Brave Writer

Katie, in the comments earlier this week, asked:

Congratulations on beginning a new book!

I wanted to ask a question about writing also. One of my kids loves the flower fairies (Cicely Mary Barker illustrations) and is writing stories about them. She mentioned that she would like to get them published when she is finished. My question is how to go about finding out if the illustrations, or the idea of the fairies itself, is copyrighted or in the public domain. I don’t know that dd’s work will actually be published, but I thought it was a good idea to find out if there are any restrictions. Where do you look for information like that?

Thanks!

Copyright is one of the trickiest laws to track down and comprehend. I’ve been immersed in discovering the rules for what constitutes “fair use” versus “copyrighted” material for years (especially since I do draw on the texts of published works for my materials!).

My dad, conveniently, is a lawyer and I finally asked him some point blank questions to help me out. For your purposes, let me assure you that anything your daughter does in the privacy of her own use (family, friends) is not in danger of violating copyright law. If she goes for publication, the illustrations will have nothing to do with her writing. She can’t recommend or include illustrations in her submissions because publishers keep illustrators and writers separate from each other, like keeping pit bulls and two year olds apart. The publisher will pick an illustrator, not your daughter.

The main issue would be whether or not she is using the exact characters from the original series or if she is creating new ones from scratch inspired by the books she read. If it’s the latter, she’s fine. If it’s the former, then she would have to have permission to use the original characters in her new stories. That would be something your publisher would need to work out with the other publisher (obtaining permission). That step alone would likely put the ka-bash on publishing your daughter’s work (since she is a virtual unknown). So I’d help her to think of original characters.

Good question! Good luck!

all like answers to. (It’s long so take your time. Read a question and answer, then go mow your lawn. Then come back for another. Also recommended: glass of sangria to get through it all! )

Julie,
I have been torn between two writing curriculum for my 5th grade avid writer next year, I.E.W. and Classical Writing. I have been leaning toward I.E.W. or Susan Wise Bauer’s new writing curriculum for my 3rd grader.

Now, I found out about Brave Writer and have THREE choices! Oh no, two was anxiety producing enough. I am attracted to your curriculum because you are interested in producing writers, not on producing a piece of writing to fulfill a required need in the curriculum that year, be it a book report or a personal narrative. My 5th grade daughter dreams of becoming an author, so writing curriculums mean a great deal to me. I thank you in advance for answering my questions. This year she did a co-op which didn’t use a specific curriculum, and a sundry of little assignments from mom.

Hi Melissa!

Welcome to Brave Writer. Things are a little upside down here in our neck of the homeschool curricula world. We approach writing (as you rightly noted!) through the lens of personhood: writer. We start with kids and their quirky, lovable, infectious, sometimes grating, undeveloped and truncated voices. We get as much of who they are to paper and then toy with all those words until the shape up, sparkle and entertain. That means that what we offer is unlike anything else you’ll find in the homeschool writing instruction world. I’m happy to answer your questions and do so here to help others who ask the same ones. This got very long! But you know? Sometimes long is better than short so here goes.

Question #1:
Would you recommend The Writer’s Jungle AND the online classes, or would that be redundant?

The Writer’s Jungle is designed to support you (the homeshcooling parent) in becoming the most effective writing partner and ally your children can have for the length of their educations. It covers similar material to the Kidswrite Basic course (the first half of the WJ is duplicated in KWB). However, the KWB course offers you supportive feedback, deadlines for assignments and dialog to help you with your specific children as they embark on the writing process. Many moms have purchased the WJ and worked independently of Kidswrite Basic. However, there are probably just as many who have done both! And it is also possible to take the online course and not purchase the WJ.

I usually make the following suggestion. If you can get into an online course, do it! They make the most impact on your homeschool. You will discover that you can get your questions answered instantly, you will observe other families and children writers who will help you get an accurate idea of how your family is doing and you’ll receive the energy, enthusiasm and expertise of a trained Brave Writer instructor to establish you as an equally capable writing coach for your kids. The feedback from families who’ve taken the courses nearly always includes comments like, “Now that I’ve taken your course, I get it!” and “It took being in your class for me to finally put the Brave Writer philosophy into practice.”

If you are the kind of mother who enjoys working at your own pace, who likes to hold a manual in her hands, who wants more information than just the online class content (the WJ includes additional information on writer’s voice, report writing, setting up a tailor-made language arts and writing program for each child, the natural developmental phases of writing, journaling, literary elements, how to indentify and transform dumb writing assignments, and more not found in the online course), then purchase The Writer’s Jungle.

Many moms like starting with The Writer’s Jungle so that they can adopt the philosophy, can try a few things on their own and then they join a class. So there is no right way to do this. Whatever hooks your jaw – do that! The other stuff will still be here.

Both are effective in getting you on an entirely different path toward writing than the usual homeschool writing materials on the market.

Question#2:
I know your website says other writing curriculum bog you down in topic sentences, paragraph development, etc.. However, how do children learn these important elements of expository writing? Is this well described in The Writer’s Jungle, in a step-by-step fashion? Also, does your course teach how to outline and take notes?

