Tuesday Tea

This week we have officially started school. We're easing into the routine (more for my sake!). Over the past year we have randomly done "Tuesday Tea". I blogged about one of our Tues. Tea parties last April. We were doing Shakespeare back then. Today while we enjoyed our tea, I read Johnny Tremain. It is one of our Core 3 Read-Alouds from Sonlight

Doesn't our set-up look so pretty? My mom gave us some of our family's heirloom tea cups, tea pots and glass dishes. Her philosophy is that you can't create memories with them if you leave them in a china cabinet. I still get nervous watching the kids use them.

We are such a proper tea-drinking family. Oh, you noticed---we use white tea. Ok, ok, we can't stand tea so we usually have milk, water or juice in our fancy tea cups

My older daughter made mini-blueberry muffins for use to enjoy with our "tea". My middle daughter (pic. above) and her brother (pic. below) really know how to polish off those muffins.

So here's to throwing our first tea party of the year! It is one of our favorite "school" traditions.

Tuesday Tea on Thursday

Last year we started a tradition called Tuesday Tea. I wish I could take the credit for implementing such a clever idea, but I can't. I got the idea from the BraveWriter website. Basically, as a family you read poetry or books over tea. It is an intentional time to create a memory with your family while introducing them to good literature. Last year we did Tuesday Tea pretty faithfully. My mom even gave the kids their own china cups to use. My oldest DD likes to go all out for Tuesday Tea. She makes sure that we have some sort of baked good to eat (by either reminding me to make something or making something herself). She likes to pull out the tablecloth and artfully set the table (or picnic table) for this occasion. She makes it special.

So today since there was nothing to eat for breakfast, I decided to make a double batch of chocolate, chocolate chip muffins. I was not thinking "Tuesday Tea," well because one, we've been hit or miss with it all year long, and two, it was Thursday. The fragrant smell of muffins baking must have reminded DD about this tradition. Before I knew it, the picnic table was set, the muffins were carefully arranged on a plate and a pizza was baking (she decided to make it a tea/lunch). She even brought out the two Shakespeare books I had checked out from the library a month ago but never got to. [My intentions were to start a short 2-week Shakespeare unit--and do this annually-- so that my kids would have exposure and background information for when they had to read the real deal in a couple of years.] You know, I realized today that I missed doing Tuesday Tea, and learning about Shakespeare was kind of fun. I'm going to have to make a better effort to keep the tradition going.

Shakespeare Resources

We are just starting out this unit, so most of these resources I am hoping to get through within the next couple of weeks. If you know of any other good resources, I'd love to hear about them. Here's what I have found so far:

Printables

Shakespeare Timeline by Jimmie

Shakespeare Notebooking pages by Jimmie

Shakespeare Stage by Jimmie

Resource Website:

Shakespeare for kids on Squidoo

Books:

Shakespeare's Storybook: Folk Tales that Inspired the Bard (I think my DD read the whole book today)

Shakespeare for Kids: His Life and Times 21 Activities by Colleen Aagesen & Margie Blumberg

Shakespeare Can Be Fun series