What would happen if you grew taller than trees? How would this change your life?
Archive for the ‘Friday Freewrite’ Category
Friday Freewrite: What are you avoiding?
Friday, April 29th, 2011
Write about what you are avoiding or don’t want to do or are putting off for another, better day.
Friday Freewrite: Talent
Friday, April 22nd, 2011
Write about your hidden talent (can be magical, if you prefer).
Friday Freewrite: Found Key
Friday, April 15th, 2011
You find a lone gold key and realize what it unlocks after a few attempts. What do you discover?
Friday Freewrite: Message in a bottle
Friday, October 8th, 2010
You walk on the beach and while examining the sand crabs and seashells, you stumble upon a green glass bottle with an aged white letter inside. What does it say?
Friday Freewrite: I wish…
Friday, September 24th, 2010
I wish there really was….. If there really was, then…..
What it means to be “brave”
Monday, September 20th, 2010
Hello everyone!
Summer is long over. However, fall is just beginning in the Bogart household. My middle child only moved to college on Thursday! Made it very hard to settle into a fall routine.
Now that we’re here, let’s explore a few thoughts about Brave Writer and writing that may support your coming school year. One of our Brave Writer moms said it well a few years back:
I saw the name “Brave Writer” and honestly didn’t even consider why the website was called that. After reading what a friend had to say about The Writers Jungle on the Sonlight forums, I decided to check it out. At first I thought…no, way…the price is too much! Boy was I wrong! It has been one of the most valuable investments I have made on this homeschool journey.
Last week I finally realized the significance of the name “Brave Writer.” It speaks not only to the bravery of putting your thoughts down on paper, but also to me as a homeschool mom. I have been using several recommended curriculum including a spelling workbook. It has gone fine—my ds 8 has been getting great grades on the tests as well as learning some alphabatizing and proofreading skills. However, when he writes, he misspells some of those same words. There is a disconnect with my ds between completing a workbook and memorizing a list of spelling words and actually being able to spell well. Another downside…the spelling workbook pages were taking way too long some days with a dawdling boy (but who could blame the kid! It’s not the most fascinating work!). And that’s when I did my first brave thing…I threw out the spelling workbook (gasp, and the $10 I had paid for it).
O.K…that may not seem that brave, but it was my security blanket! And now I am having these crazy thoughts concerning the Grammar book as well. You see, I want him to spend more time on copywork, dictation, narrations, reading great books and poetry and there are just so many hours in the day (especially productive hours where an 8 year boy is involoved).
I’m having trouble letting go of those nagging thoughts “Well, so-and-so is having her ds do the whole grammar book and talks about how much he is learning…what if we don’t? Will he still get into a good college someday? What if he can’t diagram a sentence?” (As I write this, I realize just how silly that sounds, but deep down I still wonder).
So I’m starting with my first brave act…I’m throwing out the spelling workbook and trying a more natural approach using copywork and dictation. Maybe soon I’ll be able to take the next brave step with a little encouragement!
Kay
By the way, my ds doesn’t hate to write now that we do freewriting. I never realized how much pressure he was feeling because he thought everything had to be perfect! Thanks, Julie!
What a great story! It’s true that being brave is not just about writing. It’s about taking calculated risks to trust that writing can be as natural a process as learning to speak was. Kay’s journey can be yours! Every day I hear from families who have completed the homeschooling journey. Here are a couple of their comments:
Hi Julie
We’ve been with Brave Writer for many years: have won a competition, participated in an on-line class, and my daughter is still loving her writing. She’s 17 now…
We’ve loved your stuff and continue to recommend your services to people everywhere we go.
God bless,
Anna
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I thoroughly appreciated your blog, bravewriter manual and especially the “tuesday teatime” idea. We have enjoyed poetry with chocolate cake and have good memories for that. You helped me approach an area I did not have confidence in so THANK YOU.
Jenny
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Dear Julie,As a homeschool family, we have been so blessed by you. I just want to thank you so much for what you have done for our family, over the past few years of our subscription.
