Imagine what it would be like if a snow angel you made came to life. What would he or she look like? Would you be best friends or worst enemies? Where would she live? What would he eat? What adventures would you have together?
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Turn your child’s interests into real learning experiences! It doesn’t matter what the interests are–baseball, Minecraft, horses, Star Wars. Think outside the box! In fact, we had a conversation on the Brave Writer Lifestyle Facebook Group recently, and here’s an example of how it might be done with a child who loves gymnastics:
Gymnastics is fabulous! Go to the library, find a few books, make sure she is watching YouTube videos (you’ve got the Olympics coming this summer—find the top gymnasts in the world to research and watch NOW so she is prepared to love the in August). Have her figure out how to teach one tumbling trick to someone (you, sibling, her dad). Take notes. Create a “how to” for/with her.
Is she a gymnast? Is she taking lessons? If not, take her to a gym to watch a class. Perhaps let her take a series of lessons. If she is, then have her watch a more advanced class.
This IS school—it’s everything you want to do with her at her age: reading, writing, calculating, physical education, even the science of gymnastics could be explored (bodies, injuries, physics of vaulting and uneven parallel bars, geography through world renowned gymnasts, Olympic history of gymnastic competitions). She can do copywork from a book about gymnastics or she can make a list of the top gymnasts or all the tricks she wants to master in tumbling…
Above all else: enjoy.
In our Groovy Grammar Workshop taught by the fantabulicious Susanne Barrett, one of the activities is the creation of a “Fictionary,” a dictionary of fictitious words. Families may work together to create a Family Fictionary, or older students may work separately to each create their own Fictionaries.
The workshop empowers parents to implement a natural approach to teaching grammar. This workshop stands the whole concept of grammar on its head. Rather than studying terminology and dissecting sentences, students are encouraged to play with language, to explore how words bump up against each other and generate meaning. Words, in a variety of contexts, will spring to life in fresh ways, which enable kids and parents to discover the sheer power and joy of shifting syntax for shaping grammatical understanding. Writing is enhanced when kids deliberately thwart reader expectations and forge new grammatical relationships between the old, tired words everyone uses.
Activities include:
You’ll never see “verbs,” “nouns” and “adjectives” in the same way again. And your kids may even declare by class’s end: “I love grammar!”
Learn more about Fictionary and other groovy activities by clicking on the image!
Inspired by Brave Writer, I started doing poetry tea times with my kids a few weeks ago. It’s turned into one of our favorite times together during the week.
I pull out different poetry books for the kids to look through and pick from. My readers choose new poems or old favorites to read to us and my younger nonreaders pick out poems that I read aloud for them.
My kids are finding a love for poetry through these special times and we are enjoying special time together.
Thanks for the inspiration Brave Writer!
Alison
From Alexandra on the BraveScopes Facebook Group:
February is almost here and so is a new list of prompts!
You are welcome to use all the prompts or just the ones that inspire you. The bonus can be done at anytime and is the same as last month since many of us love books!
I can’t wait to see all your scopes in February!
Also!! I will be posting about our very first bravescopes hop very soon! Keep an eye on this group!
BraveScopes is a safe space to share and discuss Periscope broadcasts plus learn more about the Brave Writer Lifestyle! Run by Julie and the Brave Writer team.
