Brave Writer News: June 2026

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[Podcast #343] Partnership Writing with Dawn Smith

Brave Writer Podcast

Why teach writing when AI can generate paragraphs in seconds? 

In this Brave Writer podcast episode, Melissa Wiley talks with Brave Writer president, Dawn Smith, about why writing still matters, maybe more than ever. Together, they explore writing as a tool for thinking, voice, discovery, and connection.

We look at:

  • how kids develop their own style,
  • why pre-writing conversations are part of the writing process,
  • and how partnership writing helps children bridge the gap between ideas and words on the page.

Plus, Dawn shares what’s new with Partnership Writing and how families can pair projects with Darts for a rich month of learning.

Tune in and reconnect with the deeply human work of writing.

Show Notes

Have you ever watched an AI tool spit out a tidy paragraph in seconds and felt a little wobble in your confidence?

There it is: grammatically correct, decently organized, maybe even sprinkled with a few impressive words. Your teen looks at it. You look at it. The question hangs in the air.

Why should anyone bother learning to write anymore?

We understand the panic.

If writing is only about producing a clean final product, AI seems like a shortcut. It can draft the essay, polish the sentence, summarize the book, suggest the thesis, and smooth out the grammar.

But writing is not only the product.

Writing is thinking.

And our kids still need to think.

AI Can Generate Text. Humans Generate Meaning.

Generative AI works from patterns. It predicts what word is likely to come next based on what it has absorbed from human writing.

That can be useful. It can also be flattening.

AI does not know your child’s inside jokes, favorite books, odd fascinations, family conversations, sharp opinions, or private questions. It does not remember the movie that made them cry, the argument they had in the car, the frog they found in the creek, or the sentence in a novel that made them sit up straighter.

All of that becomes part of a child’s writing voice.

A human mind is a mosaic. Every conversation, book, memory, game, movie, and relationship adds another tile. When children write, that mosaic begins to show itself on the page.

That is what we are protecting.

Writing Helps Kids Discover Their Thoughts

Sometimes we imagine writing this way: first you have an idea, then you write it down.

But often, the writing comes first.

A child starts with a half-formed thought. They talk it through. They try a sentence. They cross it out. They say, “That’s not what I mean.” They try again. Suddenly, something clicks.

Now they know what they think.

That moment matters.

It is easy to miss because it does not always look efficient. It may look like wandering. It may sound like rambling. It may involve long pauses, snacks, frustration, or a walk around the block.

But underneath the mess, the mind is organizing itself.

When we rush too quickly to the finished paragraph, we can rob children of the very process that helps them grow.

Voice Is Worth Developing

One of the quiet dangers of writing tools is that they can make every child sound the same.

The quirky phrase gets replaced. The joke disappears. The sentence that sounded exactly like your child is “improved” into something bland but acceptable.

We do want children to learn conventions. Commas matter. Spelling matters. Clarity matters.

But conventions are tools, not the whole house.

Punctuation can create suspense. Sentence fragments can add punch. A surprising word choice can reveal personality. Dialogue can carry character. Even academic writing benefits from a mind alive behind the argument.

We are not teaching children to obey grammar for its own sake.

We are helping them use language with power.

Partnership Is Part of the Process

Children do not need to face the blank page alone.

In Brave Writer, we value partnership because writing asks a lot of a developing brain. A child may be generating ideas, remembering letter formation, spelling words, organizing thoughts, managing emotions, and trying to sound smart all at once.

That is too much.

So we partner.

We jot down their words. We talk before writing. We ask questions. We help them remember the wonderful thing they said five minutes ago. We read examples from books. We fill their cup with language before asking them to pour anything out.

This does not make the writing less theirs.

It makes writing possible.

Professional writers do this too. They talk ideas through with friends. They send drafts to editors. They revise after feedback. They pace, delete, complain, and try again.

Writing has never been a magical solo performance.

It is a process.

Give Kids Something to Say

A child who has nothing to say will struggle to write.

That does not mean they are lazy. It may mean they need more before-writing life.

Read the novel. Watch the documentary. Build the model. Play the game. Visit the creek. Talk about the character. Argue about the ending. Make the comparison. Follow the rabbit trail.

Then write.

When children have lived with a topic, language becomes available. They have images, opinions, questions, and connections. The blank page is no longer empty. It has roots underneath it.

