Author Archive

[Podcast #265] Celebrating Book Series with Dawn Smith

Brave Writer Podcast

Is there anything better than the warm, magical feeling you get from a good book series?

In today’s podcast episode, Dawn Smith, Brave Writer’s Director of Publishing, joins us to discuss the power of children’s book series.

Dawn Smith
Dawn Smith

We talk about the unique delight of reading a book series, getting immersed in the characters and the world they live in. We also dig into how series help build kids’ confidence through repeat exposure to an author’s writing patterns. 

Tune in to hear some of our favorite book series and the memories they helped us make with our kids.

Show Notes

If you’ve ever seen a kid fall in love with a book series, you’ve witnessed the power of the medium. Kids (and parents) form strong bonds with book series, often embracing them for life. What makes book series so lovable? And what can that teach us about kids’ reading and writing development?

Characters and Setting

Book series often feature a large cast of characters, making it possible for a child to find one they really identify with. Series then allow those characters to deeply develop over time. You can’t help but form relationships with them!

Book series also create detailed settings over time, establishing a familiar reality that readers can easily slip right back into as soon as they open the cover.

These characters and settings create a “joy of returning” that delights children.

Reading and Writing Confidence 

As kids devour a series, they’re exposed to repetitions of vocabulary, grammar, and storytelling patterns. With repetition, kids develop more confidence. Often kids get to a point where they can even identify the repetitions and apply those skills to their own writing. 

There’s an important parent hack when it comes to series: Read the first book in the series aloud with your kids so you can help them more build the characters and settings in their mind. Then unleash them to read the other books in the series on their own, reporting back to you what they’re learning. You’ll spare yourself having to read all 15 books in a series about dragons while still engaging with your kids’ development.

Resources

Connect with Julie

Connect with Melissa

Produced by NOVA

Brave Writer Podcast

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Meaningful Goals

Brave Writer

Kids need to know that their efforts lead to a personally meaningful goal. –The Brave Learner

Not your goals. Not the meaning you ascribe to the topic. Not some distant destination (unless they want that destination).

Your children will invest themselves when they care.

Here are examples of personally meaningful goals in learning. Kids:

  • like the subject—it’s intrinsically interesting to them. They may like a subject but hate how it’s taught. Tease that out.
  • decide how many problems/sentences/pages to complete and challenge themselves to hit the mark.
  • see learning the skill as adjacent to some other meaningful activity—“I want to spell correctly so I can be understood in the gamer chat group.”
  • care about college admissions or qualifying for the next level of whatever it is.
  • want to fulfill requirements set for them.
  • are more interested when they’re in a class with other students.
  • just want to know or do or understand the “thing.” They do just enough to satisfy that itch and no more.
  • become obsessed with a topic or skill and it becomes a portal for all other learning.
  • have a friend/YouTube creator/favorite celebrity who knows how so they want to know how too.

Jot down specific goals that are personally meaningful to your childen. Now support their journey! Provide resources and encouragement. You also might celebrate hitting a goal with a treat, a high five, or an entry into a record book they value.

The Brave Learner

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[Podcast #264] Rabbit Trails and Rabbit Holes

Brave Writer Podcast

How can you go beyond the daily grind of lessons to truly enliven your kids’ learning?

In this Brave Writer podcast episode, we go over two methods that you might have already observed pop up naturally in your kids’ lives: rabbit trials and rabbit holes.

  • Does your child jump from one topic to another?
  • Or is your kid super obsessed with one thing?

Both are great! Your child’s natural curiosity is something to be fed, not fought. Join them!

Show Notes

Rabbit Holes

Is your kid super obsessed with something at the moment? That’s great! Feed their “rabbit hole” deep-dive with as much material and curiosity as you can.

One of Melissa’s daughters got super into Ancient Egypt at one point. She could not get enough of it. So Melissa fed her intellectual fire with historical fiction, maps, music, and movies. Waldorf pedagogy and unit study-based curriculums are based on this kind of in-depth approach to learning.

Rabbit Trails

Does your child jump from one related topic to another? That’s great too! They are making connections between how things work via “rabbit trails.”

Melissa’s kids loved bouncing back and forth between viewing constellations with a telescope and reading about the Greek myths for which they are named. That then led them to exploring Google Sky and classic poetry.

As your kids chase what interests them, you can “plan from behind,” chronicling what they’ve discovered and helping them to put all the pieces together about what they are learning.

Resources

Connect with Julie

Connect with Melissa

Produced by NOVA

Brave Writer Podcast

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Really Notice

Brave Writer

Give your kids the chance to surprise you. The next time they ask you to look at what they are reading, doing, seeing, STOP—and read, watch, be interested.

Pay attention today.

Notice what your child is doing! Really notice.

Maybe:

  • join,
  • observe,
  • admire,
  • smile,
  • sigh with relief.

They’ve got this—this growing up thing. How lucky you are in that front row seat! Relax and watch this amazing story (that is your child) unfold. Astonishing!

Go notice!

This post is originally from Instagram and @juliebogartwriter is my account there so come follow along for more conversations like this one!

Brave Writer Get Started

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[Podcast #263] Appreciating Art with Bianca Bosker

Brave Writer Podcast

If you feel like an outsider when it comes to art, you aren’t alone. In fact, as Bianca Bosker explains, there’s a whole gatekeeping system built up around art: who you know, how you dress, what words you use, etc. 

Lucky for us, Bianca spent five years finding a way past the gatekeeping!

Bianca Bosker
Bianca Bosker

In her book, Get the Picture, and in today’s Brave Writer podcast episode, Bianca brings back her findings to the rest of us, teaching us how to better seek out and appreciate art.

If you want to find more beauty and meaning in the visual world around you, this episode will help. Bianca’s frank insightfulness is life-giving.

Show Notes

Gatekeeping System

First of all, Bianca points out, the gatekeeping system is real. It’s not just in your head. During the five years she immersed herself in the art scene, she saw the gatekeeping firsthand: the confusing lexicon, hidden galleries, expectations for clothing and hair, and above all, a disdain for enthusiasm.  

Museums

Paradoxically, there is a ton of great artwork that is free for anyone to see via museums. The only problem is that we might not know how to interact with art in a museum. Bianca says that on average a person only spends 4 to 17 seconds on each work of art at a museum, rushing through to see everything in one visit. She advises we slow down. She suggests spending extensive time with a few pieces, taking the time to notice how we feel in their presence.

Daily Life

Art, of course, doesn’t need to be confined to museums. Bianca speaks extensively about the art mindset that we carry with us. By improving our own visual literacy, learning how to “unsee” our visual assumptions, and creating our own art, we can more deeply engage in beauty and meaning. 

Pursue art boldly. Let it jostle you. Encourage your kids to see art as an adventure. If you need a guide, have Bianca’s book in hand.

Resources

Connect with Julie

Connect with Melissa

Produced by NOVA Media

Brave Writer Podcast

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