Tea Time

Once in a while I set the table with the lacy doily and fancy china. I brew tea and set out delicious goodies. The kids and I don't just sit around the table, sip tea and nibble on treats. We read poetry too. I got the idea from a homeschool writing curriculum, Brave Writer, some years ago.

We haven't done Tea Time very regularly since ARG started spending more and more time at his classes. But once in a while when I know he'll be home, I make an effort, and we have a lovely time together.

It has been a pretty easy way to introduce all three kids to the joy of poetry. We started with lots of Shel Silverstein (Where the Sidewalk Ends) but now enjoy all types of poetry. A book of classic poems makes it easy to find good ones. I have come to especially love Dorothy Parker, a poet with a laser sharp sense of humor and keen sense of human failings (like Emily Dickenson with a laugh).

Often ARG picks depressing or military poems. Rosie is beginning to lean that way as well, but also likes the epic/tragic/romantic ones. MiniMe still goes for the animal or funny poems. I am eclectic - I like them all. Though Robert Frost is growing on me. We even find poems and songs from the literature we are reading: LOTR, Arthurian legends, even the Hunger Games books.

I like that we can talk about the words - sounds and meanings and rhythms. It has been an easy way to introduce poetic devices without using a curriculum. Tea time is my shining example of unschooling - something I do very little of - so I have to play it up.

The kids mostly like the treats, but I think a little poetry is getting in there too.