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Archive for October, 2016
Blog Roundup: October 2016 Edition
Welcome to the latest blog roundup! See how other homeschooling families practice the Brave Writer Lifestyle!
Using the Brave Writer Arrow Guides – by Mary, Not Before 7
They are 3rd-6th grade book specific literature guides designed for parents to guide their students through four weeks of language arts activities. The Arrow Guide includes weekly copywork/dictations passages alongside notes about the passage incorporating grammar, spelling, punctuation and literary style. A specific literary element is focused on in each guides as well…read more.
When Imagination Drives the Homeschool Bus – Kristina, Blossom & Root
I recently read a post on Facebook, written by the infallibly-soothing Julie Bogart of Brave Writer, about how to reprogram type-A checklist tendencies by writing a new kind of checklist. This new checklist includes such things as “cuddled someone on the couch,” “affirmed a child for his or her self-expression,” and (my personal favorite) “ditched the plan, followed a great idea (bonus: without guilt!)” At the brand-new, sparkly beginning of the school year, this was exactly what I needed to read…read more.
Writing With Training Wheels – Angela, Nurtured Roots
Writing is like learning to ride a bike. At first, the “rider” needs our full support to steady things. After a while, all the rider needs is some gentle support as we keep our hand on the back of the seat, prepared and ready to help. Once she gains more confidence and skill, we’re able to run alongside being the encourager, but still being there to bandage the skinned knee if she falls…read more.
The Lazy Girl’s Guide to Poetry Teatime – Kara Stephenson Anderson
I’m a devoted homeschooling mama, who has spent the past couple of years learning that killing myself in an effort to “make memories,” isn’t actually in the best interests of my family. But I still really, really want to do cool stuff…read more.
Innovative Homeschooling: Let’s Talk Literature – Mary, Not Before 7
As we sift through our literature options, I’d like to offer a few thoughts to encourage homeschooling parents to embrace the role of an innovator when it comes to literature…read more.
The Brave Writer Lifestyle: One Family’s Approach – Caitlin, The Homeschool Sisters
You’ve probably heard the story by now, but I didn’t set out to homeschool. My husband and I are both products of the public education system. Before having children, I worked as a school psychologist in and around Boston and I loved it. I had every intention of returning to urban education once my children were in school…read more.
A Peek at The Writer’s Jungle – Cassandra, Unplug Your Family
When I got the okay to review The Writer’s Jungle, I was uncertain what Brave Writer was even all about. I had only vaguely heard of it and, quite honestly, I was skeptical…read more.
We hope to share more roundups in the future! If you write about an aspect of the Brave Writer Lifestyle, let us know! Email your post’s url to Jeannette, our Social Media admin ([email protected]). Thanks!
Pumpkin image by miriampastor (cc cropped, tinted, text added)
Brave Writer and the College Admission Essay
Brave Writer’s friend and former instructor, Nancy Graham, writes:
I’ve been teaching Brave Writer’s College Admission Essay class for three years now and I love watching the essays come into focus. Students often start with no ideas or a vague sense of the story they want to tell about themselves, and they leave with a piece that traces a time in their life when they were transformed in some way. What seems at first like a purely functional piece of prose—“Let me into your college!”—becomes a moving document of insight and self-reflection. Whether the writer has undertaken her education at home or in a school, this essay is an opportunity to reflect on her life so far—what she values and what she has learned.
Below is Cassie’s meditation on how a county fair became a family heirloom. Cassie took our Fall 2014 College Admissions Essay class.
County Fair Heirlooms
By Cassie W.
Knox College, class of 2019
Stepping into the cinder block clubhouse near the first gate of the Prince William County Fair, I’m greeted with both a wave of nostalgia and friendly hellos. The old ladies—dressed in sweatpants and gingham aprons—step out from behind plastic folding tables heavy with aluminum warming dishes full of mashed potatoes, gravy, chicken, and lima beans. They smile at me and squeeze my arm and tell me how much I’ve grown up since last year, and I smile and say that it’s good to see them and I’m glad to be back. It’s been like this for as long as I can remember.
This year, my green volunteer t-shirt is sticking to my back, and my bangs are plastered to my forehead. I’ve been working in the Home Arts building for the past five hours—a tin-roofed barn where the exhibitions are held. I fill out paperwork, help with judging, and hang the exhibits—amateur photos of babies and animals, now decorated with blue, red, and white ribbons that flutter in the breeze of electric fans. Although it’s hard, hot, and tedious, I take more pride in my job than in any other work.
I grab a paper plate from the stack on the table and pile it with the creamy mashed potatoes, dousing the miniature potato mountain with gravy, and dipping the spoon into the mess of soft lima beans and melted butter for an extra helping.
Sure, I love the cotton candy, soft-serve ice cream and funnel cake of the carnival as much as anyone, but it’s the homemade food cooked up by the remaining members of the Ladies’ Auxiliary Fair Club that I love best. It’s the same sort of food my grandmother would make for me as a kid, which makes sense, seeing as she used to cook in the clubhouse kitchens. She worked hard for the fair for most of her life, like my grandfather, who helped found the fair over sixty years ago when he came back from World War II. I never knew my grandfather, but I have childhood memories of my grandma walking me around the fairground, smiling and waving at me while I rode the merry-go-round or the bumper cars, scolding me when I got lost in the crowd.
Grandma died the spring I turned fourteen, but for this week in August, when I spend every day at the fair, her legacy—and that of my grandfather—is palpable. The fair has always been deeply woven into the history of my mother’s side of the family, and we joke that the clubhouse is like more like Thanksgiving in August.
Every day, I walk the midway. I’m usually alone. There’s no one to scold me when I get lost in the crowd, so I let myself get lost: I ride the rides, the bare backs of my legs sticking to the vinyl seats. I scratch the oily heads of sheep and let cows lick my hands, pose proudly for pictures by my award-winning cookies or decorated potatoes, eat ice cream, and watch acrobats perform in the little circus ring behind the chicken barn. I strut at the fair, and my personality shifts: I am proud of every aspect of the place. A deep pride in my family, yes, but also a personal pride. I feel like the fair is mine, and I always have. It is something that has been handed down to me, like a gift.
I don’t have many heirlooms from my my maternal grandparents—my grandmother’s hand-stitched quilt, a set of china plates. I will treasure these things. But I also have the fair, the community, and the memories of humid summers, oily sunscreen, and my grandmother’s wrinkled hands that come with it.
Brave Writer’s 10 Tips for Writing Your College Essay