This is why deep dives matter. A month with one good book can lead to mechanics, literary devices, history, science, art, narration, discussion, and original writing.

The parts are there.

We simply slow down enough to notice them.

Friction Is Not Failure

Writing can be hard.

That does not mean something has gone wrong.

There is often a struggle phase before flow. The child bumps against the limits of what they can currently do. They feel the discomfort of effort. They may need a break, a snack, a walk, or a good cry.

When the tears come, the lesson’s done.

But the learning is not over forever. We return later with more support, more language, more patience, and a smaller next step.

This is how cognitive stamina grows.

Not through pressure. Not through panic. Through supported practice over time.

AI Does Not Change What Children Need

Our kids are growing up in a world of instant text, endless content, and shrinking attention spans. That makes the slow work of writing even more valuable.

They need:

  • chances to sit with an idea,
  • to hear their own voices,
  • to revise without shame,
  • to know that even published authors produce messy drafts,
  • and to experience the satisfaction of discovering a thought that did not exist before they began writing.

AI may have a place as a tool. But it cannot replace the human work of making meaning.

So yes, we still teach writing.

Not because the world needs more perfect five-paragraph essays.

Because our children need access to their own minds.

Resources

Connect with Julie

Connect with Melissa

Produced by NOVA

Brave Writer Podcast

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Does Every Child Love to Learn?

Brave Writer

Saying every child loves to learn is a bold statement to believe if the child in front of you actively resists writing. Or math. Or they’re generally disinterested in whatever they deem “schoolish.”

But it’s true. Inside each of us is a natural desire to learn. 

You feel a creative itch and take up quilting. You wake up curious about what happened in the news overnight. You want more beauty in your home so you learn container gardening. And so on.

The same is true for our children. They hunger to learn and enjoy doing it. 

But sometimes that hunger is inadvertently overlooked or stifled.

Joy is lost and our homeschools flounder.

What sucks the joy out of learning?

  • Dull, irrelevant tasks 
  • Hurried learning
  • Too much challenge
  • Loss of autonomy

Pause and scan your environment. Is joy happening? Where? What’s causing joy? Who’s engaged and deeply involved? Can you lean into it more?

Rekindle the flame to find the sweet spot that brings joy and skill development together.

Brave Learner Home

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Reverse Dictation

Brave Writer Reverse Dictation

One of our favorite tools for growing young writers is Reverse Dictation.

We take an existing passage from a beloved book and mess it up with spelling and punctuation errors. Then we turn the student loose to play editor, cleaning up the mess we made!

Try it using a passage from Anne of Green Gables. Put on your editor’s cap, and see how many errors you can spot and correct in the passage below (the answer key is at the bottom of this post).

Here’s the passage:

gilbert blith wasnt used to puting hisself out to make a gurl look at him and meeting with falure she shoud look at him that redhaired shurley girl with the littel pointed chin and the big eyes that werent like the eyez of any other girl in avonley scool

Look for misspellings, absent commas, periods, apostrophes and more! Give yourself a penny (or piece of candy) for each correct correction!

Works for your kids too. Imagine teaching a lesson about apostrophes and capitalized letters using a passage like this. Your kids will get the smug superiority feeling of correcting someone else’s mistakes all while locking in their own writing skills!

For more ideas, try our Practice Pages! 

Corrected Copy

Gilbert Blythe wasn’t used to putting himself out to make a girl look at him and meeting with failure. She should look at him, that red-haired Shirley girl with the little pointed chin and the big eyes that weren’t like the eyes of any other girl in Avonlea school.

Brave Writer

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[Podcast #342] Brave Learning and Academics

Brave Writer Podcast

What if academic standards didn’t have to threaten your homeschool rhythm? 

In this Brave Writer podcast episode, we explore how to translate grade-level expectations into the rich, lived learning already happening in your home. From Poetry Teatime to bird watching, baking, narration, read-alouds, and everyday conversations, we look at how whole experiences often contain the very skills listed in scope-and-sequence documents. Rather than turning homeschool into school-at-home, we can use standards as information, not intimidation. 

Join us as we make peace with checklists, protect our children’s investment in learning, and celebrate the evidence already unfolding in daily life.

Show Notes

When Academic Standards Make You Panic

Have you ever looked at a list of grade-level standards and felt your shoulders climb toward your ears?

