Poetry teatime is such a delight that we have discovered over the last few years of homeschooling. It’s such a positive for our whole family, I’m so glad I heard about it and we tried it out.
Poetry teatime is a concept suggested by Brave Writer, from Julie Bogart. It is a simple idea with big implications: use the draw of a teatime, with a pretty table and treats to eat, to introduce poetry, poetry writing and reading aloud to children.
It truly does give children a completely different view of poetry from what I remembered of much of my schooling. The children are free to write, read, choose or recite as they want: there is no forced learning or repeating of poems. If they don’t want to read aloud for the group, they don’t have to.
The whole experience makes it special. Although it may be a British institution, afternoon tea is not something we partake of every day of the week! Sitting down for finger sandwiches and cake or other treats brings everyone to the table, kids and adults, whether they’re excited about the poetry or not. Homemade or shop-bought, it doesn’t much matter and we usually have a mix of both.
We’re growing our poetry book collection, but do remember that many childrens’ picture books are written as rhyming poetry. Always on the table for poetry teatime with us is the “big book” ‘Sing A Song of Seasons’, which is just gorgeous, and a natural starting point, being as it has a specific poem for every day of the year. We also like Dr Seuss and Shirley Hughes books from my own childhood.
In poetry teatime, my children have spontaneously come up with poems and written them. Reading aloud to the family or group has become more natural for our eldest and this week, our youngest, who is learning to read, started reading aloud from a Dr Seuss book I had added to the selection of poetry. Coming to homeschooling far less sure about the learning of language arts than maths and science, as I am, these are HUGE wins.
Our eldest is turning into a really good cook and these week she made a baked lemon cheesecake, with summer berry compote, for our poetry teatime. The baking brought in plenty of maths and science to our day, as well as the Occupational Education of baking, and the writing and Language Arts of the poetry itself. I can’t think of many activities that tick so many of the core subjects for our state, in one go, whilst being such fun.
Find out more here or search on Instagram for #poetryteatime.
