“‘A party for Me?’ thought Pooh to himself. ‘How grand!’” - from Winnie-the-PoohWinnie-the-Pooh Day commemorates the birthday of A. A. Milne author of the entire collection for Pooh Bear works including Winnie-the-Pooh, A House At Pooh Corner, When We Were Young, and Now We Are Six. Milne was already an essayist, poet, and playwright before writing these celebrated works, which are based on real-life adventures with his own son and his collection of stuffed animals; however, his other works seem to be completely eclipsed by the success of Winnie-the-Pooh.
Milne, himself also had a troubled life suffering from PTSD after his service in World War I, coping with the extraordinary success of his Pooh Bear books, and their impact on his family. Read more about Milne and Christopher Robin Milne.
But before you get too bummed out over the bittersweet origin story of the Pooh Bear, let’s get back to the tea party. A few years ago, I stumbled upon the National Calendar Day website looking for fun, little known holidays to celebrate in my homeschool.
When I discovered an actual holiday dedicated to Winnie the Pooh, I immediately knew that it was meant for my family to celebrate. Some years, our celebration is simple. It’s a box of Teddy Grahams, sweet tea, watching movies, and reading our favorite chapters from the books. When you homeschool and are being pulled in a thousand different directions, there were times that this little snack was all I could do. But other years, we take it up a notch and plan all kinds of fun activities. Here is a little list of some of the fun we’ve had over the years.
When I discovered an actual holiday dedicated to Winnie the Pooh, I immediately knew that it was meant for my family to celebrate. Some years, our celebration is simple. It’s a box of Teddy Grahams, sweet tea, watching movies, and reading our favorite chapters from the books. When you homeschool and are being pulled in a thousand different directions, there were times that this little snack was all I could do. But other years, we take it up a notch and plan all kinds of fun activities. Here is a little list of some of the fun we’ve had over the years.
Ways to Celebrate Winnie-the-Pooh
- We have done drawing tutorials like this one.
- We have made houses for Eeyore out of our Roy Toys.
- We have recited and illustrated Milne’s poetry. Here are a few fun ones.
- There are a number of other Pooh Bear books that we have collected over the years and we enjoy pouring over them. My littles especially like this one with little flaps (aff link):
- We also have a collection of puzzles, toys, and these cool puppets from Melissa and Doug for playtime (aff link):
- If the weather permits, Winnie-the-Pooh Day presents the perfect opportunity to take a nature walk and maybe hunt for woozles, lead an expedition to the North Pole, or make traps for Heffalumps.
**Feel free to make this little tea party as simple or elaborate as you’d like because the beauty of homeschooling is that any activity can be tailored to your family’s needs.
- My final suggestion is to plan a little menu with your kiddos. Mine love it when I make veggie and cracker trays for tea parties (they think it’s fancy when I’m really trying to make sure we eat the baby carrots before they go bad, LOL!).
My older set of kiddos will drink warm peppermint tea or chamomile tea but my younger set will probably have sweet tea in the nice tea cups (which are actually mugs). There is usually a baked good because a tea party begs for cake. This year my teens will be attempting this “Hunny” Cake.
It is my firm belief that Winnie-the-Pooh, The House At Pooh Corner, etc, are not children’s books, rather they are books written for the child within us all. The child who is still enchanted by fir cones and windy days and imaginary animals and who is always ready for an adventure.
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- We have made houses for Eeyore out of our Roy Toys.
“‘You have a house Piglet, and I have a house, and they are very good houses...but poor Eeyore has nothing. So what I’ve been thinking is: Let’s build him a house.’” - from The House At Pooh Corner- Speaking of Eeyore, why not play pin the tail on Eeyore? It’s quite fun!
- We have recited and illustrated Milne’s poetry. Here are a few fun ones.
- There are a number of other Pooh Bear books that we have collected over the years and we enjoy pouring over them. My littles especially like this one with little flaps (aff link):
- We also have a collection of puzzles, toys, and these cool puppets from Melissa and Doug for playtime (aff link):
- If the weather permits, Winnie-the-Pooh Day presents the perfect opportunity to take a nature walk and maybe hunt for woozles, lead an expedition to the North Pole, or make traps for Heffalumps.
“They all went off to discover the Pole,- This year, I have big plans to see how many blue balloons it will take to make our collection of Pooh Bear plushies float in the air aka “sneaking STEM into our tea party.”
Owl and Piglet and Rabbit and all;
It’s a Thing you Discover, as I’ve been tole
By Owl and Piglet and Rabbit and all.” - from Winnie-the-Pooh
**Feel free to make this little tea party as simple or elaborate as you’d like because the beauty of homeschooling is that any activity can be tailored to your family’s needs.
- My final suggestion is to plan a little menu with your kiddos. Mine love it when I make veggie and cracker trays for tea parties (they think it’s fancy when I’m really trying to make sure we eat the baby carrots before they go bad, LOL!).
My older set of kiddos will drink warm peppermint tea or chamomile tea but my younger set will probably have sweet tea in the nice tea cups (which are actually mugs). There is usually a baked good because a tea party begs for cake. This year my teens will be attempting this “Hunny” Cake.
It is my firm belief that Winnie-the-Pooh, The House At Pooh Corner, etc, are not children’s books, rather they are books written for the child within us all. The child who is still enchanted by fir cones and windy days and imaginary animals and who is always ready for an adventure.
“Christopher Robin was sitting outside the door putting on his Big Boots. As soon as he saw the Big Boots, Pooh knew that an Adventure was going to happen, and he brushed the honey off his nose with the back of his paw, and spruced himself up as well as he could, so as to look Ready for Anything.” - from Winnie-the-Pooh
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Extra Note:
Favorite Winnie-the-Pooh Books (aff links)
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Bio:
Stacie Servantes Farias is an Army wife and mom of 6 with a “very healthy” obsession for Snoopy, Disney movies, Audrey Hepburn, Dr. Pepper, Whataburger, books, and homeschooling. Originally from Mission, Texas, Stacie and her high-school sweetheart hubby live with their kids and dog in a different home every few years, because that is the military life. She has big plans to write a book exploring her theory that La Llorona drowned her children because they would take their socks off all over the house and then would complain that they never had clean socks!