February 2014 - Page 7 of 7 - A Brave Writer's Life in Brief A Brave Writer's Life in Brief

Archive for February, 2014

Student spotlight: Samuel

“It is so hot the sand in the desert is a wavy wooden floor.”

Brave Writer mom, Lilian writes:

Hi Julie,

We are 1st year Bravewriters and loving it for so many reasons. As per your suggestion, we started the school year with 8 Friday Freewrites. My son, Samuel (age 10), then selected one to revise and has worked on it the last 2-3 weeks. He focused on expanding on sentences (I think he did 3 additional freewrites of individual sentences), adding more “colorful” verbs and adjectives, avoiding repetition of words/phrases and capitalization & spelling.

I would love to share his original and final copy. He typed it up himself this morning and was clearly very proud. It has been a great writing exercise that was met with interest, enthusiasm and pride.

Really enjoying your Daily Writing Tips. Keep many of them on file for down the road. You truly have made writing fun in our household.

Thanks for your stimulating curriculum. It is the great addition to our school day this year, for sure.

Best,

Lilian

WAR
(original 7 minute freewrite)

I have army Guys that I like to Play with. I like to play with them because I imagine that they are actully fighting and their guns and shooting. I like to Play with them in the family room not the tv room but the other one. The army are at war with cowboys and Indins. I always mak it realictick. Also I make the army win because they have a lot more men than just the cowboy and Indin. (because they are only 2 people.)

WAR
(final copy)

The temperature is 108 F. It is so hot the sand in the desert is a wavy wooden floor. The smell of burning toast arises out of the tall, grassy battlefield. It provides shelter for all sorts of creepy creatures. The sound of guns is like a very, very, VERY big firework. I introduce to you . . .

The cowboy’s name is Bob and the Indian’s name is Joe. They formed an alliance because they have a sonar system that detected the army. So they got ready. By the way, the cowboy invited more cowboys (they will attack from behind). The Indian did the same. In my battle the cowboy and Indian do terrific stunts like back flips to avoid the bullets. Also they say hiiiiiiiiii yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!! and karate chop the heads of the soldiers.

One thousand one-inch men march vigorously across my living room. The sergeants look like they are surrendering and have a grenade in one hand and a pistol in the other. My favorite army man is a running soldier holding a machine gun. The generals reveal pistols and walkie –talkies. One type of soldier crouches and aims his machine gun. Another stands up and looks like he is about to fire. One more jumps to avoid a bullet.

The pack of soldiers is loaded with guns and gun powder. Bob and Joe are crouched beneath the tall, dry grass. Joe keeps whispering to Bob about sneaking around to the side and attacking but Bob says “It’s too risky.” The soldiers load and fire because they detect Bob and Joe. Finally, Bob and Joe come into action. They backflip and karate chop the soldiers with their guns. Bob fires and hurts a soldier. The second Bob land, he gets shot. Joe must help him. Joe yelps Berr-nerr Berr-nerr Berr-nerr , his call for backup. One hundred cowboys have guns loaded. One soldier loads and fires at Joe. Joe doesn’t notice and gets shot and belly flops on the ground. The army fires and fires and fires and FIRES until all the cowboys and Indians are killed. Sixty- five soldiers were wounded and one sergeant got hurt. The army was victorious!

What a great example of the freewriting and revision processes! I was utterly riveted throughout. Samuel’s use of detail (108 degrees, wavy wooden floor), vivid verbs (crouches and aims), karate chop sounds (onomatopoeia), and suspense (“It’s too risky!”) were genius. Loved the rapport between Bob and Joe. Perfect.

–Julie

Image by .EVO.

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Podcast: Big Juicy Conversations

After a long, dark slumber, we return! In fact, we recorded this podcast a couple months after recording the previous, Englishes, but because of complications in life, it sat forgotten and ignored on the Internet. No links, no listeners, no happiness. No more!

Please join us as we tackle a topic close to my heart, Big Juicy Conversations!

Please post a review on Apple Podcasts for us (here’s a handy guide)?
Help a homeschooler like you find more joy in the journey. Thanks!

More Brave Writer Podcasts

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Brave Writer Lifestyle Facebook Group!

Look at all these beautiful Brave Writer families!

Sarah, Brave Writer mom, set up a Brave Writer Lifestyle Facebook Group. You can join if you’d like to discuss all things Brave Writer.

Thanks Sarah and good luck! I’ve joined, but will be scarce. Want you all to feel free to discuss whatever you need to!

–Julie

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If You’ve got a Passel of Kids

Homeschooling a Large Family Bogart Kids, 1999

What I did when I homeschooled my five: I kept us all together as much as possible! Here’s how.

We started our days together every day. We spent one hour of the morning reading.

Devotional literature
Non Fiction (like books about nature or tanks or world religions or geography or the weather or how to make films…)
Aesop’s Fables or Greek myths (we did one of these each day for years)
Read Aloud (whatever novel we were reading as a group)
History book (we used a variety of narrative history texts over the years, not history textbooks)
Poetry (not every day, but many days—this is when we’d memorize poems together)

The kids usually knitted, or played with Legos or blocks while I read.

When we finished what we called Read Aloud Time, we would move to the table for math pages and copywork. These were usually according to level, but we did them all at once so that I could be in “math mind” or “writing mind” and not go back and forth.

Sometimes copywork came first, and usually passages were pulled from the same book, but different lengths per kid. Sometimes they picked their own copywork passages. New-to-writing kids used handwriting books.

Then we’d work on our history all together—same topic, same era. This might include preparing little oral reports or acting out a scene of history. It might include captioning an illustration of the reading of the morning or making maps or artifacts from that era. Sometimes we prepared a party to go with the era of history.

If we were working on a writing project, we all worked on the same topics or same concept for writing (posters – everyone, mini books – everyone, freewriting – everyone). Each child would write naturally at his or her level. It’s not like I had to drum up a brand new idea for each child each week. So exhausting! When we wrote descriptive paragraphs, we were all observing and note-taking and talking about our items at once, with me superintending. I didn’t create a project for each child, unique to that child.

Poetry Teatimes were always done as a group, poetry books of all levels available. I brought my adult poetry books to the table so I could share poems I found meaningful, even if above their level. I felt that was the best way to introduce them to some of the more challenging poets.

Then we might take a hike or kick a soccer ball in the yard or watch a movie or go to the store or to an art museum or the library…

The rhythm of our days was not determined by grade level. Rather, it was shaped by topics—each child would naturally perform at his or her level. That’s where “grade level” revealed itself. But I didn’t cater to it or pay it much notice, honestly.

It’s a shift in thinking. You are a one-room school house. You want to make the most of that environment. Create learning opportunities that call all of you together. Your older kids will inspire your younger ones, your younger ones will cheer up your older ones (and make them feel smart). They can work together, helping each other out, and making suggestions. They provide great audiences for one another too!