Many homeschoolers incorporate a poetry tea time party into their weekly routine. It took me several months to wrap my head around the idea, but I’m so glad I took the time to make it happen! It has turned out to be such a hit with my kids. The treats certainly help and they love the tea but they also really like the poetry too. Combining all three into a poetry tea time party is a winning combination to create magic in your homeschool day.
A few years ago, a friend introduced me to Brave Writer, which a language arts program and so much more. Poetry tea time falls into the “more” part with the goal to create a language rich environment. The creator of the program, Julie Bogart, emphasizes the importance of creating magic and wonder within our homeschool.
One way to do this is with a weekly poetry tea time. Seeing so many pictures around social media of perfect poetry tea times actually stopped me in my tracks instead of inspiring me to make it happen in my family. I didn’t have beautiful matching tea cups or whimsical decor that matches a beautiful stack of poetry books coordinated around the same theme. From the pictures I saw, it looked like I had a lot of work to do before being able to pull off a proper poetry tea time! Finally, I decided to just put together what I could, buy just a few extra small things, and make it happen even if it wasn’t Pinterest or Instagram worthy.
I want to share the story of our first (of many) poetry tea times so that you can see how wonderful they can be without the stress of making it picture perfect.
Our First Poetry Tea Time Party
A few days before the party, you oldest, who was 6, asked for a piece of an egg carton for a project. She didn’t know what she needed it for at the time, but she ended up making it into a raffle ticket holder. She cut up tiny pieces of colored paper to put in it. The morning of the party, we drew the raffle tickets. The color you drew was what dress you had to wear to the party. The girls picked out their costume dresses, shoes, and tiara. Thankfully, they let me come to the party in my usual jeans and t-shirt attire. I had no intention of turning it into a dress up party, but you know little girls rarely miss a chance for dress up!
Related Post: 10 Beautiful Winter Poetry Books for Kids
Low Stress Decor
We didn’t go completely all out. I wanted to create a special occasion but not stress about it. We had fall decorations around the house that I gathered for a center piece. We bought a fall themed tablecloth, candles, place mats, and shortbread cookies for around $20. Yes, store bought cookies are perfectly fine! We used small coffee cups and saucers from our everyday dishes. I dug out two teapots that we had’t used in years and discovered that both were broken but still usable for the moment. Usually when making tea, I use a strainer in the cup instead a teapot but using a pot helps set the scene and makes it a little different than “everyday”. Plus, a teapot allows the kids to pour their own tea.
It’s important to use real dishes and table décor instead of typical children’s tea party sets. It makes the party feel special for the kids. It doesn’t have to be fancy dishes but just grown up ones. It’s okay if they aren’t picture perfect.
And yes, the flowers in the picture below are fake because that’s what we had at the moment.
What Poetry to Read?
The book that I picked for our first poetry tea time was Julie Andrews’ Treasury for All Seasons. I didn’t pick out poems ahead of time. I kept it simple and paged through the book as we sipped tea. We read a handful of poems, sipped elder flower tea, and ate store bought cookies. The girls even used their best manners including, “May I please have more tea?”
The Magic!
At the end, my 6 year old insisted that we each make up our own poem. I grabbed a pen and paper and wrote them down exactly as they dictated them to me. Even now, 6 years later, I still have these poems that they wrote during this first poetry tea time.
My Oldest’s First Poem, 6 years old
Springs of blossom
Flowers bloom
Wherever the lead goes
As bees buzz in the spring
To sip nectar from the flowers
As the little children laugh and play
In the green grass
I wanted to point out her third line, “Wherever the lead goes”. I thought I had misunderstood her, but she explained that the “lead” is the leader bee that all the other bees follow around the yard. What a fantastic picture this must have painted in her head!
My youngest’s First Poem, 3 years old
Wherever the leaves go
The butterflies go
Wherever the butterflies go
Bees follow
Wherever the leaves go
The fairies fly
Wherever the fairies fly
The children play in the grass
Where the princesses in the castles
Setting up a tea party
The princesses and fairies eat cupcakes
And read a poem.
The girls absolutely loved the tea party! My favorite part was watching them create their own poems, which now happens at the end of most of our poetry tea times. It is such a lovely way to create some magic during our week! Getting past that first one is always a challenge as we try to find our own rhythm with something new. Keeping it simple, low stress and NOT picture perfect helped us make this a regular tradition in our homeschool routine.
Over time, we’ve slowly added more decor, fancier tea cups, a new teapot, and many more poetry books (often from the library), but you certainly don’t have to start there. Grab whatever you have and just add tea (or some other drink), a treat (store bought counts), and a few poems. Let the magic of those three ingredients do the work!
Have you brought poetry tea time to your homeschool routine?
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oh what fun! I can so see that working with little girls. My lad would have totally scoffed at me. 🙂