Tea Time Tuesday

Tuesday afternoon means tea time here at Clements' Academy (I'm trying that out for our school name).  I started this tradition last year after reading this article.  We try and keep it simple although some days it gets fancy.  There are several reasons I do this:

1. It is something that if we do it consistently it will provide a warm memory of home.  If you think about your family traditions what are they?  They are most often things that you did repeatably and things that were done with love. With four boys, all with different interest, this is the one thing we can do together once a week. 
2. I love tea and would like to pass on the simple pleasure of a good cuppa.
3. It is a good time to teach manners.  Even the little ones know that when they hold that tea cup for the first time, it is not something to be thrown but to cradle.  One day these boys will be men and out in the business world and they might just thank me that they know to not slurp their tea!  I am never harsh in my tone and rather just offer polite reminders to "not try and lick the sugar out of the bottom of your cup" and "no, you cannot lick the plate."  Lots of licking with boys...
4. It is a quiet time.  We listen to our composer selections, occasionally poetry is read aloud, and most often we just sit and enjoy our treat.
5. The boys know how to set a proper table and are careful with the dishes.  There have been broken dishes and the sorrow felt over the shattered pieces has been it's own teacher.  They are more careful now than ever before. 

I am sure that is enough reasons for anyone and I do get burned out sometimes.  Some Tuesdays I want some quiet time to myself but the boys always remember and ask if we are having tea today.  Our menu usually is some cheese (Boursin) and crackers and strawberries and cream.  Although today was just cinnamon toast.  We drink English breakfast tea with sugar and milk. 

I am hoping that soon I can start teaching the big boys to make the treats for Tuesdays.  They already boil the water and set the table.  Our favorite days are when we have visitors for tea.  We have one particular friend who comes about once a month and we just love her visits. 

Cinnamon toast.  My mom taught me how to make this and it is a favorite of mine!

Nature Study Monday - VFW Park

Today we went to the VFW park which is one of my favorite parks around town.  It has all the things we need - lots of nature, bathrooms, shade tress, and tables and benches for sketching.  It is a very quiet and serene park although today the cicadas were very loud at times.

I just love these purple flowers.  I have seen them in several creek beds this summer.

I got my workout getting these two up and and down the ditch so we could walk along the creek.

When I caught up with the group Cooper was inside this pipe going for the other side.  Had we not had so many little ones, I would have let him keep going.

"but what about socialization???"

We forgot our sketch pads and Graham wanted to draw.  He found a feather and drew in the sand.

Good and dirty.

"We can't leave, we just found this!"

After our nature walk, we had lunch on our way to the pool.  I could not wait to get in the water!  Here in Texas it is starting to hit 100 degrees.  After we swam for two hours we went to get some ice cream.  All and all a great day!

Nature Study Monday - Edith L. Moore Nature Sanctuary

This is one of the many hidey holes we saw. 

Giant Polk Salad.  It was taller than me!

Graham - "It look like snakes Mamma!"

Somewhere in that mix of little boy heads are minnows she just caught.

Busted Lip and a Road Trip

Busted Lips

Barrett pulled a table onto himself Thursday night before bible class.  It was one of those moments that you get to watch happen in slow motion and know there is nothing you can do to stop it from happening.  Even worse, I had just turned around to tell him to get down off the table or it was going to fall on him!  So, after what eye witnesses called "Sarah going wonder woman on the table" I scooped him up could tell really quickly we were going to have to find an ER.  Luckily, there was a great emergency room down the street from the church so Nina and I headed over there to get his lip sewn back on.  

All my boys have fallen and bitten through their lips at some point.  You wash it  out and keep close watch but usually by morning it has almost healed up because our bodies are awesome.  But this time, I could tell from the moment I looked down at it that it was bad.  He ended up needing three stitches on the inside and five on the outside. 

Nature Study - Mary Jo Peckham Park

We joined our local Ambleside Online users this morning for a nature walk at Mary Jo Peckham Park.  Since I have boys, nature walk really means a race around the pond to see how many ducks and vultures we can scatter, how many baby ducks we can catch and of course, how muddy and wet we can get without actually getting into the pond.  With boys*, it is all about pushing boundaries.  Nature study with boys is about getting wet and rolling around in the grass.  They are such physical creatures!    

The race around the pond was fun and they saw several different birds.  Cooper did catch a baby duck and soon found out that this was not a petting zoo.  The momma duck came after him and I was secretly hoping she would peck him.  I really liked that he saw the natural consequence of touching a baby thing in the wild.  I hope he remembers that his strength always needs to be tempered when dealing with baby things.  Also, I hope he knows his momma would snap at anybody who tried to take him away from me! 

*When I refer to attributes of boys it is not a swipe at girls or to say that girls don't posses some of the same qualities.  I believe little girls should get dirty and build things too.  This blog is about my observations as a mother of four boys and what I have observed in real life. 

 The beginning of the walk.  In about two seconds both of them walk right out into the water.  Good thing we put on our nature walk shoes.

The dud egg.  After reminding them about the dud egg from Charlotte's Web Cooper turns around and throws it.  And I quote "So we can smell the horrible sulfur gas!"

Graham was saying "momma duck" over and over again.  I finally went and looked at what he was pointing at and sure enough there she was.  An entire herd of older kids ran past without seeing her. 

No eggs were disturbed or touched.

Marshall always picks flowers for me.  Even tiny little ones like this.  Boys can be incredibly sweet and thoughtful.

Marshall found a clam or what I think is a clam.  Quick to the nature handbook!

Nature sketching time. 

Graham joined in too.  He drew a rock. I was happy to see him join in the sketching without me telling him what we were doing. 

The smelly egg.

Hands still dripping with pond water.  He actually rubbed some in on his picture to make it more real.  We'll call that adding texture.

Keeping it real moment - Barrett cried for about twenty minutes walking around the pond because he wanted water (he has just had some before we set out).  Upon leaving, Graham pitched one of the worst fits I have seen, including hitting Cooper as he was buckling his seat belt in the car because he was not done riding the pelican and did not want to leave.