Tag: Poetry Teatime

6 Easy Mood Busters for Homeschool Families

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Let’s face it.  If you’re a homeschool family, you’re together A LOT.  You get to make tons of amazing memories together, but you also see the less than ideal sides of each other – A LOT.  There are times when the mood in your home will go south (FAR south) and you just want to throw the day away and start fresh.  But that’s not how it works…

In this post, I’ve included some of the ways we combat crabbiness in our own home.  Mind you our kids are 4, 8, 10…  SO, if it’s moody teenagers you’re dealing with, well, I can’t really speak to that.

Read Aloud

It’s amazing to me how reading aloud a good book(whether print or audiobook) can bring everyone together.  Notice I said a GOOD book.  You’ve got to pick one that will draw them in.  For us that good book is currently Farmer Boy on audiobook, read by Cherry Jones.  The whole family enjoys listening to it.

I’ve got a saying that was inspired by a certain movie with Kevin Costner from the 80’s, “If you read it, they will come.” And hopefully snap out of it!

Music

With winter here, (no not technically, but let’s face, temps in the teens and 20’s, um yeah… that’s winter!), I know my own mood is sinking just a bit.  I don’t have that skip in my step that I have when the sun is shining or when I hear the birds singing.

For me, music is always a mood changer.  Lately, our family has been playing Slugs & Bugs around mealtimes and it really can change a climate of fighting and crankiness to one of smiles and laughter.  And with Christmas around the corner, I just have to add, Slugs & Bugs Christmas has been their favorite Christmas album for 8 years!  It’s a winner!

Games

Games can be a mood changer, provided you don’t have anyone in your family that is super competitive.  No one has kids (or spouses) like that, right!?  But seriously, if the mood is tense, playing a game together may be able to cut through the tension.  You can find a few of our favorites in this post.

Poetry Teatime

Bake a treat.  Light a candle.  Set out the tablecloth and just enjoy reading some poetry together.  Never tried Poetry Teatime?  You can learn about it here: Poetry Teatime 101.

Get Outside

This may not be a possibility due to your climate. And I will admit, I thoroughly despise feeling cold.  BUT, it is amazing how therapeutic being outside can be.  I have seen how just going outside can change the moods in my kids pretty drastically, not to mention quickly.

Pray

Sometimes, especially if it’s you with a bad mood, you may just need to remove yourself from a situation and pray.   And if you can’t remove yourself, just pray right where you are. Even if you don’t feel like it. In fact, it’s always best to start with prayer!

I’d love to hear from some of you…  What do you do to combat crabbiness in your  home?  Leave your comment below.

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Autumn Themed Poetry Tea Time – FREE PRINTABLE

We have been enjoying Poetry Tea Time each week.  It is indeed a bright spot on our Tuesdays and we are loving having it as part of our weekly routine.  We pull out the tablecloth, light a candle, spread out the poetry books and scrounge up whatever treats we can, just to make it special.

One thing I am discovering is the need to mix things up.  Unfortunately, my current repertoire of poetry leaves much to be desired.   So for now, I am relying on our local library.  And I have discovered that not all poetry books are created equal.  Some are not very good LAME.  I haven’t had much success finding fall poetry books with the exception of Johnny Appleseed  by Reeve Lindbergh (affiliate link).  I know quality fall poetry books are out there though!

With fall being in full swing, I wanted to “spice” things up a bit, so I decided we would take some time during Poetry Tea Time to write our own poetry.  Because I’m having so much fun creating stuff on Canva, I made a template for an AUTUMN acrostic poem.  Obviously, you don’t need a printable to do an acrostic poem, but I had fun adding images and making it look pretty.

Here’s the autumn acrostic poem printable: AUTUMN (1)

Here’s the poem my daughter wrote.  She’s “word smart” and whipped this up in no time.  Autumn Acrostic Poem Printable

For more on the 8 great smarts, go here.

Looking for other fall activities?  You can find my Fall Scavenger printable here: Fall Scavenger Hunt (1)

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Poetry Teatime 101

When I first learned about Poetry Teatime from Bravewriter (this is also the writing curriculum we will be using this year), I knew right away it was something I wanted to do with my kids.

We’ve tried it a few times in the past and it’s always a hit but I have yet to be consistent with it. Since we have more flexibility in our schedule this year, my goal is to implement it at least once a week.

What is Poetry Teatime?

If you have never heard of Poetry Teatime you might be asking what it is. Poetry Teatime is a time to come together and read poetry over a treat and tea(or whatever beverage suits your fancy). I believe it got the name Poetry Teatime based on the English tradition of “afternoon tea”. A break in the day to pause and just be.

Why Poetry Teatime?

It is a fabulous and FUN way to bond while also exploring language together. Poetry helps open the imagination. Also, you are inviting your kids to associate poetry with comfort and joy-filled memories.

When Should We Do Poetry Teatime?

Our family goal is to have Poetry Teatime at least 1x/week this coming school year. My kids enjoy it so much, however, that I could see us doing it more than that.

Just today we had a gloomy overcast day and my kids started to get snippy with each other. I knew we needed to change gears. I declared we would be doing Poetry Teatime and the mood shifted to one of delight. My daughter went to work baking a treat while the boys and I set the table, popped popcorn and boiled water for hot cocoa.

What followed was a beautiful half hour of us laughing and enjoying poetry together. Memories being made.

 

Here are my three kiddos picking out their poems and ready to dig into a tasty treat:

Continue reading “Poetry Teatime 101”

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