3 Tips for a Successful Poetry Teatime

3 Tips for a Successful Poetry Teatime – Written by Erin Vincent of Nourishing My Scholar

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“Mama, can we have poetry teatime?”

My 10-year-old asked me this simple question, and I thought, why not? There was no reason to say no to such a delightful request.

She proceeded to set the table while I gathered our poetry books. She requested her favorite poem, “Tyger”, by William Blake. We discovered some sugar cookies in the fridge that needed to be baked and a box of snack cakes in the cupboard.

I asked my 15-year-old if he’d like to join us, and he agreed, though he did request some Edgar Allen Poe. I put the kettle on to boil and got out our musical teapot. We spent the next 45 minutes taking turns reading poetry.

The wafts of freshly baked cookies filled the air, and our teapot trilled a little tune every time we picked it up. That was our most recent poetry teatime, and I call that a homeschool win.

We’ve enjoyed the simplicity of poetry teatime for over ten years. Since then, we’ve discovered our favorite poetry books, snacks, and tea. There are no hard rules for poetry teatime.

However, you may find a few of these tips helpful.

3 Tips for a Successful Poetry Teatime

1. Treats

While poetry is beautiful and speaks to my soul on many levels, it’s not what initially hooked my kids. Nope. What got my kids loving poetry at first was the treats!

Whether it was a homemade dessert or a little Debbie cake out of the package, my kids love treats. Of course, my son was only five years old when we started having poetry teatime, so yummy snacks were an absolute must. Find what your kids love and present that along with the poetry.

I read poetry, or we take turns reading until the treats and tea run out. Simple as that.

2. Tea

Then there is the tea. There is a wide range of tea, and experimenting with different types was fun. We discovered some we hated and others that we adored.

My son’s favorite is Bengal Spice with a splash of milk, while my daughter loves fruity teas. Sometimes we wouldn’t have tea at all, but hot chocolate or cider instead. How about a lemonade poetry teatime on a hot, sunny summer day?

Also, I never went out and bought a fancy tea set. Rather we’ve collected tea cups and teapots over the years from yard sales, thrift shops, etc.

3. Poetry

We’ve gathered poetry books from bookstores, thrift stores, library sales, and many other places. If we see a new one at the library, we’ll check it out too. Many poetry books have crossed our threshold and made appearances at our teatimes, and we are better for them.

They have taught us much in the way of nature, seasons, love, and the human spirit. Not to mention imagery, patterns, and rhyming.

Poetry teatime doesn’t have to be planned. It can be as simple or as extravagant as you want to make it. Add a vase of flowers, a fancy table cloth or candles if you like.

Do it on a whim, when your children ask, or every Tuesday of the week. Whatever works for you is the best way. That’s the beauty in the freedom that homeschooling provides.

You can do whatever works for your family. Poetry teatime is coming together over a lovely table with tea, treats, and poetry, which helps bring a love of words and rhymes in a gentle way. Make it look and feel how you want it to look and feel, even poetry teatime.

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