Homeschooling and tea! You may wonder how these two topics come together.

Well, Teatime easily became a part of our homeschool life, and perhaps you’d like it to be a part of yours too!

I’d like to tell you about our family’s pleasures of Teatime and how it began.

Let me first say, our family is not typically well mannered, or even a quiet family most of the time. We’ve one daughter and four rambunctious boys at home, all ranging from seventeen to two years old.

I was first introduced to the concept of Teatime while our children were attending public school, and I was only investigating homeschooling at the time, when I came across some wonderful information on the Charlotte Mason Method & Philosophy of schooling. I was reading how one family celebrated Teatime as part of their homeschool.  It sounded wonderful but I thought “never in our home with all these boys”.  However, the idea of sitting down to tea and goodies appealed to me so much, be it a craving for calm in our hectic lives, I decided to give it a try.  That week I set out to purchase a selection of teas (caffeine and herbal) and ingredients for our Teatime dessert. I gathered up teacups from Gramma, and also from secondhand stores, where teacups are very inexpensive.  I also selected a poetry book and a book on The Stations of the Cross, to read aloud. The following week on Monday morning as they left for school, I said to the boys; “We’ll be having Teatime today after school”.   They all looked at me and said “Teatime?”  I could tell they’d be anticipating it all day.

What happened over the next several weeks was truly an eye opener. Our children fell into a love of Teatime. It gave them something to look forward to on those cold fall and winter days, and it gave us time, as a family, to sit and chat about our day. I’d read to the children from a nursery rhyme book or a selection of poetry such as the book titled Flower Fairies, by Cicely Baker. They learned to enjoy The Stations Of The Cross also, by using a game, where they’d all guess and learn the order of each Station. 

I made only one, very simple rule for Teatime; People were to be polite.  This was, and is a time to enjoy each others company and talk and share of pleasant things. We are to be respectful to each other and not rude, or we will be asked to leave.

I often put on classical music during Teatime just as a soft undertone in the background.

For me being a parent of 6 children and living in the inner city I’d never have thought this possible in our home.  How wrong I was!  We, often more than not, had friends of the Children come for Teatime too. Often I found myself around our table with 5-6 boys sipping tea and chatting ever so politely. We now only have Teatime on Friday afternoons since beginning our life of homeschooling. However it is a time we all still very much look forward to.

So I urge you to try Teatime and see what benefits it may bring to you and your family. You can, as I mentioned find very inexpensive teacups, table clothes & other table settings at small secondhand stores. Try a Teatime Picnic or a theme Teatime, such as an autumn theme, decorating your table with leaves etc. Most of all enjoy your family time together, sharing with each other the memories of the day.

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