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[Podcast #281] Deep Meaning = Depth Learning
Do you ever wonder why some lessons stick and others fade away?
In this Brave Writer podcast episode, we explore the concept of deep meaning—the essential ingredient behind lasting, joyful learning. When kids connect personally with what they’re learning, they move beyond memorization into true expertise. We:
- unpack the difference between mastery and meaning,
- share real-life examples from homeschooling life (yes, video games and comic books count!), and
- offer practical questions you can ask to build more meaningful learning moments at home.
Listen now to discover how to help your kids not just think, but care about what they’re learning.
Show Notes
In every learning experience, there’s a pivotal question waiting to be answered: “Why do I need to know this?” It’s a question we’ve all heard from our kids—and maybe even asked ourselves. When children ask this, they’re not simply being resistant. They’re pointing to something deeper. They want to understand the meaning behind what they’re learning.
What if, instead of focusing on mastery through memorization, we shifted our educational focus to meaning? That’s where true learning—the kind that sticks—really begins.
Mastery vs. Expertise
We often conflate “mastery” with success: a child memorizes a grammar rule or completes a worksheet correctly. But real expertise goes beyond that. It involves a felt sense of how knowledge fits into a broader framework. It’s the difference between identifying a hyperbole on a test and joyfully recognizing it in a read-aloud story. One is performance. The other is evidence of integration—of natural knowledge built on passion and relevance.
Meaning Drives Passion
When learning taps into a child’s deep meanings—their interests, relationships, curiosities—it unlocks a sense of purpose. This is true whether they’re exploring the economics of crops in a farming game, testing physics in Angry Birds, or reading about their favorite superheroes. We tend to elevate subjects like violin, poetry, or chess as “prestigious,” while dismissing games or pop culture as frivolous. But children don’t see that hierarchy—they’re driven by what sparks their engagement, not what looks good on a transcript.
Experience Builds Understanding
Real learning requires more than facts—it needs context and experience. Just like a child learns the power of scissors by cutting the fur off a beloved stuffed animal, learning needs to be hands-on. Tracing tanks from a history book, graphing fallen leaves in the front yard, or building a model of Helm’s Deep while listening to Tolkien—all of these create neural interconnections that form lasting knowledge. It’s not about rushing to mastery but slowing down to build meaning.
Learning That Feels Like Play
The best learning often doesn’t look like school. It looks like play. It looks like kids constructing domino patterns, arguing over where to place index cards in a homemade history timeline, or sitting quietly with a nature journal. These are not distractions from learning—they are learning. When kids care about what they’re doing, they:
- challenge themselves naturally,
- cope with mistakes, and
- absorb information more deeply.
Our Role as Parents
As educators and caregivers, our job is not to manufacture meaning, but to create the conditions for it to emerge. That means offering rich, varied experiences, and sometimes stepping back to let our kids make the connections themselves. Especially as they get older, they begin to link content to their lives in new and unexpected ways—and our job is to listen and support.
Deep learning comes from deep meaning. When we prioritize our children’s curiosity and let their passions shape their educational journeys, we invite them into a lifetime of caring, thinking, and discovering. That’s not just good education—it’s good living.
Resources
- Check out Julie’s new author website: juliebogartwriter.com!
- Subscribe to Julie’s Substack newsletters: Brave Learning with Julie Bogart and Julie Off Topic
- Try out our Brave Writer Practice Pages
- Learn more about the Brave Writer Literature & Mechanics programs
- Read all Brave Writer class descriptions
- Start a free trial of CTCmath.com to try the math program that’s sure to grab and keep your child’s attention
- Sign up for our Text Message Pod Ring to get podcast updates and more!
- Send us podcast topic ideas by texting us: +1 (833) 947-3684
Connect with Julie
- Instagram: @juliebravewriter
- Threads: @juliebravewriter
- Bluesky: @bravewriter.com
- Facebook: facebook.com/bravewriter
Connect with Melissa
- Website: melissawiley.com
- Substack: melissawiley.substack.com
- Instagram: @melissawileybooks
- Bluesky: @melissawiley.bsky.social
Produced by NOVA
Take Pain Seriously
If you suffered while learning to read, write, or do math, you might associate pain with effective learning. It doesn’t have to be that way however. Research shows that when a child is relaxed and alert, they are learning the most.
The appropriate level of challenge is similar to what a child feels when they’re trying to solve a puzzle, beat a level in a video game, or build a block tower that doesn’t fall over.
Make the challenge smaller and look for the hook—what makes it interesting and relevant to a child.
Wonder how to do that?
As you grind to the end of the year, be extra careful of creating pain related to learning. It’s easy to push push push thinking about the summer break ahead. Instead, use this time to indulge fresh experiences:
- stomping in rain puddles,
- looking for birds’ nests,
- visiting zoo babies,
- making lemonade from scratch,
- FaceTiming with grandma and reading a picture book to her,
- drawing a picture of a child’s favorite activity from the past year.
Your most sacred trust is protecting a child’s curiosity about each and every subject. That’s such a big job and it’s not easy to do!
