Blog Roundup: November 2014 Edition
Last year writing in my home was met with tantrums. It was killing our homeschool. Master Builder has a motor delay. She never crawled and has little upper body strength. This makes writing painful physically and mentally. You add into that the expectations of a mom who used to dream of being a writer and graduated at the top of her class and you will have a recipe for disaster. I was ready to throw in the towel last year but then at the end of year party someone asked if we knew about Brave Writer, because we seemed like we would be a “Brave Writer Family”. I had never heard of it before but was blown away by how much it resembled my philosophy of learning-(which I myself had lost sight of in last year’s disappointments). ~Jamie, Today’s Field Trip
women who inspire :: Julie Bogart
an easy way to add a bit of poetry into your homeschool is to institute a weekly Poetry Tea. just imagine gathering the children to a table loaded with cups of tea with milk, a little something sweet to eat, and a stack of poetry books. you might read some favorites, then they might want to get in on the act too. sounds wonderful, right? we’ve got Julie Bogart of Brave Writer fame to thank! ~Kort, one deep drawer
And three posts from Tristan:
Most of Writing is About Relationship – What I Learned at a Brave Writer Seminar
Yesterday I took a little 3 hour drive down to Cincinnati for some teacher development. Julie Bogart of Brave Writer spent 3 lovely hours sharing and encouraging a group of moms and dads in this homeschooling journey…The focus of the seminar was writing but in my notes I have all sorts of nuggets of wisdom captured. As this blog is part journal I want to record them here. Hopefully you find something helpful as well! ~Tristan, Our Busy Homeschool
A Writing Project from Start to Finish with Brave Writer
Today I’m excited to share a writing piece from one of my children because it really showcases one way Brave Writer has impacted our homeschool. Makayla is my 13 year old 8th grader. She has some long-term writing projects going on including a novel and a group pass along story with several friends (you get the story for 3 days to write all you want, then pass it along to the next person).
The Poetry Teatime Where I Break Most of the Rules
When I first heard of doing poetry teatime as part of the Brave Writer Lifestyle I put it off because it would never match the ideal picture I see in my head. Last year I decided that I would no longer be paralyzed by my perfectionist tendencies. My children did not care if things were perfect, they simply wanted togetherness. Nowadays I move forward and enjoy our imperfect poetry teatimes, breaking most of the rules from my imagined ideal.
Image by Brave Writer mom, Tracey (cc) cropped/text added
I love these lines from the above blog links:
From Jamie: “I had never heard of {Bravewriter} before but was blown away by how much it resembled my philosophy of learning”
That was EXACTLY how I felt when I found BW several years ago…it was like meeting a “kindred spirit” and having someone to cheer me on that it was right to go with my instincts. I had already been doing so many things in the BW Lifestyle (before I heard of it) but never looked at them as “counting”
from Kourtney’s : “{Bravewriter} gives me a scaffolding to understand my experiences. {Julie Bogart} gives me a little phrase or image that i can tuck in my pocket for the hard times.”
That is exactly how I feel but couldn’t quite put into words that eloquently!
And from Our Busy Homeschool’s link regarding TeaTime: “My children did not care if things were perfect, they simply wanted togetherness.” Great to remember! Last week I was feeling stressed out because the kitchen was such a mess, and I didn’t feel like baking anything special. I almost ditched our TeaTime because of it, but then I had an inspiration to make “no bake” cookies (PB, cocoa powder, oats) and it was a HUGE hit, and a great TeaTime
Nanci