Celeste and I continue to love our Poetry Tea Time. Every Tuesday, usually shortly after lunch, we prepare our table, tea, and snacks for our tea time. I get our poetry books and set them up.
When everything is ready and our tea is steeped, I start reading aloud. We usually read a couple of poems from each book. Sometimes Celeste asks for more, and other times she asks me to read the same poem again.
We both enjoy the poetry, the tea and the snacks. I pause after each poem I read, for potential feedback, but we don't generally discuss or analyse the poems. We just enjoy them, the words, the flow, the imagination the poet had when he or she wrote it.
We started a new book of collected poems since we finished two of our old ones.
The National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry has been wonderful. Filled with beautiful photographs and wonderful poems from many great poets like Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Rudyard Kipling, Frank Asch and so many more.
We continue to read some picture books at the end of our poetry selections, often following a theme like the change of seasons or a holiday like Halloween.
Whenever I visit thrift stores, I look over their book section in hopes of finding a poetry book. We also borrow books from our local public library.
September and most of October were really nice, weather wise on the island, so we did not feel like baking much. The snacks were simple. We often had fruit slices, rice cakes, or even popcorn!
Poetry Tea Time has continued to be a great addition to our homeschool routine. We could not imagine stopping it! We have received guests for Poetry Tea Time and been to invited to a friend's house too. It's a great way to spend some time with friends!
The idea came from Brave Writer, a language arts homeschool curriculum. Poetry Teatimes is a great article to read if you are interested.
I have compiled a list of all my poetry tea time posts for easy reference.
I love reading about other homeschool families enjoying poetry teatime. It's great to see friends enjoying this routine!
My dear friend Cindy from Ontario wrote a wonderful post about it at her Precious Living Stones blog.
A close homeschool friend, from Prince Edward Island, also wrote a post on her blog Kids, Cookies and Cocoa.
Another friend, also from here, has been writing about her Poetry Teatime for some time. Her posts always include great book suggestions! You can read Nelleke's posts at Education is a Life.
It's been wonderful to see other families sharing their photos on Instagram. If you search #poetryteatime, you will see many!
Wow, that National Geographic book looks great! Was it at the library, or is it one you own? The library has one of the Poetry for Young People (Robert Frost, I believe), and it was so beautiful! I've been requesting them to buy more of the series. :)
ReplyDeleteI purchased the National Geographic one on amazon.ca, after looking at many! I love the Poetry for Young People series, I keep an eye out for those at the thrift stores ;)
DeleteI just requested The Tree That Time Built for our library - looks like a sweet bunch of poetry. I love looking at your images of tea time - reminds me of my best friend and I going out for afternoon tea on weekends when we were in high school! :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a cool way to enjoy some poetry! My girls would probably love this too. :) Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI should try to add poetry in once in a while with my boys. They are just so not into language. lol. Your homeschool days always look so mellow, fun, and relaxed.
ReplyDeleteLove it! My girls would go ga ga over this idea! I LOVE your blog! Rebecca @ http://www.hiphomeschoolingblog.com
ReplyDeleteHi Alex. I am so happy to have stumbled upon your blog somehow, can't remember exactly as I have been going back through and reading all of your homeschooling posts for a bit now. New to this whole homeschool adventure, it has been a wonderful source, as I am still trying to navigate my way and figure this whole thing out. I have three kids (ages 27, 17, and 8), two of which went to and are in public school. The littlest started out in public school the first two years. He is in 3rd grade (2nd year of homeschooling. Getting away from the whole public school mindset after this many years, especially having gone myself, is not easy.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I am really interested in learning more about Julie's writing program. I also have picked up some poetry books recently, to do our own poetry tea time. He seems excited about it. He loves to read as it is. :) I dug out my oldest's Shel Silverstein books too. I think this will be a wonderful addition to our week.
Thank you, again, for sharing your homeschool adventures. I really look to those who have been at this awhile.
Michelle