I have lots (and I do mean lots) of thoughts about expository writing. First and foremost: If your child has not become comfortable with self-expression, word play, insight generation, thoughtful analysis, his or her own voice, or the basic mechanics of writing, expository writing will be an exquisite torture ranking up there with pureed spinach and vinegar for dinner.

Topic sentences, paragraph development, structure: all of this finds its place most easily when a child has become immersed in reading, has over time developed an internal intuitive sense of what makes a paragraph compelling to read, and has become a thinker who develops a line of reasoning through discussion and freewriting rather than through obeying the strictures of a model for writing that chokes the life out of any original thought!

For the record, I am a huge fan of expository writing. It’s my favorite kind to teach and to practice. And I’m damned good at it. Our high school manual focuses on the necessary formats that enable kids to translate their more freewheeling younger years’ writing into the streamlined, well-argued demands of the essay. So we get there. But we avoid that kind of rigidity while your kids are toddling through freewriting, story telling, journaling, comic strips, dialog and descriptions. Format writing is best saved for high school.

Question#3:
When are sign-ups for your fall on-line classes?

We have online registration at the end of July/beginning of August. I’m again attempting to work on the website this summer (redesign) and so that will impact the date of registration. We do have Summer Courses open for registration right now and we will have our usual full slate of fall classes up for perusal in July. Start dates for classes: mid August. Registration for fall is always insane (read: competitive) so pay attention to when the registration date is released so you can be ready to enroll right away. Sign up on the home page of the website for our email newsletter that gives you breaking registration news.

Question#4:
Is the Arrow a FULL language arts curriculum which will address subject/verb agreement, adj., adv., prepostions, etc., etc.? Or, should we supplement this with a more structured LA program?

Another very tricky question. The Arrow is designed to help moms execute their best intentions related to copywork and dictation. I provide a novel per month and include four passages from that novel for copywork and/or dictation with notes about why I chose the passage, what to note in it (interesting grammatical content, spelling, literary elements) and how to teach it (that’s where you’ll find information such as how the grammar or mechanics work). The Arrow also includes a featured literary element every month with examples taken from literature and a writing exercise related to that element.

I do not take a systematic approach to grammar in the Arrow or Boomerang. We explore it within its context of real writing. I do recommend hitting grammar three times in your child’s life: one year in elementary school, once in junior high and one more time in high school (though a foreign language is just as effective at that point). You can use just about any grammar program. Just be sure your children don’t hate it.

You should know (full disclosure) that my older kids (21, 18 and 16) believe that the programs they used taught them nothing (I may disagree, but this is their subjective experience and they are in college and high school now). We used Winston Grammar and Winston Grammar Advanced. They credit reading, dictation, Shakespeare camp, foreign language and personal interest in linguistics with their grammar skills today. They’re all beasts at it now. Very good writers.

New books lists for the Arrow and the Boomerang will be posted by the end of June.

Question#5:
If I purchase The Writer’s Jungle, does this then teach me how to teach to various age levels? I have a 5th and 3rd grader. My 5th grader is obsessed with writing stories, but also needs help in writing various genres, especially report writing. My 3rd grader has written summaries all year, but we’re still tackling run-ons. He doesn’t really appreciate the overly creative projects; he enjoyed doing an I.E.W. sample exercise I picked up at a homeschool conference.

Great question! The Writer’s Jungle doesn’t give you assignments like these. It gives you the tools to dredge words from the guts of your children. Then it shows you how to upgrade that content of messy wordage spilled all over paper into a cogent little piece of writing that is a bit more quirky and sophisticated than when you started. You discover how to revise (in the real sense, not in the copy editing sense) with your kids so that they aren’t cringing while you give feedback, but are instead exercising their own judgment as authors who care about expanding and enhancing their work. In other words, revision is a process woefully under-taught in most writing curricula, yet is the critical piece to becoming an accomplished writer.

As a result, the WJ works for every level of writing (including adults!). Pros use the same methods as kids. The trick is to understand that process from the inside out – how it feels, how it looks, how to expand and enhance it. That’s what Brave Writer is all about!

Finally…Question#6:
Your website mentions lesson plans in The Writer’s Jungle. Could you elaborate on this? Are they daily lessons plans, and if so how would you tailor them to different ability levels?

Nope! No daily lessons. The Writer’s Jungle helps you to create writing assignments that suit both the temperament and skill levels of your kids as well as accommodate their interests and studies.

Any extra words of wisdom I’d appreciate…I’m all ears. And, thank you, thank you, thank you for your time! I thank God for talented homeschool moms such as yourself.
Melissa

Thanks Melissa! Great questions and hopefully, these answers give you what you need. Any follow up questions (from anyone) welcome in the comments section.

Julie

I am so thrilled to share Monique’s journey with you today. Monique came to the Grand Rapids event a couple of weeks ago and sent me the most engaging description of how she applied what she learned in her family. I’ve waited for permission to post her thoughts here which came while I was away in California. I’ve included her follow up email as well since it extends her ideas even further.

I noted, too, that JoVE mentions on her blog the importance of relationships with our kids in the learning process. (She’s got a great post there.) This email demonstrates it.