Certainly some kids just need a break (they’ve done the deed, they’ve mostly completed the workbook, they’ve read the hard-to-read novel, they’ve handwritten umpteen pages). This is the time for that break. You can ease into the rest of the year paying special attention to cries of boredom or discomfort.
I wish we all cared more about preserving a child’s curiosity in each subject area than getting through and getting done. If you achieve that even in one subject, Gold Stars for you!
Keep going! But slow down. I’m rooting for you.
This post was originally shared on Instagram.
Watch the accompanying reel for more.
Brave Learning: Your Interests, Policing AI, BHAGS, and more!
Recently on Brave Learning…
“I don’t have time for interests”
How can you homeschool your kids and still have interests of your own? [More]
They speak in prose and paragraphs [Public]
Let’s continue our exploration of your child’s writing voice. [More]
Policing AI doesn’t work [Public]
I propose valuing learning rather than grades [More]
Big Hairy Audacious Goals [Public]
A powerful idea to energize your homeschool! [More]
Subscribe to Brave Learning on Substack where we chat, discuss, problem-solve, and create together. Here’s what you can expect: weekly themed content, freewriting prompts, and a podcast for kiddos called Monday Morning Meeting (first 6 are free)!
Brave Writer 101: Guided Writing Process
Let’s get real. The market is flooded with well-intentioned writing programs that don’t meet the complex needs of young writers. Perhaps you’ve tried—even tossed— a few?
The truth is that writing is too big, too vulnerable, and too personal to thrive with a program that doesn’t address the whole child.
That’s where we come in!
No one approaches writing like we do, and when you take Brave Writer 101, we’ll let you in on the secret.
Here’s a quick peek at how class unfolds, with our writing coach, YOU, and your child working together to de-mystify writing.
Brave Writer 101
Week One: Communication
Share your challenges and get individualized help from your coach. Then, play a game to learn about how writers communicate.
“[My son] loved this. He said it really helped him see how important details are.” —Parent Laura
Week Two: Observation
Wish your kids would generate deeper insights? More vivid descriptions? We’ve got you!
“I am seeing happiness around observing and selecting words, which is great!” —Parent Fabienne
Week Three: Freewriting
We introduce a magical process that liberates so many kids.
“We’d agreed that he’d write for five minutes — but I didn’t see him again for over twenty.” —Parent Sonja
Week Four: Feedback for Revision
Watch our writing coach approach your child’s writing with constructive advice and gentle encouragement.
“By the end of Week Four… it became the first thing she wanted to do every day…” —Parent Jennifer
Week Five: Revision
Learn how to revise by doing it—with our help.
“Our instructor was a terrific model of how to lavish my writer with feedback and how to ask questions to draw my writer out.” —Parent Allison
Week Six: Editing
Finish by making that priceless jewel shine!
“I didn’t get resistance on this exercise at all… [He] seemed to enjoy this type of editing.” —Parent Amanda
Experience this unique writing approach with your kids!
Sign up for Brave Writer 101!
[Podcast #280] Why We’re FIRED UP About Shannon Watts
This week on the podcast, we’re re-airing our fantastic conversation with Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, where we discuss her inspiring new book Fired Up: How to Turn Your Spark into a Flame and Come Alive at Any Age. Tune in for a powerful discussion on activism, passion, and the power of stepping into your purpose!
Chris Langford Photography
Shannon Watts is the founder of Moms Demand Action, a six-million-member organization she describes as “maybe the world’s largest real-life field experiment for what happens when you show women how their abilities and their burning desires and their values align, and how they come alive and can achieve things they never imagined possible.” We are thrilled to have her on the show today to talk about her upcoming book, Fired Up.
Our conversation with Shannon about the intersection of motherhood, feminism, and activism is one that will keep us fueled for a long time. We hope you enjoy it.
Go here for the complete Show Notes.
Resources
- Pre-order a copy of Fired Up and sign up for Shannon’s free Firestarter University course
- Check out Shannon’s book and other books we’ve recommended on the podcast in the Brave Writer Bookshop.
- Get involved at MomsDemandAction.org.
- Sign up for Shannon’s Substack
- Follow Shannon’s on Instagram: @shannonrwatts
- Check out Julie’s new author website: juliebogartwriter.com!
- Subscribe to Julie’s Substack newsletters: Brave Learning with Julie Bogart and Julie Off Topic
- Try out our Brave Writer Practice Pages
- Learn more about the Brave Writer Literature & Mechanics programs
- Read all Brave Writer class descriptions
- Start a free trial of CTCmath.com to try the math program that’s sure to grab and keep your child’s attention
- Sign up for our Text Message Pod Ring to get podcast updates and more!
- Send us podcast topic ideas by texting us: +1 (833) 947-3684
Connect with Julie
- Instagram: @juliebravewriter
- Threads: @juliebravewriter
- Bluesky: @bravewriter.com
- Facebook: facebook.com/bravewriter
Connect with Melissa
- Website: melissawiley.com
- Substack: melissawiley.substack.com
- Instagram: @melissawileybooks
- Bluesky: @melissawiley.bsky.social
Produced by NOVA
