Tea Party Kit Only $24.99 This Month!

It is our belief that when the lazy afternoons of summer ends and a new school year arrives, it is the “pawfect” time for celebration! School bells are ringing for class to begin, as are cash registers for new clothes, books and computers.

The Storybook Tea Kit Company is keenly aware of this. Therefore, to help children transition from summertime to school time while lending help to parents, the price of  our tea party kit (Alice’s Pawfect Tea-Party™) will be only  $24.99* ** in the month of September (regular price $40.00).  This is the very same tea-party kit that was launched earlier this year, which so many of you have already read about (some have sampled too) on your favorite blog.

Alice’s Pawfect Tea-Party™ is a tea kit book complete with sumptuous chocolate, delectable cookies, candy cake and cinnamon herb tea, focusing on Chapter 7 from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Our tea party kit connect kids with classic literature the old fashioned way, allowing them to dream and experience the feel of a real book while having a spot of tea.

In the story, Alice returns from wonderland and guides you back down the rabbit hole. Together you will meet the Mad Hatter and all of Alice’s chums. She will explain what truly a “pawfect” tea-party is!

Click here to purchase your tea party kit today,

while supplies last!

**US purchases only                                                  *8.75% CA tax for residents.

**Offer expires September 30^th                                 *Shipping & Handling added.

 

Using Shared Storybook Reading to Promote Emergent Literacy

www.sbac.edu/.../Teaching%20Exceptional%20Children%20JOURNAL/... -

Themes and motifs in the 'Alice' stories

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

rowing up
The most obvious theme that can be found in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is the theme of growing up.
Lewis Carroll adored the unprejudiced and innocent way young children approach the world. With Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, he wanted to describe how a child sees our adult world, including all of the (in the eyes of a child silly and arbitrary) rules and social etiquette we created for ourselves, as well as the ego's and bad habits we have developed during our lives.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland represents the child's struggle to survive in the confusing world of adults. To understand our adult world, Alice has to overcome the open-mindedness that is characteristic for children.
Apparently, adults need rules to live by. But most people adhere to those rules blindly now, without asking themselves 'why'. This leads to the incomprehensible, and sometimes arbitrary behavior that Alice experiences in Wonderland.
When entering Wonderland, Alice encounters a way of living and reasoning that is quite different from her own. A Duchess who is determined to find a moral in everything. Trials that seem to be very unjust. But during the journey through Wonderland, Alice learns to understand the adult world somewhat more. In fact, she is growing up. This is also represented by her physical changes during the story, the growing and shrinking.
More and more she starts to understand the creatures that live in Wonderland. From the Cheshire Cat she learns that 'everyone is mad here'. She learns to cope with the crazy Wonderland rules, and during the story she gets better in managing the situation. She tells the Queen of Hearts that her order is 'nonsense' and prevents her own beheading. In the end Alice has adapted and lost most of her vivid imagination that comes with childhood. She realizes what the creatures in Wonderland really are 'nothing but a pack of cards'. At this point, she has matured too much to stay in Wonderland, the world of the children, and wakes up into the 'real' world, the world of adults.


Identity
Related to the theme of 'growing up', is the motif of 'identity'.
In Wonderland, Alice struggles with the importance and instability of personal identity. She is constantly ordered to identify herself by the creatures she meets, but she herself has doubts about her identity as well.
After falling through the Rabbit hole, Alice tests her knowledge to determine whether she has become another girl. Later on, the White Rabbit mistakes her for his maid Mary Ann. When the Caterpillar asks her who she is, she is unable to answer, as she feels that she has changed several times since that morning.
Among other things, this doubt about her identity is nourished by her physical appearance. Alice grows and shrinks several times, which she finds "very confusing". The Pigeon mistakes her for a serpent, not only because she admits eating eggs, but also because of her long neck. The Cheshire Cat questions another aspect of Alice's identity. He is not questioning her name or species, he is questioning her sanity. As she has entered Wonderland, she must be mad, he states.
However, it is not only Alice's identity that is instable. Some creatures in Wonderland have instable identities as well. For example, the Duchess' baby turns into a pig and the members of the jury have to write down their names, or they will forget them.

words of J.K Rowling: IMAGINATION

Now you might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so. Though I personally will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense. Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.

And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know.
I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do. Choosing to live in narrow spaces leads to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors. I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid.


For the complete version--> http://harvardmagazine.com/2008/06/the-fringe-benefits-failure-the-importance-imagination

How To Make Tea Party Invitations!

Simple, fun learning. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v​=KqyQ_X8Th5w

www.youtube.com

Using a “Tea Party” to Incorporate Reading into Science

Check it out!

Using a “Tea Party” to Incorporate Reading into Science - PrometheanPlanet

What Is Your Analysis?

"The study of literature is not like the study of math or science, or even history. While those disciplines are based largely upon fact, the study of literature is based upon interpretation and analysis.

There are no clear-cut answers in literature, outside of the factual information about an author's life and the basic information about setting and characterization in a piece of literature. The rest is a highly subjective reading of what an author has written; each person brings a different set of values and a different background to the reading. As a result, no two people see the piece of literature in exactly the same light, and few critics agree on everything about a book or an author.

