Archive for November, 2021

2021 Holiday Shoppe is OPEN

Brave Writer

The Brave Writer Holiday Shoppe is OPEN!

TODAY, November 30, 2021 is the opening of our annual Holiday Shoppe!

Each year, we host a variety of gifts you can purchase for yourself or friends that aren’t available the rest of the year.

You’ll find:

  • mugs,
  • tote bags,
  • journals,
  • and our Gracious Space books as a collection on Kindle!
Brave Writer Holiday Gifts

New item: Julie Bogart Autograph Bookplates

If you want to give the gift of THE BRAVE LEARNER or you want to pre-order a copy of RAISING CRITICAL THINKERS (my new book), and you’d like it autographed by me, you can do that too!

For a small fee, you can purchase a signed bookplate by the author (that would be me)! Pop the bookplate into a mug or tuck it into a card along with the book or book receipt and you will have a perfect gift for your friend. Then the two of you can read and discuss the book(s) together.

I will turn around the signatures and mail the bookplates back to you as soon as you order them!

Julie Bogart Bookplates

Open between Nov 30 and Dec 31

The Holiday Shoppe stays open all of December! 

Brave Writer Holiday Shoppe

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Cyber Monday Sale 2021!

Brave Writer

Cyber Monday is here!

30% discount on ALL Brave Writer products purchased in our store (not classes) for 24 hours. 

Sale starts on Monday November 29 at MIDNIGHT (Eastern) and ends MIDNIGHT (Eastern) on Tuesday November 30.

Use code:

CYBER21

This is the biggest sale we’ve had in three years. Stock up now!

Holiday Shoppe

Tuesday, November 30 will be the opening of our annual Holiday Shoppe! This shoppe includes Brave Writer and Brave Learner Home swag (and a few items for my new book Raising Critical Thinkers!). 

Perfect gift ideas for your friends who are fans (or maybe even for you!). It will be open through midnight EST Dec. 31, 2021.

Note: many of the items are hosted on another platform and Brave Writer does not have control over shipping the items to you. Check for their discount codes and shipping.

Excited for you to have what you want!

Brave Writer

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Friday Freewrite: Reasons to Be Thankful

Friday Freewrite

Describe something you had difficulty being thankful for at the time but now you see reasons to be grateful.

New to freewriting? Check out our online guide.

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Cozy Reads for December

December Cozy Reads

We’ve got a big sale coming up on Black Friday AND Cyber Monday!

Black Friday

On Black Friday Weekend (11/24-26), we’re offering a buy-two-get-one-free deal on our Literature Singles.

Cyber Monday

On Cyber Monday (11/27), take a whopping 27% OFF of any product purchase (except Literature Singles). That bundle you’ve been eyeing? It will be at its best price of the year!

If you were wanting a complete language arts bundle, get ready now.

If you feel ready to jump into one of our writing project programs, do your research now!

Even more, we know how much you love a chance to stock up on Literature Singles—those amazing tools we offer you to make teaching language arts natural and enjoyable.

Plus we’ve created a spreadsheet listing all our Dart, Arrow, Boomerang, and Slingshot titles just for you! Search and sort by title, author, book setting, time period, the literary device highlighted, and cross-curricular connections to tie in history, science, math, and more!

And for those who are new or are looking for some guidance, we’ve got a collection of options for you below that feature December holidays and seasons.

Cozy December Reads

December is bursting with holidays! Whether you celebrate just one or many, it’s often a busy time of year. How can you enjoy a cozy and delight-filled time, while also making a dent in your homeschool plans? We can help!

We’ve gathered a selection of delightful reads that also happen to have Brave Writer mechanics and literature handbooks to accompany them.

Dart (ages 8–10)

Arrow (ages 11–12)

Boomerang (ages 13–14)

You get to snuggle on the couch, read an engaging book, connect with your kids, AND have the lesson planning done for you! Wins all around!

