A Brave Writer's Life in Brief

Enchantment does not always mean adding more. Sometimes, enchantment means recognizing what your family already does and leaning into it—counting it!

Little moments that make up your day can be encounters with enchantment if you stop to recognize them and soak them up with pleasure and appreciation.

This collection of posts will give you insights into what you should “count” as enchantment, and offer ideas for little ways you can boost your day to connect with your child and up the enchantment in your homeschool.

• Enchanted Education
• What Enchanted Education Is NOT
• Enchant the Environment
• 5 Magic Words
• The Four Forces of Enchantment
• Enchanted Education for Teens
• Keeping Enchantment Alive in High School
• A Little Enchantment Goes a Long Way

For more on this important topic,
check out Julie’s book, The Brave Learner!

Sometimes it feels hard to be a homeschooler. You’re looking for the group where you fit in and you can’t quite find one. I feel you.

The stakes are higher than ever. So many groups have a strict philosophy or practice or belief system and if you don’t align, it can feel difficult to participate wholeheartedly. In some cases, you can’t even join!

I’ve lived a version of that experience and it’s not fun. It doesn’t feel good to be told that you don’t belong just because you don’t agree or you changed your mind.

When I built Brave Writer, I always wanted to welcome as wide a variety of homeschooler as there was into our work. We grow and we learn when we are exposed to a wide range of ideas and people and beliefs.

If it feels like you don’t fit elsewhere, just know that you have a home with us. We see you. We want you.

Need more support? Join our Brave Learner Home community and unlock the riches inside: coaches, resources, trainings, and friendships! And, as a member, you’ll have immediate access to the most extensive homeschool resource library on the internet.

Is it okay to abandon a curriculum that worked, just because “fill in the blank”?

Maybe we:

Are tired or bored or nervous.

Have a kid who doesn’t do it the way we did it with the last four, just as we got the hang of it. (Grrr.)

Hear about someone else’s bright idea and doubt everything we’ve ever done, even while our best friend tells us we are perfect as we are. (Sure, Michelle.)

Worry that we’ll lose our friends if we change gears and try something new. (Please, don’t kick me out of forest school because I like the indoors now.)

Know this: It’s always OKAY to reinvent how you home educate.

Lean into it.

Add chocolate if needed.

In this world of AI and voice to text, there’s one essential practice that connects your child to themselves effectively without technological interference. It’s not going outside hours a day or crafting or baking—even though those are great activities for kids.

It’s the power to put your own thoughts into honest words—privately, patiently, slowly, with skill and stamina. And while I’m a huge fan of typing, there’s a therapeutic benefit to writing by hand, old school, too.

Why bother teaching the art of handwriting?

What help is writing by hand to kids who refuse, cry, or complain that their fingers hurt?

Today, handwriting is one of the ways your child can learn about their own mind and thoughts without the suggestions of technology—no supplied words or ideas, no spelling corrections or improvements offered.

Amazingly, the brain loves it too! Handwriting lights up more areas of the brain than typing or voice to text. It anchors memory, focus, and creativity.

One of the ways we grow the handwriting skill is to make a little time and space for it each day. In Brave Writer, we do this through the rhythm of regular copywork and freewriting.

We recommend that you handwrite with your kids too.

• Put on some wordless music.
• Light a candle.
• Then simply write.

Slow the frenetic energy of life to patiently hook up a hand with a mind. See what you discover!

Even if your child struggles with dysgraphia, handwriting can be learned a little at a time. Involve a specialist for handwriting therapies tailored to your child if your child struggles excessively.

But, handwriting is now the key tool in the fight to ensure children and young adults are offering their own thinking. It’s a skill they need.

For parents of teens, check out our webinar:
High School Writing in the Age of AI

We think we’re teaching our kids how to write for academic achievement, but what if we’re actually teaching kids how to write for their mental health?

To help their clients stabilize internal chaos, clinicians use:

• journaling,
• freewriting prompts,
• poetry,
• and the communication game.

Foundaton of Self-Awareness

The art of writing and self-examination create a foundation of self-awareness that leads to mental health.

So why try a traditional writing program that has proven to damage the mental health of so many students? I’m not being a alarmist. Adults everywhere tell me their stories of the damage caused by a writing instructor in their lives. The evaluation model of writing instruction is failing so many.

Yet writing is one of the most important and effective tools for mental health and recovery.

If your kids learn to write because it helps them know themselves, they may never need it as a recovery tool, but as an ongoing conversation with themselves that leads them to self-confidence and a feeling of personal power.

Liberate your kids to enjoy writing! And if you need support, Brave Writer is here to help.

This post was originally shared on Instagram.
Watch the accompanying reel for more.