As you know, children grow up. Our two are at the end of their homeschool journey, and we are using less and less homeschool curriculum, and more and more of community based learning prorams.
We have all ( me too) enjoyed the bravewriter lifestyle, and will always cherish special memories of reading aloud, and poems with our afternoon tea and candles. You are such a huge blessing.
Thank you for everything.
Sincerely,
Beverley
It’s great to be a part of these journeys. Hope Brave Writer can help you too!
Friday Freewrite: Bikes and safety
Friday, April 30th, 2010
Should you be required to wear a bike helmet? Why or why not?
(You could also write about whether or not cell phones while driving ought to be banned.)
Friday Freewrite: Prejudice
Friday, April 16th, 2010
Why do you think prejudice exists in the world?
Email: After the convention…
Thursday, April 15th, 2010
Welcome new Brave Writer readers. I so enjoyed meeting many of you at the convention last weekend. I received the following wonderful email on Sunday and want to share it with you. It tickles me no end when someone puts into practice the ideas I share so effectively and quickly! Hope it encourages you too.
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Julie,
My name is Kari McGrath. I sat in on three of your sessions with my friend this past weekend, and ended up buying your book, and I just can’t wait to get started! I have told every friend I’ve run into that homeschools, and I shared last night with my husband, who thought it sounded great. Unfortunately, I got sick at the convention and lost my voice (now you might remember me!), so I stayed home today from church, and my oldest daughter stayed home with me. I was so excited, I told her about this new writing program we are going to be doing, how it will be fun, and I don’t think we’ll cry anymore! I know you talked about “Freewrite Fridays” and said that it would work Mon-Thurs…well, I have to let you know it will work on a Sunday, too! I just had to share this with you.
After I told her today what we’d be doing (freewriting), I couldn’t wait! So, she and I went into the kitchen, got our paper and pencils. I told her what we were going to do, and told her I was setting the timer for 3 minutes. She looked scared, so I said, “okay, we’ll write together for one minute!” One minute went by, and she was still writing, so she gave me permission to set it for 2 more minutes. At the end of 3 minutes, I stopped, and she said, “hold on, I still have another sentence to finish!” (This is my daughter who CRIES and gets spankings for her attitude when we write!) We stopped when she was done, then we read ours to each other. Here is hers: (note: The first sentence is from Lemony Snickets-when Count Olaf died, the second sentence is from Star Wars, then the rest of the sentences go back to another scene from Lemony Snickets..whose books she LOVED!)
count olaf laid in the water with the helmet in his hands. but master i Just saved your life. As the harpon {harpoon} hit his stomach he flew threw the wall and in to the fountin as he was drowing violet Klaus and sunny ran to the fountin they said they were sorry he drowned.
Ha! It was ALL I could do to not ask why she changed courses from Lemony Snickets to Star Wars and back, but I didn’t!!! I told her it was very good! Then I read her mine. It went:
I love my daughter, Myra. She is a precious gift from God to me. I wanted a child for so many years, and God gave HER to me. I am so thankful He heard my prayers! She is compassionate, kind, a great helper to me, a friend to me. She’s a beautiful girl, but she doesn’t see that. Others do, though-they tell me all the time. I don’t know what she’ll do when she grows up, but I think she’ll make a good mother.
I couldn’t get through reading that to her without crying. And, I kept crying. (I think it was half love, and half relief that she actually wrote!) She came over and hugged me. I explained that this was all we were going to do-once a week-for the next eight weeks, and then I explained how we’d pick one to revise, etc… Her response? “Aw..just one a week? Can we do more than that? That was alot of fun!!” WHAT???!!! Wow!!! Then she said, “Mom, your ‘poem’ you wrote was really nice…can I keep it?”
All I have to say is, Thank you, Julie! And, I haven’t even started reading ‘the jungle’ yet! Ha!
God bless,
Kari McGrath, Kentucky
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And that’s how it’s done!