Sometimes it is hard to let things go. I have a children’s tea set that was my great-grandmother’s. It’s old, crack, and missing several handles, but Princess has been dreaming of using it for years. YEARS I tell you. I mistakenly told her she could have a tea party with it when she turned five. She remembered. During our week of girls, I capitalized on a chance to turn this into a bit of a homeschool reading lesson (and a very little bit of homeschool history) as we had a Felicity tea party and practiced our manners.
Our Felicity tea party
Lately, we’ve been listening to the Felicity books*. The audiobooks are a fun listen, and go by quite quickly. There has been lots of pretend play in the house involving Felicity, especially during our “Week of Girls” while the boys are at camp.
So we ate lunch on them. A healthy lunch of crackers, sausage, and cheese. It’s a favorite here. To make it “healthy” we add apples. You know, a fruit.
How is this a Felicity tea party? We practiced our manners and called each other characters from the book. I was Miss Manderlay. Princess was Felicity. Her friend was Elizabeth.
We also wore BEAUTIFUL one of a kind hand beaded jewelry. I think I have a few beads left. Seriously, they went through 3 tubs of them.
After, they “carefully” (and I nearly had a heart attack) cleaned the dishes, one at a time.
And then more jewelry was made. Yes, Princess does live in this dress if I let her. She does grudgingly remove it from time to time. Like right now when I need to repair 2 seams.
If you don’t have a great grandmother’s tea set to use for your party. This children’s tea set* looks to be the best quality of the ones on there. When Princess was little we used a plastic tea set similar to this.
Sometimes the most fun lessons are the simplest.
Debbie says
So far I have been lucky that Selena hasn't wanted to use my real tea sets for tea. I am sure someday it will come up.
An Almost Unschooling Mom says
It's just not tea unless it's in a real tea cup 🙂
Ticia says
That's so true.
Dawn says
Tea parities with real tea sets are so much fun.
Blessings, Dawn
Ticia says
They are, and my kids are spoiled by our real tea sets. I think we have 3 of them.
MaryAnne K says
What lucky girls! And I can't believe you have THREE real tea sets!
Ticia says
Mind, they're rather piecemeal, but there's the one pictured up above. I have a small Chinese tea set, Jeff has a Japanese one (not full service, just pot and 4 cups for both of those), Princess has a glass set of her own I found at a gas station of all places. Then I've been collecting tea pieces for a while, I have 2 tea pots, a sugar bowl, creamer, and about 10 or so assorted tea cups. I figure between all of those there's at least 3 tea sets.
Christy says
I don't have any real tea sets or even pieces! I bet she will remember this fondly.
Raising a Happy Child says
I wish I had a set like this! Perhaps one day I will inherit the one my parents brought over. I think real china looks precious, especially in “careful” hands of our little ones 🙂