Snack and Poetry Time: Why It’s Great and How to Start

Snack and Poetry time is a much-cherished weekly activity that I share with my 5 year old (and hopefully soon, also with my baby when he’s a bit older!)

If this sounds new to you, allow me to share what snack and poetry is to us and why I highly recommend this practice!

What is “Snack and Poetry Time”

If it sounds self-explanatory, that’s because it is! Snack and Poetry is basically having a snack while reading poetry. But also, it’s so much more than that!

This practice is more popularly known in the homeschooling community as Poetry Teatime. However, we don’t really let the kids have tea yet and tea time doesn’t sound too exciting for my son, so I dubbed it “Snack and Poetry” instead.

The term stuck.

And so for the purpose of this article, I’m gonna be referring to it at Snack and Poetry instead of Poetry Teatime.

Why do Snack and Poetry?

Crafting a special time for poetry over snacks and a delicious drink makes for a memorable bonding activity with the kids. It’s also a great way to wind down after a busy morning; with a good book, delicious food and the best company.

Of course, it also helps to make reading poetry fun and something to look forward to together. Poetry may not always sound exciting for everyone but it’s hard to pass up if there are cookies and hot chocolate involved!

There are many reasons why doing this is a great idea. But if I could give only one reason why I highly recommend doing Snack and Poetry, it would be for the beautiful memory it would add to our children’s memory banks.

Setting the Atmosphere

Snack and Poetry will look different for different families. There are some who use special china for the activity. There are some who bake their own pastries. Some will have tea, some hot cocoa and some would have lemonade. There’s no right or wrong way to do this.

Just don’t forget the snacks, and the poetry! 😉

Some Ideas to Make it Special:

• Use special plates and cups to be used only during Snack and Poetry time
• Play classical music in the background
• Set candles or maybe even diffuse special scents
• In other words, make it very cozy (or Hygge!)
• Set a designated day for the activity weekly or monthly so they can look forward to it

How Snack and Poetry Looks Like For Us

For us, it usually involves a mug of hot chocolate for Luke (and cup of coffee for me!) I would put some pastries on cute plates. Sometimes we have special treats like cinnamon rolls or banana bread. But on other days, we are happy with peanut butter on a crispy toast!

If I remember, I’ll put on classical music in the background. I’ve created a playlist on Spotify for this specific purpose. I made sure to choose pieces that were calm and gentle all the way; no sudden, loud changes in the musical arrangements, which I personally find distracting.

Once the snacks are prepared, we’ll open one of our favorite books on poetry. I would read a couple of poems aloud and Luke would chime in on parts he’s memorized. Now that he’s getting better at reading, I’ve been encouraging him to take turns with me in reading a poem or two . So far, he’s been happy to do so!

Poetry Books to Start With

We haven’t delved into a lot of poetry books yet because we keep coming back to our favorites. But these are our tried and tested favorites:

• Now We Are Six by A.A. Milne
• A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson
• The Children’s Book of Virtues by Simon and Schuster
• Poetry for Young People (We have the one for Lewis Caroll but they have ones with poems from other authors like Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, etc.)

I’m also on the lookout for more wonderful titles so if you have any suggestions, feel free to write them below!

Enjoy!

Snack and Poetry is such an enjoyable activity that you can share with your children. If you ask me, learning poetry is just a bonus, the little cherry on top. The true gift is being able to spend a delightful afternoon together that your kids will hopefully cherish for a long time.

Enjoy Snack and Poetry Time!

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