Yet more tea

Poetry tea-time is my favouite occasion of the week. It is a time when I really notice how my children are developing. Both my sons, eight and nine, read aloud and are eager to chose and share. They read clearly and with great intonation, frequently assuming different voices for appropriate characters. My daughter, six, chooses poems for me to read which she remembers from previous readings.

Last week, my friend bought me a lovely book full of inspiration; the photos are art in themselves. I found in this book, a quotation from Mrs Beeton, which appealed to me so much that I shared it with the children. My little girl chose it as her copy-writing this morning:

" ...tea and bread and butter and a few elegant trifles in the way of cake and fruit ..." Can you see the cake, the grapes, apple and pear, the thickly buttered bread and the tea-cup with two sugar lumps?

We invited our neighbour who treated us to a recitation of a poem she still remembers from school. We enjoyed a couple of classics, some A.A. Milne and Benjamin Zephaniah. What a lovely way to spend the afternoon.