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JennGM
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| Posted: April 15 2010 at 9:58am | IP Logged
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This thread on Mother's Day Tea has gotten me thinking. And I think I need some perspectives from people from other countries, like England and Australia.
St. Ann wrote:
There are some great ideas in this thread and it gets me itching to do something similar. But it is so english!
Here in Germany, you are invited to coffee, not tea. Although tea will also be served. People get confused with my heritage as it is. Some lump all English speaking persons as being British. If I would try to have such a Tea Party, they would really think I am British and would see it as some cultural exchange event or something... 
People do drink tea here, don't get me wrong, but the german coffee hour is much less influenced by the Brits than in America.
I don't know why I wrote all that...maybe just a little sad that I can't legitimately have such a gathering.
But if I could, I know where I would turn to for great ideas!  |
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MicheleQ wrote:
MANY years ago --back in the days of the CCM group --Elizabeth and I often talked about wanting to host a CM Tea. Pretty tables, candles, tea of course and a few inspiring speakers. Wouldn't that be lovely?!
I did have a proper tea once in England at the Randolph Hotel in Oxford with Kathryn --it was lovely! |
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Now, I've been thinking (bad thing). I'm not familiar with "teatime" except what is in books or movies. I've hosted and been the guest of a few "teas", also.
But what makes "teatime"? Is it a more formal set-up of snack time, so that everyone is together, with common conversation? What does it usually involve -- sandwiches, cookies (biscuits), dessert? Tea of course (that's the bad part from my view. Neither I nor my boys will touch the stuff).
Reading-aloud for everyday teatimes?
Is it a daily occurence? Do you have some more formal and informal ones?
What about with boys?
What kind of drinks do you serve when one doesn't drink tea?
See, I'm full of questions. I'm mainly coming from the angle of houseful of boys who love to eat and have snacks, love read-alouds, but do I take to that step and make it an official teatime?
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: April 15 2010 at 10:48am | IP Logged
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I don't drink coffee or regular teas. I do like hot herbal teas.. but for instance in the summer I could see serving an iced tea or lemonade. and from books tea time often had children served milk or cambric tea (mostly milk with a bit of tea).
My kids will tease and call hot chocolate "choclate tea" 
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Mackfam
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| Posted: April 15 2010 at 11:08am | IP Logged
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Hmmm...I suppose I don't think so strictly in terms of offering only tea. So, we often enjoy lemonade with our teatimes.
For a more formal tea...
Formal tea times are VERY SPECIAL and right now, we only have a formal tea party with the special ladies in our lives about 4 times a year. This winter, we chose to have our winter tea party at a tea-house inside. It was very formal and we loved it. It was a special splurge for my dd's 13th birthday.
For Stephanie in Germany (or anyone else that prefers coffee to tea), I'd just serve different coffee's or beverages that are well-liked. I might call it a brunch instead of a tea party.
Everyday tea-time
Our everyday tea-time is more a special time which is associated with a special beverage (which is not always tea). I like it because it's a special time set aside. We read aloud during this tea-time. What seems to make this time special is that the beverage is special - we like lemonades, hot chocolates, iced mint tea, warm cinnamon tea, apple cider, cafe' au lait (heavy on the au lait for the kids...this is a very special drink!), etc. I'm always on the lookout for something new.
You don't have to call it tea time! You don't have to call it anything at all...just do what seems most natural in your family.
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CatholicMommy
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| Posted: April 15 2010 at 11:38am | IP Logged
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Tea-time in our house usually involves herbal teas (I don't care for any of the real teas) and when necessary hot chocolate suffices We usually have some sort of light snack with it. And we do have a read-aloud on something virtuous (saint story, Book of Virtues, Scripture passage, other story of high moral value - that sort of thing - sometimes this includes poetry and such as well).
One day we almost had to cancel tea-time because of some behavior issues. It was the *boy* in the group who cried the longest, loudest and hardest.
We call it tea-time because it is something special for us.
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hylabrook1
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| Posted: April 15 2010 at 11:59am | IP Logged
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We've not had read aloud time and tea time as connected events. Read alouds are for after lunch is eaten and cleaned up. A space of calm, maybe in place of naptime, but with children who have long since outgrown naps.
Tea time is afternoon snack that everyone attends together, rather than "Let me grab a little something." Usually we do have tea, being big tea drinkers, along with maybe some fruit or cheese and crackers or cake/cookies. Our normal dinner time is around 7, so we need this pick-us-up in the late afternoon. We use it as a time to re-cap the day, tell where with are with various things like school, evening activities, etc. That leaves dinner conversation free so that we can debate politics at the table  . (I don't see us doing this, but many times guests of the children have characterized our table talk in this way; or else that we talk about *gross* medical things, which don't seem to upset us while we're eating. Go figure ....).
Peace,
Nancy
ETA: we do have better manners than that and are capable of appropriate decorum; this other is kind of a running family joke.
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Becky Parker
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When I first started homeschooling, Tea Time was something I really wanted to work. I was so excited about it. I would put out a nice table cloth, use pretty cups, serve a nice snack ... sigh. Unfortunately, the preparation took longer than the tea time itself. My 4 boys just aren't into sitting there sipping tea. My dd enjoys it, sometimes, but I found myself very frustrated
because it never went as I had envisioned. 
We do daily tea time now and it works much better. The key is that I loosened up quite a bit, and the main focus of our tea time isn't the tea, but the literature and poetry. I'm the only one that really drinks tea at this point. The kids will often just drink water, which is our main beverage around here. In the winter though, we have hot coco or warm apple cider fairly often. I also give the kids some sort of snack, but nothing fancy anymore. We'll have a cookie, if the cookie jar's not empty, or popcorn, or sometimes just toast and jam. The kids get comfortable (I even allow them to bring pillows and a blanket into the sunroom) and I read from our poetry books and then our current read aloud for literature.
