contributed to the thread.

 

Just wanted to say thanks.

Blessings,

Aimee

Mom to 6 great kids ages 7-19, schooling grades 1, 3, 3 and 6

 

Yay!!!! I wish I could have been there. It sounds so heart-warming. You're now giving me some great ideas! We usually try to do "Tuesday Tea", but missed it this week somehow. I think we can easily make-up for it though.:tongue_smilie:

 

Call it a "gouter" (goo tay) In France, the afternoon snack, around 3 or 4:00, is called a "gouter." But whether you call it a gouter or tea, I'll bet the boys will be just as happy to get a snack as the girls. :)

What a neat idea!

 

i have 2 boys (12 and 17 now) and we still do "sunday family tea time" each week

one person presents (we rotate between the 4 of us) and the one who presented the week before is in charge of treats

we love the time together, we all learn something new each week, and our public speaking skills continue to improve :)

I like this idea. Do you know how long you've done "Sunday family tea" ?

[yslek]

It does sound lovely! I have been wanting to start tea time but have been nervous that ds (and well dh when he hears about it) would not ...appreciate it...amd would think it is too girly.

 

Maybe I can come up with another term for it :lol:

 

In Germany, there's "Kaffee" instead of tea time. Grownups would drink coffe, the kids would have juice, and there would be some yummy treats as well. I think it was around 3 or 4 pm, but don't remember that part clearly. Maybe that would be less girly for your guys?:D