Springs of Joy Homeschooling

Tea Time
I've been reading about other homeschooling moms who follow the English tradition of tea time and thought I might start a little tradition for our afternoons as well. I want to teach the children good manners at the table etc... and to enjoy quiet music, a good book or poem, and some nice conversation. We'll see how long this lasts with a 5 month old, 2 year old and a 4 1/2 year-old-going-on-17 LOL.

We baked gingersnaps together after their nap, and when they were ready, I suprised the kids with a little kid table set with real tea cups (not fine china by any means.. just my boring clunky coffee mugs LOL), and a tablecloth, cloth napkins (which we learned go on our laps), nice plates, and a teapot full of lemonaide.

We put on Baby Mozart for atmosphere and then I read to them a few stories from "The children's book of Faith" by William J. Bennett. We chose Daniel and the Lion's Den, and the Legend of St. Christopher. Even my little toddler sat quietly while we sipped our 'tea' and read our stories. Afterwards, the children helped me to clean up by gently taking the plates, cups and napkins and putting them away... and then they were back to being noisy silly little kids.
Hopefully this can ease the cranky 4:30 hungry kid syndrome that is attacking our house lately. Especially since daddy doesn't get home till around 6pm and we don't eat till later.

Here is her narration of the story we read: (almost 5 years old)

Daniel was really wise.
The King chose Daniel to be his greatest
helper. The guys told the king not to praise God, and then the guys saw
Daniel praising God.
They told the king that Daniel was disobeying
the law, and the King said
that he could change the law, but the guy said
no.
They threw him into the lion's den.
God closed the lion's mouths and
he sent an angel to help Daniel.
They got him out of the lion's
den. Then Daniel was safe.
The End.