In your course of literature study, you or your professor/teacher may come up with a different interpretation of the mood or the theme or the conflict. Your interpretation, if it can be logically supported with information contained within the piece of literature, is just as correct as [the one's you'll find here]. So is the interpretation of your teacher or professor. [...]

Literature is simply not a black or white situation; instead, there are many gray areas that are open to varying analyses. Your task is to come up with your own analysis that you can logically defend."


"-- But you make no remark?"
"I -- I didn't know I had to make one -- just then," Alice faltered out.
"You should have said, 'It's extremely kind of you to tell me all this' -- however, we'll suppose it said."

Favorite Chilled Tea Recipe!

Sweet Iced Black Tea with Cream
This tea has lots of cream and sugar so it is definitely an indulgence. It looks pretty served in a low, clear glass.  I had lots of whipped cream from the tart recipe so this was a great companion.


4 cups boiling water
8 Irish Breakfast tea bags
1/2 cup sugar (this sounds like a lot, but the tea is really strong so it's actually okay)
Crushed ice for serving
1/2 cup heavy cream

Pour water over tea, and steep for 5 to 7 minutes.  Remove tea bags.  Bring tea and sugar to a boil in a saucepan.  Let cool.  To serve, pour 1/2 cup tea over crushed ice in 8 glasses, and then top each with 1 tablespoon cream.

Let Imagination Be Your Guide

  If we imagine that we can,then we can.As we think,so we become.These proverbs have become very popular across the globe.The  meaning of the messeges are very deep and clear.So we should always imagine success,positivity and a beautiful life keeping aside all the worldly odds that penetrates in to our minds during the trials and tribulations of life and making us feel dejected and powerless. and put us in agony.So we should apply our imagination to free ourselves from all the narrowness of the mind and then only we can see the light of freedom ,prosperity and success.

Releases ourselves from all shackles-Imagination is the most beneficial tool of life,which release ourselves from all the shackles and give us a lot of mental freedom and we feel happy and conteted.If we imagine that we are free in this world and the universe is our best friend then we can be free.In order to  relax our mind and make our thoughts flexible ,imagination helps us all the time and we find lot of scope for improving ourselves despite all the odds of life.Inside the four walls of a room if we imagine ourselves to be a part of the universe ,then that will give us lot of mental freedom and we can see the entire universe within ourselves.

Imagination brings success-If we want to be successful in any line of work in life,then we should imagine ourselves to be a successful person and mentally project ourselves in that position of success ,by that we will definitely achive the success.Success and failures are only two states of mind.If we think that we are successful,then we will be successful.If we think failures,then we can not taste the success.By our imagination we can achive anything and everything.We should use applied imagination and think us to be the most powerful person in the world,capable of achiving anything and everything,because all powers are within.

Imagination and our daily work-Before starting the day ,on our bed itself we should think that, that day is the most great day for us and we will achive a lot of things on that day,then definitely we will trigger our brain in tune with our imagination and can do a lot of work perfectly and can contribute to our organisation a lot and can serve the family and the society in a much better way.Our daily work no doubt is burdensome,but if we plan properly and imagine in the morning that we are doing all the works perfectly in a relaxed manner,then that imagination will help us to carry forward  our work suceesfully and at the end of the day we will feel conteted and happy and when we  will return home we will share the joy of the work front with all our family members.For this a through imaginative facukty of mind is required.

The powerful weapon-Imagination is the most powerful weapon in our hands using which we can reach to so many unknown areas and find the secret of a successful living and can know the way on which we can safely travel and can fulfill all our dreams and hopes.We can travel to so many unknown areas of life and can discover many things not only for ourselves ,but for others like the great scientists,writers,poets,scholars and the men of outstanding calibre.Imagining big we can be big.It is the weapon if utilised properly and scientifically can give us everything,which we want from our life irrespective of our age and the place.Every where we can utilise the weapon to conquer the inmical forces of life and there by lead a successful life.

Constant companion till our last breath-The imagination is the constant companion till our last breath ,which holds our hand and takes us on difficult paths and shows us the way to aquire wealth,health and happiness.It accompanies us in every situation and every experience of life.It helps us in taking important decesions in life.We are not alone,our imagination is with us.By utilising it fruitfully we can save more for our family and self and serve the society and the country unrelentlessly.
Imagination is the song of life-Imagination is the song of life.It keeps us alive and we feel fresh whether we are twenty years old or eighty years old.It motivates us and always harmonises our thought pricesses,by which we feel better and brighter every day and carry our work efficiently singing it's song.It's melodious sound makes us alive all the time and helps us to solve most of our problems at the mental level,so that in actual field of work we become successful singing the song of imagination.
The vision-Imagination gives us vision in life.Our vision becomes strong by it and we become able to see the future with our third eye and prepare ourselves to face not only the challenges of the present,but also the challenges of the future.It makes us big in every line of work.by making our vision sharp and clear It helps us to go where we want to go on the success ladder of life.
imagine big.Imagine to have a good and beautiful life.Imagining a beautiful and descent life we can have it.Imagination shows us all the treasures of the world.It keeps us in good health and harmony and we transmit all good things to family,friends and the globe.Let our imagination be strong and give us a positive philosophy of life,by which we can fullfill all our dreams and hopes.

[articlebase./self-help-articles]


 

Community of Tea Parties!