Thursday, April 5, 2012

Cups and Saucers! Our FIRST High Tea...with Poetry

Did you know that April is National Poetry Month? I didn't, but how ironic that I had JUST started planning our very first ever High Tea with Poetry readings

(I've seen this idea floating around the blogosphere recently and it had me pondering. If you're one of these bloggers, PLEASE share your link in the comment section and readers can see YOUR teas too!)

On Monday, the Saplings each chose a poem to copy and memorize. Sugar Maple was MOST excited and anxious to chose just the perfect poem!


Do you know what "low tea" is? "afternoon tea"? "high tea"? "meat tea"? Us either, so we had to Google them and found this simple explanation:

High tea [meat tea] is a full meal served at around 5 or 6 PM. It is usually associated with the members of the lower classes, who were hungry after a long day at work (often with no break). Low tea [afternoon tea] is a light meal traditionally begun at 4 or 5 PM and ending before 7 PM. It is associated with the high class, who saw it more as a social occasion than a meal and used it to stave off hunger between an early lunch and a late dinner. Think of high tea as a meal and low tea as “finger foods.” - VeeTea 


So, after looking at VeeTea and traditional food ideas we decided to combine the "teas" and have MEDIUM TEA! LOL Yeah, we just made that up. (Click on the highlighted menu links to see the where we found our recipes. Pinterest finds!)


Medium Tea Menu
Mini Mac'n Cheese
Cucumber Tea Sandwiches
Watercress Egg Salad Tea Sandwiches
Gingerbread Scones with Orange Glaze
Crumb Cake
Various Teas and Hot Cocoa

Sometimes Blue Spruce (Dad) misses our dinner meals because of work, but this week we MADE SURE our tea was on Thursday so he could join us! And guess what? He shared some poetry too!

White Pine's Poem Copywork
Sugar Maple's Illustrated Poem Copywork
Balsam Fir's Poem Copywork

First, the Saplings helped make our goodies and then they prepared the table with our tea cups and saucers. Nothing too fancy (of course), but there's something special about using tableware that you, well, never use.

An Assortment of Tea
Gingerbread Scones with Orange Glaze
Egg Salad - Watercress Tea Sandwiches
Coffee Crumble Cake
Mini Mac'n Cheese Cups
Cucumber with Herbed Cream Cheese Tea Sandwiches

And then we nibbled a little, sipped, shared a few poems, nibbled a little more, sipped, and finished up our poems. And we worked on proper, polite table manners! I was pleasantly surprised that the kids - even the BOYS - seemed to enjoy choosing a poem to memorize and share! Do you suppose it was the lure of the food? LOL I think I've stumbled upon something that could become a family tradition! Shakespeare next?

19 comments:

  1. I love this!!! We are having an emphasis on tea right now with our The Secret Garden unit. It would certainly be nice to throw in some garden poetry! I'm off to browse the library website. Thanks!!!!

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    1. The kiddos were SUPER excited to do this! I'm a bit surprised, but they LOVED having a tea and sharing poetry! Sugar Maple already has a poem picked out for our NEXT tea! LOL It was also a time that we worked on proper table manners. ;)

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  2. That is so cool! :) Love the poems, and the food looks delish! So glad they all enjoyed it. I will have to consider something like this for next year. :)

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  3. Your tea party looks AWESOME! I love the fancy treats! We've been having poetry tea party for the past two weeks, but ours are much less formal :) We have had tea parties like yours in the past, though, and they are lots of fun!

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  4. sounds yummy and inspiring :)

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  5. Great idea! We had tea on tuesdays when we were reading through the American Girl book "Felicity". During this time we would have tea time cookies and warm tea while listening to Falconand I took turns reciting Felicity to everyone. Maybe I should bring this back for poety hour. Following you now, I thought I was following you long ago but I guess I never actually clicked the button...lol.

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  6. Y'all went all out for this tea! We were just talking earlier this week about our tea and poetry days being something we miss, so we'll be reinstating these soon!

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  7. Wow! We are mostly girls over here (22 month old boy) I think we'll have to this later this month. And no I didn't know it was national Poetry month but I did know it is Autism month! :)Blessings, Kyle

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  8. We used to do tea time with poetry (and other artsy stuff), years ago, and you've made me excited about doing it again. Your menu is amazing! I am definitely pinning this.

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  9. We just began Tuesday Tea Times. I blogged about it here: http://creeksidelearning.com/2012/03/28/tuesday-tea-time-its-not-just-for-girls/
    But your food is way better so we'd like to join you next week, Ok? LOL. I love that you call it Medium Tea. That is too funny.

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    1. I'm glad you shared your link! I hope others will visit! Your post was one that I've seen "around" and inspired me to do this tea! Thanks!

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  10. Next time I'd better invited. Now I have a huge craving for a gingerbread scone. You need to live near me. LOL

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  11. Love it!!!!! :-) I know my kids would really enjoy something like this. Thanks for the inspiration! :-) I hope you all had a blessed and happy Easter, too! Thanks so much for linking up!

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  12. The food from your tea looks fantastic!

    My family read Shakespeare plays growing up, and we all enjoyed it. Maybe your kids will, too :)

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  13. Tea and poetry go so well together;) Thanks for linking up with Kids in the Kitchen! I even talk my boys into tea parties once in awhile - guess I better get on that for this month.

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  14. Great idea - glad it went well! The food looks good, so I can see how that might have been a motivator for the kids to learn poetry. LOL

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  15. Everything looks delicious!
    Janet
    http://homeschoolblogger.com/wdworkman/

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  16. This is such a wonderful idea!! Well done :-) When my kids get a little older we will try this out for sure!

    Thanks for sharing on Happy Lil Hearts are Baking!

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