Why We Love Poetry Tea Time + Our Current Favourite Poetry Books

Poetry Tea Time is a routine that we added to our homeschool since January 2013. We like to keep it simple, a few poetry books, tea or other tasty drink, and a snack. 

We continue to enjoy Poetry Tea Time once a week, usually on Tuesdays but we have done this on other days too. Sometimes we invite friends, other times we attend our friends' Poetry Tea Time. I have mentioned it to pretty much every homeschool family I know personally and I post a photo on my instagram of our table, almost every time before or after our poetry time. 


I have blogged about this in the past *see here for a list of posts* but it has been a while since my last entry and I feel that it is time for an update and why we love it. I also included a short list of our favourite poetry books.

So why do we love poetry tea time so much? 

Well, it's so simple...we love the time we spend together. 

The delicious drinks and snacks help too! 

I enjoy reading poetry aloud and Celeste does too. We often take turns reading from our collection of poetry books. 

It is a routine we both look forward to, a slow activity that is pure enjoyment. 

It isn't a "schoolish" thing, just a simple moment enjoyed together. If we talk about the poems we read, fine..if not, that's ok too! We don't "analyze" them, instead we might either share if we liked it or not, wonder what the poet was trying to say, or what the poem made us think about. 

We keep it simple! 

Here are our current top favourite poetry books:

From the Book of Animal Poetry 

National Book of Animal Poetry - This is Celeste's favourite with a collection of 200 poems from many different authors and gorgeous photographs. She often reads aloud from this book to me. I love the different sections in this collection, like the Little Ones, the Winged Ones, etc...

National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry is new and we haven't started it yet, but I had to mention it because it is very similar to the Book of Animal Poetry. 

The Tree that Time Built is filled with nature, imagination, and science inspired poetry. It includes an audio CD but we haven't used it yet! I wrote more about this wonderful collection of poems here.  

The Aesop for Children is another favourite. The stories and the lessons they teach are often very interesting to Celeste and I. 

Last book I want to share today is one that I have been reading on my own. Poets' Corner compiled by John Lithgow. He includes an introduction to each poet in his book that I really love reading. 

We very often include picture books at the end of our poetry tea time, lovely books we find at our local library. Celeste and I love children picture books! We also often read from our current read aloud. 


If you would like to find out more about Poetry Tea Time, you can visit my other posts here and Brave Writer Poetry Teatimes.