Write a fictional story starring you and your family! Imagine you’re shipwrecked on a deserted island. Highlighting your unique personalities, show how each might deal with the situation.
With Angie, who organized the Muslim Homeschool Network Conference
Hi Julie,
I hope you’re doing well! We miss you out here in Sunny SoCal!! 🙂
I just wanted to share with you (and please share with Rita Cevasco as well!) our struggle, in hopes that it will help other families.
Last year around this time my then 6 year old was a reluctant writer. She knew how to write letters but hated holding a pencil. I would hear the common complaints like “it hurts my hands” or “it’s boring” etc. …Not to mention my 6 year old was reading far beyond her age, reading classics with advanced vocabulary and I was stunned that she was doing amazingly with reading and struggling so much with writing?! I was baffled.
Finally, a friend introduced me to Brave Writer! After a few Julie scopes and exploring the website I was hooked. We started with Jot It Down. My daughter was telling me funny poems, writing stories, and asking me to jot down all sorts of writing that seemed to be exploding out of her imagination! Her writing voice was beautiful. I was thrilled and so was she!
Then we got to the mechanics. I assumed since her reading level was beyond her 6.5 years, that A Quiver of Arrows would be the right fit. She loved Mr. Popper’s Penguins and Charlotte’s Web and had read them multiple times. I had skimmed through The Wand but Hop on Pop and Amelia Bedelia were not where she was reading at all so I just ignored The Wand all together. And this was my mistake, READING LEVEL DOES NOT EQUAL WRITING LEVEL!! …Most of the words during French dictation were misspelled no matter how many times we looked them over. I was stressed, she was annoyed, so I backed off.
At that time I was thinking that maybe this curriculum wasn’t a good fit for some reason, but then I decided to give The Wand a shot… and it was the perfect fit! The sentences were simple and short enough that she felt confident doing the copywork. Spelling was fun with the post-it notes and hands-on activities. My daughter was loving it. Over the course of the year, her spelling improved dramatically and she was now loving picking up a pencil and writing her thoughts, lists, stories, notes to her father and I, and even journaling her favorite trips ON HER OWN?!? My mind was blown. It took us a year or so to finish all 3 levels and its has made a WORLD of difference. She has recently started learning cursive after begging me to get her a cursive writing book.
Thank you and thank Rita for me as well. I never thought such a different mind set and simply unique curriculum could make such a difference but it really has made a world of difference. As a new homeschooler, this was GOLD and I wholeheartedly recommend the Jot it Down + the Wand to anyone who has a struggling writer!
Today’s digital opportunities for education are unparalleled and we are all so grateful for the gazillion ways we can ease the load of education by including technology into our homeschools.
We use DVDs, apps on phones and iPads/tablets, YouTube, Netflix, teaching videos from a variety of curriculum companies, Spotify, music CDs, Audible for read alouds, online classes that are video and live broadcast style, and more. These have enormous value which is why they are catching on so rapidly.
In our hunger to be up to date with technology and because of the promise of a little relief (freedom from the pressure to be ALL things to ALL kids ALL the days of their young lives), we dive right into their use with joy! And we should.
Here comes my own tiny caveat that I hope you’ll remember, though.
There is something about your voice (particularly the mother’s voice) in the educational life of your children that is unparalleled in giving them the soothing calming effect that lays the groundwork for learning. Your actual, literal, voice.
For instance, you could play a lullaby CD at bedtime. And that would be gorgeous. But your slightly tone deaf rendition, sung in the presence of your children, filled with heart, emphasizing the words that feel like love to you, will stay with your children forever. You don’t even have to sing every night. Singing to them a few nights a month creates a melody of love in their hearts that they will never forget. Your voice does all of that.
Actors who read classic works of fiction for Audible and books on CD are entertaining and wonderful, of course. Yet their voices will not catch and break the way yours will over the same passages. They will not gasp and respond in choked tenderness the way you will. They will not interpret the story through the lens of your family’s experience the way you can. They will not sound like you to your children.
And that is a loss in reading aloud.Reading aloud is more than getting through the chapters to the end. It’s more than entertainment or a show. It’s a chance for your children to experience you—your values, your priorities, your heartfelt connection to life itself. When you read, your children hear the lift in tone, the pain, the tenderness, and your mother’s love familiarity that warms and soothes them.
Teaching math may appear more effective coming through Kahn Academy or some other text book DVD program at first blush. It may well be that you ought to use that tool so that you, too, understand the methods being taught.
Still, it’s also important for your voice, your kindness, your natural vocabulary to expand and enhance what is given on the screen. Your children are wired to listen to you (even though I’m sure it doesn’t always seem that way!). They retain your words better than anyone else’s. When you share, and are giving and supportive, the tone of your voice (the timbre, the inflection, the accent, the melody of it) literally imprints in a way no other voice can or does! Paired with gentle contact (a hug, a smile, a stroke on the arm), your children have the greatest chance to be soothed and returned to calm (the right physiological space for learning).
My primary point is this: Mothers can create a much more profound learning and loving environment when they USE the beautiful voices their children already adore IN their educations. We are wired to listen to our mothers.
Give them what they need: your loving voice.
This study describes the research to back up this assertion.
Isn’t this fun? I am loving our new season of the podcast. In Week 3, we went over 17,000 downloads. Whaaaat?! Thank you. So glad the podcast is meeting a need.
The wonderful Alicia Hutchinson is up next. She’s a powerhouse of support and help to homeschoolers. Her community called “Learning Well” offers parents practical imaginative ideas to create a great homeschool experience without fussiness or the scourge of perfectionism.
The funny thing about Alicia is that she never really saw herself as a mom – much less a homeschooling mom. Now she can’t imagine life without homeschool. She blends her natural artistic flair with curiosity and creativity to engage her children. Her Instagram feed is also gorgeous! Be sure to follow her (@learningwell).
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Would you please post a review on Apple Podcasts for us? You’ll help a homeschooler like you find more joy in the journey when you do. Thanks in advance!
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With Angie, who organized the Muslim Homeschool Network Conference
Great news! Rita Cevasco’s book, Trees in the Forest: Growing Readers and Writers through Deep Comprehension, is on sale now through April 30, 2017 (learn more about Rita’s book)!