These handbooks cover:

  • grammar,
  • punctuation,
  • spelling and vocabulary, 
  • literary devices, 
  • writer’s craft, 
  • literary analysis (Boomerang), 
  • and include book club party ideas you may even want to incorporate into your holiday celebrations. 

Quick Tips for using these handbooks during the holidays: 

  • Select just one or two passages for copywork or dictation.
  • Simply discuss the passages and save the copywork for another time (revisiting books you’ve read before is great for recalling and reminiscing). 
  • Pick one book for the family to read aloud and adjust the copywork and dictation up or down for your children. 
  • Watch the movie then read the book. Compare the two. (This works especially well for the Boomerang-level books.) 

What’s that? You’ve read all of these titles! Check out the Literature Singles page for more choices—we have over 200 issues to choose from!

Still Reading?

Good for you! Good readers get better deals.

Get an even BIGGER DISCOUNT code by signing up for Brave Writer’s text messages.

  • We promise we will not overwhelm your phone.
  • It’s a privilege to support you.
  • Feel free to message us for help to determine the right programs for your family.

We’ll send you the exclusive discount code via text message on Cyber Monday! (And, surprise deals for Black Friday Weekend!)

Sign up here

PSST: We have a FREE gift for you!
Download our cozy December Build-a-Unit-Study guide! 

Brave Writer

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Thankful for You!

Julie Bogart

These last two years have been an odd emotional starvation. We’ve missed our people. And as we miss them, we’ve been trained to be a little afraid of them too. We’re bracing ourselves for arguments about vaccines or politics. We’re worried about the random jab or the pop quiz.

While we need each other, we are learning how to be with one another again.

Most Thanksgivings, I’ve shared an annual message that sees you—the you that works so hard to make the world better through the energy and sincere efforts you make. You can read it again here.

Today, though, I have a different message. Keep reading.

—jb

Let the rope go slack

In the last two years, not a single person on the planet escaped the traumatic impact of the pandemic.

Unlike a car accident, where you can draw support from your friend who was not in the accident with you, the pandemic was global. There’s nowhere to turn for support from a person not impacted.

The re-entry into “life as usual” feels tinny—off, not quite right—because there’s no one to show us the way.

Trauma—of a global scale.

To combat the feelings of being out of control and vulnerable, we arm ourselves with plans. We prepare a feast and decorate the table and invite our loved ones in. Or we pack up the goodies and make the journey to see the people we love who we haven’t hugged in a while.

We go into the season doubling down on happy—willing it into being by our sheer force of will. 

We expect a return to normal—to find it’s vanished.

Someone is rude.

Someone has a strong opinion and imposes it.

Reticence to hug or defiance in the face of the reticence send new signals—lines drawn about who is safe and who isn’t and what that means about their politics, loyalty, and spirituality.

Preparation can’t save us. The carefully planned holiday, the soldiering on now papers over the new reality.

We can’t escape that we are vulnerable and life is fragile and we don’t know the way on.

To each of you holding space for the memory of a carefree holiday, I honor you.

Each dish you prepare, each candle you light is a faith-based affirmation that we have come through the worst and can find our footing again.

When the inevitable effects of trauma sweep their way into your space—the careless word, the overbearing opinion, the debate about safety—it’s okay to feel it. 

  • And then, we can serve pie.
  • We can play with the babies.
  • We can look through a window at the fallen leaves and a bright red cardinal on a tree.
  • We can take long, slow breaths, grateful we can rely on our lungs once again.

We can yield to whatever this holiday is as one step back on the path to our formerly taken-for-granted lives.

We can let the rope go slack.

Thank you for wanting a good life for and with your family.

This Thanksgiving, that’s enough.

It may be realized this year, it may be the next. No matter what, we’re back on the path together—all of us—in every corner of planet Earth, looking for happiness and connection and peace.

You are not alone. We’ll find it together one day at a time.

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