There they are: the skills your child is supposed to master, the content they are supposed to know, the sequence they are supposed to follow. The language sounds official. The list looks long. Suddenly, the cozy read-alouds, the nature walks, the poetry, the baking, the big conversations in the car all seem suspiciously unmeasurable.

We know that feeling.

Academic standards can be useful. They can remind us of topics we may not have touched yet. They can help us translate our homeschool life for charter schools, portfolio reviews, or state requirements. They can even offer reassurance.

But standards are not the same thing as learning.

Learning Is Not a Checklist

A checklist can be helpful when we are cleaning a bathroom. Wipe the sink. Scrub the tub. Empty the trash. Done.

Children do not learn like bathrooms get cleaned.

A child’s mind is not a collection of unfinished chores. Learning grows through curiosity, connection, repetition, surprise, appetite, and investment. A child who cares about measuring the distance from the front door to the mailbox may absorb measurement more deeply than a child forced through a worksheet before breakfast.

That does not mean we ignore standards. It means we refuse to let them become the boss of the homeschool.

Start with the Whole

Many academic standards are written as parts: identify punctuation, answer who/what/where questions, compare units of measurement, explain historical groups, recognize spelling patterns.

But homeschool life often begins with the whole.

A child who listens to read-alouds, narrates stories, laughs over poems, writes notes, plays games, bakes muffins, tracks birds, builds with Legos, and asks questions about history is already living inside a web of academic skills.

Poetry Teatime may include rhythm, vocabulary, punctuation, oral reading, interpretation, and literary language. A bird-watching habit may include observation, classification, migration, habitat, animal behavior, geography, data collection, and narration. Baking may include fractions, sequencing, measurement, chemistry, and patience.

The parts are there. We simply learn to notice them.

Plan from Behind

This is where documentation becomes our friend.

Instead of beginning every week with a fear-based list of what must be forced into the day, we can observe what actually happens and give it credit. Write it down. Save the dated freewrite. Take a photo of the Lego measurement experiment. Jot a note about the conversation in the car where your child compared snow and hail.

A simple binder can become a record of a rich learning life. Divide it by subject. Add dated work samples, notes, drawings, narrations, lists, maps, and projects. Over time, you will see evidence accumulate.

Not because you manufactured school.

Because you honored learning.

Use Standards as Information

Sometimes a standards list will reveal a gap. Maybe you realize you have spent years delighting in nature study and have barely touched electricity. Wonderful. That is not failure. That is information.

Visit the library. Pull books from the children’s nonfiction shelves. Watch a documentary. Try an experiment. Follow curiosity until the topic has a little life in it.

The goal is not to force-feed a child a meal they did not ask for. The goal is to create appetite.

Investment Changes Everything

Children learn more readily when they have a reason to care. The reluctant writer may suddenly produce a persuasive essay when a video game system is on the line. The child uninterested in French may become curious through maps of Paris, French films, music, podcasts, or a beloved character who speaks the language.

Standards get hit when children are invested.

That is the heart of Brave Writer-style learning. We do not have to choose between academic growth and a meaningful homeschool life. We can understand the standards, translate the language, document the learning, and still protect the wonder.

Homeschooling does not have to become school-at-home.

We can begin with life, then notice all the learning already there.

Resources

Connect with Julie

Connect with Melissa

Produced by NOVA

Brave Writer Podcast

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Original Thought

Brave Writer

I was on a podcast a while ago talking about being an author. I got asked what my favorite experience is when teaching writing.

It’s this: seeing kids discover that they have thoughts, stories and ideas that DESERVE to be in writing and then to be read. THIS is the gift we can give our children—school won’t give it. It’s up to you! You are your children’s biggest fan—get to know what lives in their minds, please!

Freedom to Explore

Every one of us has original thoughts that deserve sunlight! Our children think best when they are given the freedom to explore their thoughts in writing.

So many of us have been wounded by teachers who put more emphasis on the “right” thoughts or the “correct” grammar rather than helping each of us to think deeply, putting those precious thoughts into writing.

I talk a lot about critical thinking. Honestly: the first step in thinking well is to develop the habit of reading your own thoughts in writing! My book, Help! My Kid Hates Writing, is for every parent who wants to grow not only a writer, but a thoughtful thinker too.

Help! My Kid Hates Writing

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