With these changes, everybody loves "tea time" and they get upset if we have to miss it for some reason. I'm alot happier too! I save the fancy tea times for when a friend comes to visit or occasionally my dd and I will enjoy a more formal "tea".
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JennGM
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| Posted: April 15 2010 at 1:03pm | IP Logged
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Becky Parker wrote:
| My 4 boys just aren't into sitting there sipping tea. |
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I am sitting here chuckling at the picture in my head. Wiggly boys holding china cups with their pinkies out...Can we go now, Mom, huh? Now can we go????
And tablecloths are a one-time use here. I'm afraid they seem like napkins?
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Becky Parker
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| Posted: April 15 2010 at 1:09pm | IP Logged
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JennGM wrote:
Wiggly boys holding china cups with their pinkies out...Can we go now, Mom, huh? Now can we go????
And tablecloths are a one-time use here. I'm afraid they seem like napkins? |
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You must have been spying on us!
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Erin
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Jenn
We rarely have a more formal tea time with the children. When we are in the habit, which we are not at present  our tea time consists of laying a tablecloth (which we do for each meal anyway) and getting out the good china. My little girls love it and my boys enjoy this too, the good tea set makes it special.
We don't drink tea or coffee in our household (very un-Australian) but we fill the pot with a herbal tea. More a child friendly blend like raspberry tea, if we had a juice in the house we could pour that in the teapot and use it too. The pouring from the teapot is what makes it pretty special.
We bake up some biscuits or cake, sometimes we bake a more tricky recipe, but mostly a simple one. Choc-chip cookies, ginger nuts, chocolate or orange cake.
A more formal tea is something we do with a bigger group. Last year our hs group had a mother/daughter tea with our teens. Lace tablecloths, special china, teaset, various teas offered and juice. Food consisted of various slices, such as chocolate caramel slice, special sandwiches(crusts cut off) and a delicious cheesecake. We call this High Tea. Very British.
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Sarah M
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If I call it teatime, I get much better behavior out of my little guy, but the littles never drink tea. My 8yo loves tea, so she and I sometimes drink it, but usually I serve lemonade or juice or hot cocoa or (if I'm in an especially reckless mood) Kool-aid. I serve it in my grandma's old snack sets, and the kids are *very, very careful* with them.
I save the really fancy teatimes for feast days-- and I only celebrate those with a fancy tea about once a month. What makes it fancy? A few extra treats-- something with frosting goes a long way for little people , and I often throw a craft in there.
But.... "coffee hour"!!!!!! Now there's something I could really get carried away with on a daily basis. 
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LucyP
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When I was growing up, we had tea daily when we girls came home from school. Usually mum made a pot of tea and we would have toast, but sometimes something baked, and sometimes even cream cakes which was a big treat. I definitely find that stopping for a proper pot of tea and using cup and saucer and a tea strainer makes it a real pause - otherwise I tend to just walk about with a mug, and there is no "break time" element to it and I do that daily. I love to do a proper tea (either a cream tea with scones and jam and cream, or afternoon tea with a sponge cake and maybe bread and butter/tea sandwiches too) but we don't do a proper tea every day - just once a week at most, but more like 3 times a month, maybe.
At the end of the day, maybe simple and easy is best...we had tea with my mum every day and I don't really make a big deal out of some toast and a mug of tea (actually though, mum used to toast the left over bread and butter with the butter on the inside from our tea (hmmm, confusing terminologies - working class people call the evening meal "tea" too) and I loved that: we called it french toast for some reason. But I LOVE the memories of just chatting and feeling that sense of coming home and the pause before we started with the rest of the day. If she had tried to make it all elaborate and ritualised, she would likely have burned out and we would have lost all those happy memories and opportunities to talk and bond.
I have always found it funny that people would use a teapot for other drinks, but we do have a chocolate pot set and use that for cocoa sometimes. My children sometimes drink tea with me (I drink earl grey which is a light tea and they quite like it) or just sip milk from tea cups. I could not combine reading aloud with a tea time, that would just seem odd to me and awkward. To me, a tea time is about making a space for conversation and/or quiet, and I would end up sloshing tea over the book.
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Sarah
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| Posted: April 19 2010 at 10:15pm | IP Logged
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What a good point, Lucy, that making it contrived could cause burnout on the whole thing.
I think that's what happened to me. I wanted it to happen, but it felt so planned and unnatural that I couldn't keep up with it. The kids were far more interested in the food that no one cared what I read and it turned out to be work.
I think its a good idea to make something natural flow, like a snack moment. Its hard here in America where slow rituals such as you describe with your mother really don't seem to exist.
Lots to think about. Setting aside a happy, relaxed snack like lemonade, popsicles, ice cream cones, fruit, etc. Would be nice this summer.
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Becky Parker
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| Posted: April 20 2010 at 6:10am | IP Logged
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LucyP wrote:
| but we do have a chocolate pot set and use that for cocoa sometimes. |
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Oh, now that sounds wonderful! I've never seen a chocolate pot set!
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MicheleQ
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| Posted: April 20 2010 at 7:39am | IP Logged
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Sarah wrote:
I think its a good idea to make something natural flow, like a snack moment. Its hard here in America where slow rituals such as you describe with your mother really don't seem to exist.
Lots to think about. Setting aside a happy, relaxed snack like lemonade, popsicles, ice cream cones, fruit, etc. Would be nice this summer. |
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This is a challenge in our current culture though I think homeschooling makes it easier because we can set the pace of things a bit better.
But you're right the goal is the together time, slowing down and enjoying one another's company. I love tea personally but certainly the same thing can happen over lemonade.
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4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Topic: What Makes a "Teatime"?
