Summer is for Literary Teas

When I was little we had literary teas in the summer.  Which basically meant that mom made something yummy and we all sat and read our own books.  Because this is such a delightful childhood memory, I try to have literary teas from time to time with my boys.  So far, that means I'm reading out loud, but I'm looking forward to days when we all read our own book (give it six years).

One challenge is finding something that everyone is interested in.  The first week of Summer we read a stack of Cinderella stories from around the world I found at the library.  Jonah was off to read another book (he had already read the Cinderella stories when we brought them home from the library) but the younger boys finished tea and then did ink and watercolor paintings of Cinderella with me.  

We read The Littles a couple weeks ago.  Rowan is the perfect age for these books and Isaac enjoyed them too.  I loved them when I was young and always went scampering off to make mini shoe box houses afterward reading them.  The books are about small people (with tails) who live in the walls of the Biggs' house and use all sorts of everyday items to furnish their miniature house and supply them on their adventures.  They are very similar to the Borrowers, but a much lower reading level.
After finishing the first book I bought the boys some baking clay as I've been saving bottle caps for awhile with visions of Little sized pies in my head.  They had a lot of fun rolling and shaping mini pies.  

This week we are reading The People of Sparks over tea and after dinner this week, which Jonah and Rowan are loving.  We listened to the Audio book of City of Ember in the spring and just found this second book in the series.   The books are really imaginative distopian novels; I'm really enjoying them too.  Isaac often plays somewhere in the room.  It is beyond his interest, but every now and then he'll ask a question, so he's listening at least some of the time.  

We still have a few more books to check off the summer reading lists, so that is probably where the literary teas are headed over the next month.