Building Confidence Basics
What is the Building Confidence stage of writing?
The stop and start stage of writing. Students show bursts of growth, pencil management, keyboarding skills, some spelling triumphs mixed with obvious errors, variable punctuation, moments of brilliance, and paragraphs of insipidity. Pride in successful writing experiences alternate with struggle.
How do I know if my child is in the Building Confidence stage?
Your child:
- tires quickly, but can get some writing to the page without help from the parent.
- takes pride in his work and wants to improve it or share it.
- doesn’t retain correct spellings even after “learning” them.
- needs support, shows some independence, but also resists input from parent-editor.
In other words, one day your child gets a detailed story to paper. The next week, she complains that she hates writing. This is often seen in eleven and twelve year olds but don’t be governed by age range. Focus instead on the description and match it to your individual child.
I think my child is in the Building Confidence stage. Now what?
1) Listen to the Building Confidence Stage podcast.
2) See Building Confidence (was Faltering Ownership) in action
3) Check out how other homeschoolers implement the Brave Writer program
- Fifth Grade Creative Writing (Look, We’re Learning)
- A Review of Brave Writer’s Faltering Ownership (Life on a Canadian Island)
4) Consider Brave Writer products and online classes for additional help.
