Imagine a good friend needs a coat but can’t afford it. You break your piggy bank and give him a generous gift so he can be warm in the winter. How would you feel if he bought something else instead? Is your friend obligated to purchase a coat with the money? Why or why not.
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I’ve been asked: “If you had to boil it down to a Top Ten List, what would you say every child should have studied before they leave home?”
I accepted the challenge and compiled a list that will help you pull back from the panic of trying to teach every single classical work of literature, cover the entire scope of World History from the dawn of time until present, consider each scientific breakthrough, learn three languages (one dead), and understand all composition formats.
Stop! It’s possible to have a sense of satisfaction and completion even if you leave a few dangling metaphors and several centuries of war and peace un-explored.
Watch the broadcast below to learn more and see that the Top Ten are within your reach!
Welcome to the latest blog roundup! See how other homeschooling families practice the Brave Writer Lifestyle!
When Less Is More – Cait, My Little Poppies
I have a confession to make…I’m addicted to the morning Brave Writer Facebook Lives. My kids actually think that Julie Bogart is skyping with me… and that’s okay. (They also think that Kenny Chesney comes to Boston every August for my birthday…. Don’t I wish!) Anyway, this week one of Julie’s FB live readings hit home more than usual. It was titled “Less is More” and that is something I truly believe…read more.
A Brave Writer Review – Erin, Nourishing My Scholar
What do you do when your child hates writing? How do you instill a love of writing when it is something that brings nothing but tears and heartache to your child? I must admit I was at a loss when it came to writing in our homeschool. Writing had become an almost painful requirement for both myself and our son. Basic writing prompts only prompted one or two word responses! That is, until a year ago when I discovered Julie Bogart and Brave Writer…read more.
Top Ten Brave Writer Arrow Guides – Mary, Not Before 7
I confess. I am a paper girl trapped in a world of PDF’s. Despite these handy electronic files, I continue to print out most everything. And this includes my homeschool curriculum guides. Open my file cabinet in the basement and preview the stacks and stacks of Brave Writer Arrow guides from three full years of subscriptions. Thirty printed guides are sitting in my files in addition to their PDF counterparts sitting on my computer. I am not really sure why I feel the need to save the printed copy, but I do…read more.
Love the Year You’re With – Mary, Not Before 7
Out of control. Disorganized. Fly by the seat of my pants. Does the start of the school year always feel this way? I don’t think it does. I am pretty sure that our past school years have followed the plan a bit more closely. But I can’t be sure. What I am sure of is that the kick-off for this 2016 school year was far from a touchdown. It feels more like life intercepted the ball and ran the other way with it and I am watching the ball leave my side of the field without a plan to get it back…read more.
Better Learning Through Board Gaming – Homeschooling Without Training Wheels
Of course, I may be biased, but in my opinion, there is no better “stealth education” than board gaming. I’ve already shared my thoughts on “educational games” and why they may not be the best use of your time. What I’m sharing today are all the things that your kids are naturally learning by playing excellent, well-balanced board games, designed, not to be “educational,” but to be enjoyable…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!
You’re creating a crazy quilt, not a patchwork quilt.
There is sometimes a temptation to find a pattern for your homeschool—putting each piece into its right slot, clipping them into the predictable shapes, ensuring they fit together in a congruent predictable way. You set the pattern and then you cut each piece to fit, paring the excess, wedging them together so that some kind of design emerges—one you can affirm and recognize.
A patchwork quilt is more like school—with its ship-shape structure, its obvious pattern, its regularity of margins and pieces that fit together the way you expect them to.
Homeschool is not like that. It’s a crazy quilt—scraps of time stitched together, subjects in unique shapes—outside at the park, at bedtime, squeezed in between dental appointments in a waiting area. The pattern is not always clear and the lines don’t mesh as obviously as a designed quilt.
Often there’s that one corner that needs a piece of fabric to bring it all together—and you wait for it to appear. No planning accounts for how to fill that hole. Inspiration comes, a source materializes, and suddenly the corner is filled with a bright satisfying color.
The charm of a crazy quilt is its unpredictability within the confines of the borders. Your homeschool is not without borders—the crazy quilt fabric scraps of various programs, inspiration, creativity, and routine all live within the big sturdy boundaries of your home and your arms. The outline of this tapestry is the faith you have in your family and the border is in the shared community of learning you build together, one crazy shaped piece of fabric at a time.
What’s so wonderful? One day you will see the finished homeschool-quilt as one whole, not all these fragmented pieces that worry you now. Instead, you’ll be amazed at the way they come together when you least expected it, at the unique constellation of colors, textures, and designs that form the wonderful blanket of love and learning that is uniquely yours: Your crazy quilt homeschool.
Keep gathering the scraps. Cherish them. Stitch them into your memories, one to another. One day, this tenderly crafted quilt will appear as a whole, and it will cover you with warmth as you fondly recall the years of its making.
What if all people were exactly the same? What might be the advantages and disadvantages?
New to freewriting? Check out our online guide.
