A Brave Writer’s Life in Brief

Surprisingly enough, watching TV or movies with your kids ought to be a primary part of any good language arts program. There is nothing like listening to language used in the right context by various people (especially actors) for vocabulary training as well as growing in familiarity with proper syntax.

Using films and TV shows wisely is a big part of the Brave Writer Lifestyle. In the past, we’ve highlighted and reviewed movies here on the blog, and we hope to do more of that in 2014!

Here’s how one Brave Writer family incorporated film into their homeschool:

Julie,

I wanted to gently introduce my children to your philosophy of Language Arts by watching a movie after dinner. So, we plopped down after Chinese takeout and watched my favorite, “The Princess Bride.” I thought it might be a little much for my six year old, but she LOVED it. She has been asking me questions just so I will say, “As you wish” (which means I love you.) I promised her that I would also read her the book. My sweethearts are very excited about school because they didn’t realize that movies would be included!

Cheers!
Sara

If you’d like to do the same this year, here are some helpful resources:

The BW Lifestyle: Movies and Television. Shares good reasons to include visual media in home education.

A Family Movie List. A compilation of suggested titles from a group of friends who like to discuss movies and books.

Brave Writer Goes to the Movies. Our digital product helps you to comment meaningfully on plot, characterization, make-up and costumes, acting, setting and even film editing. This eleven page guide gives you the background and series of questions to help your kids discuss movies on a deeper level, rather than the usual “It was really good…” responses they offer. As your children learn to talk well about movies, these skills naturally help them to discuss literature. Was $14.95, but we’ve permanently lowered the price. Now $9.95!

Movie Discussion Club. This four week online class is taught by Instructor Nancy Graham (MA in Cinema Studies) who serves as club hub, provoking debate and drawing out lines of thought in the classroom.

Image above is a scene from The Princess Bride

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