Tea Time

One of my homeschooling friends recently attended the homeschooling conference in Cincinatti. While there, she heard Julie Bogart, the creator of BraveWriter.com, speak. My friend passed along an idea that Julie shared. It's called Tea Time. She suggests having a special reading time with your children once a week. Do it in the dining room, serve special drinks such as tea, use fancy plates, and read poetry. I thought it was such a fun idea! And who says having a tea party is just for girls? We tried it out yesterday with the boys after they woke up from their naps and they loved it.
To adapt the idea to smaller children, I decided that we'd have a little treat with our drinks {meringues}. The snack keeps The Noodle quiet longer and it adds to the "specialness" of our Tea Time. The boys chose between decaf tea or Milo {a chocolate drink mix like Ovaltine}. Instead of doing poetry, we decided to start by reading The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. I read for about 15-20 minutes. By then The Noodle was ready to get down from the table and play but Boo asked me to keep reading. While reading, I paused every couple of pages to answer any pressing questions he had about the storyline or words that were unfamiliar. At the end, I asked him several questions about what we read. It's a great story to start with as he followed it well. We all really enjoyed our Tea Time and Boo's been asking when we can do it again. It's a great way to introduce more advanced literature and improve listening skills. I'm going to dig around in our storage to look for some old teacups and saucers we can use next time. I have several mismatched pieces of fine china I've picked up at garage sales and thrift stores over the years and our Tea Time would be a perfect use for them.

Let me know if you try it.