Poetry Tea Time

The Land of Nod

From breakfast on through all the day

At home among my friends I stay,

But every night I go abroad

Afar into the land of Nod.

All by myself I have to go,

With none to tell me what to do -

All alone beside the streams

And up the mountain-sides of dreams.

The Strangest things are there for me,

Both things to eat and things to see,

And many frightening sights abroad

Till morning in the land of Nod.

Try as I like to find the way,

I never can get back by day,

Nor can remember plain and clear

The curious music that I hear.

~ Robert Louis Stevenson

The Table

I wasn't going to do Poetry Tea Time again this week, as I had figured we would do it every other week.   But Heather approached me about it yesterday and asked me if she could do it today as a surprise for everyone.  I really could not refuse this request.  :)  Today ended up being a great day to do it because everyone has been struggling with being down in the dumps.  It's very overcast, cold and generally a yucky day.  I think we all have some cabin fever from the dark days!  We ended our day with geography and then Heather set about to create the table for us.  She got everything herself, placed it all on the table and made little place cards for everyone.  I made some banana cake and cut up some strawberries for it. We used different tea cups then last time.  I will cycle through them all as the weeks go on.  They are all so unique and deserve to have some use.  

We read aloud the poem: The Land of Nod from Favorite Poems of Childhood.  This is a wonderful book with lots of beautiful poetry in it. I read it through a number of times. After they had time to think about it, they began to talk about what the poem meant.  I got quite a kick listening to them discuss their thoughts, which lead to them all chatting about their dreams!  :)  It was a great time.

The books

Be Thou My Vision

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart,

Naught be all else to me sage that Thou art.

Thou my best thought by day or by night,

Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

I also read aloud another hymn and the history of the hymn from the book Then Sings My Soul.  This one was the hymn Be Though My Vision (words found above there).  There was some interesting history surrounding that hymn that the kids enjoyed hearing about.  They are very keen on learning history in this way.

It was a very good way to end the day, when all of us were struggling with being grumpy!  As I write this they are all reading some books, two cuddled up together and one humming to herself while she reads.  It really was a good way to change the tone in the house this afternoon.  So thankful for these moments.

Enjoying some cake while they chat.