This week’s question is about how we do Poetry Tea Time in our family. This is an idea I got several years ago from Julie Bogert @bravelearnerhome, and we’ve incorporated it into our weekly rhythm. 

In this week’s episode, I’ll share how we set it up to make it easy to do at our house, when we hold our tea time, the books we use, and our favorite snacks that everyone looks forward to.

The What, How, and Where of Poetry Tea Time:

• Poetry Tea Time is basically eating food and reading poems together. Each child picks a poem and either reads it aloud or hands it to me to read. 

• Getting set up is crucial. The easier you make it, the more likely it is to happen. I made a trip to Goodwill and got mugs and tea cups. You could also have a special tablecloth and candles. Often, for us, just sitting down with a snack and a clean table is victory enough. 

• Keep the snacks simple and delicious. My oldest loves going out to gather lemon balm or mint leaves and steeping them in water for our tea. Other common tea-time snacks are green smoothies, popsicles, popcorn, banana ice cream, energy balls, and chickpea chocolate chip cookies. Recipes can be found here.

• We typically build this into our routine in the afternoons after quiet time. One of my favorite things is to pair this with cleaning up the house right after because everyone is fed. Then we can go outside for the rest of the afternoon until dinner (assuming I prepped an Instapot meal ahead of time). We go out and in of doing this. We just begin again when we top.

Books we use: 

1. Ambleside Online Poetry Anthologies

2. Poetry for Young People Series (Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost are great starting points)

3. Children’s Book of Virtues

4. The Book of Virtures

5. Anderson’s Fairy Tales

6. When We Were Very Young

7. Now We Are Six

8. Children’s Anthology of Poetry Edited By Elizabeth Hauge Sword

9. A Family of Poems by Caroline Kennedy