Tuesday Tea Time

I've discovered a wonderful web site called Brave Writer. The woman behind it all is a homeschooling mother who loves to write and to coach others in writing. She has a lot of really neat resources and services such as a manual that actually teaches home educators how to teach writing, email newsletters that offer lots of ideas for writing, reading, and making your lifestyle one that encourages both as a natural activity, a blog where she shares even more ideas, online classes for writing, and so on. I was so thrilled to find out about Brave Writer because this is one of the areas I struggle with. Although I know *how* to write fairly well (my blog doesn't count since I'm hurrying and not turning it in to a teacher!) I have never felt that I could effectively convey to anyone else how to write well. It comes easy for me, and that's all I know!

One of the things that she suggests is a Tuesday Tea with your children. You make all sorts of tea-type foods, tea or some drink your family will enjoy, and have each person come prepared to share some poetry or a portion of literature that they thought was worth sharing. Since I'm new to Brave Writer I don't know if I've got the entire thing understood, but today when I got a reminder email from her egroup about having Tuesday Tea Time I decided to go for it since my kids are home from school today.

So I announced to the children that we were going to have tea and that they needed to get their chore areas cleaned up, and figure out what they were going to read or present to the group during tea. I made mini muffins, peanut butter balls (one of my family's favorites), little sandwiches, and a bunch of other fun little tea foods. We had peppermint tea and hot cocoa and water to drink (depending on the preference of the kiddo). I used a red tablecloth that has snowflakes on it, since we're having a snow day off of school, and of course we lit candles.


These are little peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!


Apple slices with star cut-outs. Fun!



They were delighted with the way everything looked, and we had lots of fun reading to each other.



My daughter (almost 9) read us a little book that she likes. My 12 year old son read several selections from Shel Silverstein's fabulous poetry book Where the Sidewalk Ends. Jake (6 years old) isn't such a strong reader and didn't want to read out loud, so he choose to show and tell about a new game we had gotten from his Ladybug magazine. I read my favorite poem, Smart, which is also by Shel Silverstein (who has been my very favorite poet since I was a child and discovered him--he's brilliant and hilarious!) . Here's the poem:

Smart

My dad gave me one dollar bill
'Cause I'm his smartest son,
And I swapped it for two shiny quarters
'Cause two is more than one!

And then I took the quarters
And traded them to Lou
For three dimes--I guess he don't know
That three is more than two!

Just then, along came old blind Bates
And just 'cause he can't see
He gave me four nickels for my three dimes
And four is more than three!

And I took the nickels to Hiram Coombs
Down at the seed-feed store,
And the fool gave me five pennies for them,
And five is more than four!

And then I went and showed my dad,
And he got red in the cheeks
And closed his eyes and shook his head--
Too proud of me to speak!

Cute, huh?

The other thing I read was the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, which I guess is actually a tie for my favorite poem, since that's essentially what it is. If you have children 6 or younger and you don't have this book, Get It! But, when you read it, you have to get into it with some really good rhythm. I've heard people read it without rhythm and trust me, it isn't nearly as clever that way. My kids loved it that I stood up with the book, stomped my feet for the beat, and read the story in a really fun way. (voices, actions, facial expression) It helped that I've read it so many times over the years that I have it nearly memorized. Comes in handy when you have to stomp, turn the pages, and hold the book so everybody can see the pictures! :)

So, our first-ever Tuesday Tea Time--it was great! Maybe you'd enjoy giving it a try with your family. :)