I love having tea with poetry with my children.  It is such a simple way to make your homeschool feel cozy.  There is just something soothing about it that calms us and adds a bit of fun to our day.  Tea with poetry happens pretty often at my house, but combining this activity with holidays makes it even more special.  Valentine’s Tea with Poetry is an awesome activity for February.

Valentine’s Tea with Poetry

Tea with poetry really only requires a drink of your choice, a little treat, a few loved ones, and good poems.  A few small tweaks give this homeschool staple activity a little Valentine’s Day flair.

Tea

My kids like hot tea, so that is what we go with when the weather is cold. Valentine’s Day and chocolate go together so how about serving chocolate tea? It is a little sweet, but not overly so.  Stash Tea comes in a few chocolatey varieties, just be sure to choose one without caffeine or your kids might be up really late.  Don’t ask how I know that 😉

Family and Friends

We were lucky to have Daddy home for our Valentine’s tea with poetry. Consider having tea with poetry on a day the entire family is home.  If you live near grandparents, invite them over to create sweet memories.  You can even invite a few friends and neighbors over to make this a Valentine’s tea party!  Valentine’s Day is all about love, so this Valentine’s tea with poetry is an excellent way to show people that you love them.

Sweet Treats

I served a few simple treats at our tea:

1. Cupcakes
2. Heart shaped chocolates
3. Fruit salad

Hannah and I like to bake, so we baked gluten-free cupcakes for our Valentine’s tea.  If you do not like to bake or are short on time, this is an excellent opportunity to support your local bakery.  We popped our cupcakes into Valentine’s cupcake liners and topped them with festive Valentine’s sprinkles.  It was really easy and took less than an hour from the time we gathered our ingredients until the cupcakes were on the table.

I scoured the candy aisle at my local Fred Meyer to find heart-shaped candy. There were a few varieties to choose from – sweet tarts, marshmallow peeps, and Dove chocolates.  My kids always say they like the sugary peeps…but really they just dry out in my pantry.  I bought a bag of the Dove red velvet swirl chocolates and put a few on each plate.  The nice thing about chocolate candy is that you can always just chop it up and add it to cookie batter so there is no risk of it going stale in your pantry.

Fruit salad was my attempt at getting a little nutrition in this Valentine’s tea with poetry.  California berries are starting to show up in my grocery store so I am using them every chance I get.  Our fruit salad was a simple mix of sliced strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries.  I put the berries in champagne glasses to give it a festive, elegant feel.  These champagne glasses were only a few dollars for the set at the thrift store.  If they break, no big deal. Hannah and Ben both devoured the fruit salad, so I will probably start adding this to all of our tea time snacks.

Poetry Books

We read poems from two poetry compilations.  Both are written for children.  First, we read It’s Valentine’s Day by Jack Prelutsky.  Jack Prelutsky is known for his funny childrens poetry and this book is no exception.  We took turns choosing and reading poems.  My kids both cracked up reading the poems A Valentine for My Best Friend and Mother’s Chocolate Valentine.

We also read Winter Eyes by Douglas Florian.  I like the variety of poetry styles in this book.  Some of the poems read like a rhyming list. Some of the poems make a shape with words, and other poems are a more traditional format.  These poems were not as silly, but were wonderful examples of different poetry styles, while still being themed appropriately for a Valentine’s tea with poetry.

Have you ever hosted tea with poetry?  What is your favorite poetry compilation?

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