Isolation Opportunity for Creating a Richer Family Culture Idea #9: Sunday poetry teatime

We started irregularly having poetry teatimes on Sundays about a year and a half ago. I still remember the first time our oldest was four and Davy was two and my husband did not think it was a good idea: you're going to serve a hot beverage in a breakable teacup, the nicest ones we have? But one poetry teatime later and he was convinced. They were so good. (For about ten minutes of course) They were so careful with the delicate china. They felt so important. 

I got the idea from a mix of three sources: a post from Auntie Leila about a mother whose kids were grown up and what she thought had been most worthwhile in their education was memorizing a poem a week and reciting it for the family once a week, Sally Clarkson describing their family tradition of "Sunday tea" where they reserve time on Sunday afternoon to be together just parents and children without other social engagements, and finally all the homeschooling Instagrams with poetry teatimes. 

The idea is to bake something nice (today was mocha walnut torte from Jeanne Lemlin's cookbook "Simply Satisfying") or just open a bag of store bought cookies. Serve tea or hot chocolate in the winter in fancy cups. Each family member gets up, recites a poem and takes a bow. We pick one to memorize for the next week. 

This is something we have been trying to be more consistent about during this time. 

Master list here: https://martajuliemaria.blogspot.com/p/isolation-reflections-and-ideas.html?m=1