So let me give you a bit of background first. Monique’s children were homeschooled until this year. She put her daughter into school (a bit) to “teach her a lesson.” Monique, like so many of us, got frustrated with the way her daughter dragged her feet about learning, how she didn’t appreciate her mother’s investment of heart, time and energy, how she seemed to turn what was supposed to be a delightful, family bonding experience into a power struggle between mom and kid.

In the “Nurturing Brave Writers” workshop, we spend a lot of time talking about how to create the context for peaceful, nurturing relationships as foundational to any education (whether your kids are in “school-in-a-building” or homeschooled). Here’s how Monique applied these insights:

Thank you so much for a great event.  I truly mean to let it enhance the way I view my children.  I came home and emailed all my inspiration to my aunt, who now lives in Morocco and is one of the most intresting, intelligent people I know.  This was her response:

WOW !  What a message….what a good mother you are !  “If I raise my girls to be interesting people…”  To paraphrase :  if I guide my girls to the maximum of exposure, their God-given individuality will surely be ‘interesting’.  As I look back, our mother CONTROLLED our exposure, and….when the world changed (faster than her Betty Crocker cookies could crumble), she became bitter, no longer enjoyed who her daughters were (forgetting HER sordid past!), and kept her world in chains—criticizing anything outside its boundaries.  College ?  Molly may just be an auto-didact artist by then and a diploma may cramp her style—not easy to let them go (‘Let the reign’ of daughters bud and flower in family soil, but where their seeds fly belongs to their generation). Difficult to even calculate the mathematics of change; but the more data (cause) available, the more the consequential effect compounds….and, for sure, the in-put your girls will receive is only for them to digest. You and Pat can sit back and enjoy the show, fixed in the garden of your generation.

When I came home Sunday, I had to do homework with Molly.  She had a book report due.  Instead of plopping her in front of her worksheets to fill it in, I decided to make it a collaborative, learning experience, as well as honoring my child’s amazing love of projects.  So we turned her boring book report into a splendid lapbook.  We spent 11 hours on it, only breaking for dinner for an hour.

My sweet girl just LOVED making a lap book.  She kept sighing and looking at me and saying, “Mommy, I just love you.”  She did so much copywork in one day that she now has every possible form of punctuation mastered.  We pored over quotes in the book that would encapsulate each character.  We discussed every aspect of the book imaginable.  Instead of doing a character sketch on just the main character, as her teacher asked, we did a character sketch on every single character.  Her choice.

When she summarized the book, I tried to mimic how you said your mother would compliment and then say, “How about . . .?”  I taught her about good openers instead of saying, “The first part of the book was about…”  We had to come up with the heart of the book as well.  We couldn’t figure it out.  So we sat on it for an hour then came back and it struck us.  She kept asking me if all this help would be considered cheating.  I told her all I care about is if she’s learning.  If she got an F on it for cheating, oh, well!  I knew her teacher would be thrilled, though.

When we turned it in, her teacher was astonished.  She ooohed and ahhhed and praised up my Molly.  She made a point to pass it around the class so everyone could see.  She told the class that she would never assign this, but if they want to take a homework assignment and make it into a lap book, by all means, please do.  My shy daughter was bursting with pride.

And I felt great all over that I honored who she is and basked in it for 11 hours.  What a gift to give my daughters, just to honor them.

Oh, and before I launched into this all day marathon project, I played Webkinz with my middle daughter.  I never told her YUCK once.  I kept telling myself I’m the adult here.  I’m the bigger person.  I’ve navigated a marriage, for crying out loud; I can play Webkinz with my daughter for a half an hour!

Thank you again for a great weekend.  I love opening my thoughts to positive, new ideas.

Monique

Monique’s follow up:

I’m really focusing on honoring just who each of my girls are.  It’s hard to not put them into what I think they ought to be.  Yet it’s freeing to honor their own individuality.

The other day I was frustrated with my older daughter’s clumsy ways.  She was just crashing into everything possible and making poor choices with her belongings.  So I thought to honor what she might need.  I grabbed a blanket and a big beach towel.  Despite the fact it was cold out (something she’s always been amazingly oblivious to), I told her to take off her shoes and socks and roll up her jeans.  Then I took her to a flooded, mucky park and told her to get out of the car and get it all out of her system.

Her eyes blazed like a mad woman.  She crashed out of the car and did an arm spiraling stumble into the first puddle she could find and totally delighted herself in a mud-slinging, stringy-hair, flying human tornado.  Her sister meanwhile tip toed through the least wet grassy areas, while holding her jeans up even farther than I had them rolled.  But the two had a great time.  My messy Molly actually did full swan dives into the deepest ice water indentations she could find.  When they got back into the car, the little tidy one was bitching up a storm.  But my Molly was open-armed sighing out “I love you Mommy’s” to me, in the backseat naked under the blanket I brought.  When we got home my husband saw our mud encrusted blue lipped daughter and was shocked I let her do that.  I just loved the kid I have.  She’s a lot of fun.  And I love my middle tidy one too!

Thanks from all of us.

There’s nothing more to say except: “Go and do likewise.”