It’s baaaaaack! My podcast that lurched along at my whim, not on any schedule, has returned—with a schedule and a podcast engineer!
I’m excited about Season 2 especially, because I’ve turned to real experts in the homeschool adventure—not celebrities, not curriculum providers. These podcasts are interviews with Brave Writer Moms who are living the Brave Writer Lifestyle with their kids, each in their unique way.
I can’t wait for you to meet these moms—they are in the trenches amid piles of laundry just like you. They offer a slew of tested tricks and practices to increase the magic in your homeschool.
If you’re new to Brave Writer (Welcome by the way!! I’m so glad you’re here!), you can learn about the Brave Writer Lifestyleon our website now!
Then tune in to the podcast. Subscribe to Brave Writer podcasts on iTunes or check them out here on the Brave Writer blog.
The first Brave Writer Lifestyle podcast is with Rebecca Spooner of Homeschool On!
Rebecca writes about homeschooling on her blog Homeschool On, and she helps others with planning their lives and launching their own blogs at RebeccaSpooner.com. She has five kids between the ages of three and nine, all of whom are homeschooled.
Listen to the podcast!
Also, you can download the show notes from the Brave Writer’s Life in Brief podcast. The notes include:
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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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 (blog@bravewriter.com). Thanks!
You’ve got homeschool humming along. Pencils flying, kids laughing, toddlers misbehaving manageably, babies napping just long enough.
You look about your petite kingdom and for a moment, allow yourself pleasure—happiness. It’s this rush of well being that says, “I love my life! I love these kids, this work, that mess made by the 2 year old…” You sigh contentedly.
For two minutes.
Or two hours.
On rare occasion, two days.
And then: a triggering event dashes the momentary zen-filled peace.
Your friend raves about a new homeschool product.
Your mother asks why Sydney (age 7) isn’t reading yet.
Or worst of all, you simply feel uncomfortable sitting in that seat of happiness. It’s this comfy bean bag chair by a sunny window and you worry if you fall into it for too long, to sleep you’ll go—off duty, off the watch for the ever present danger threatening to ruin your children (what catastrophe would you wake to!?).
“Happiness is untrustworthy,” the restless mind whispers. Happiness is a sign that someone is not working hard, that something worthwhile is not occurring, that play has taken over where work should be.
Right as mastery is growing, contentment is blooming, the routine is taking root, what do we conscientious mothers do?
We toss a homemade hand grenade into the living room of happy homeschooling.
We buy a brand new text or work book that is unfamiliar and a change in the comfortable routine because the one being used is “too easy.”
We shift focus because the we’re worried that we aren’t being rigorous enough.
We require longer, more, and better results because ease means the child isn’t working at top capacity.
We decide that even though homeschool is going well, household chores are a nightmare and so create brand new pressures for everyone—ensuring that somewhere, someone is doing work that causes a little pain (learning IS suffering, isn’t it?).
This homemade hand grenade is designed to detonate with one purpose: to ensure that home education is challenging because we believe that true learning is associated with difficulty and hard work.
So right as you and your kids find your stride, right as your children show they love doing pages of fractions or happily write reams of silly stories about kittens or have watched 12 YouTube videos about WW2 tanks, you yank that comforting floor from beneath their feet and require them to do this most important other thing they are neglecting to prove to yourself and to them that they are actually learning something of value. Right? Right?
And then BAM!
You are back to homeschool h-e-double hockey sticks.
Let’s not do that. Let me help you keep the pin in the grenade (aka the new not-yet-purchased program in the online shopping cart).
Principles to pin to your wall:
1. Ease and joy indicate flow.
Flow is optimal for learning. When a child is happily working on a skill, that means that child is actually doing the very thing you most desire: learning. They are creating the neural pathways that will help the child retain the skill and information. Lean into it and let it roll!
2. Practice creates automaticity.
Understanding is not enough in any field. Repetition/practice that is stimulating and comfortable leads fluency. If a child loves ripping through pages of times tables after demonstrating mastery, let him! When you child learns to ride a bike, we don’t say, “Now you must learn to use a pogo stick or a unicycle.” We let them ride! That’s the privilege of understanding and fluency in a skill. Using it with joy is the reward for having mastered it.
3. When the stars align, do not wake the baby!
The baby, in this case, is YOUR HOMESCHOOL! Let it sprawl all over that bean bag chair of learning. Allow the apparent happiness to last as long as it will, because you and I both know someone will start teething or grow underarm hair and that serene moment in time will end abruptly. YOU don’t need to be the one to wreck the peace. Peace-wrecking is already on its way for you. Let it come.
4. Learning (the true kind) is not pleasure-less.
Banish the notion. Adopt our family policy for going to parties with kids: “Leave while everyone is happy.” Let your son stop working the math problems while he is alert and proud of his work. Let your daughter stop her copywork after a carefully handwritten sentence, before she gets sloppy for an entire paragraph. Joy is the fruit of challenge and success, not struggle and stress.
Don’t wreck the peace! Opt for happiness and allow it to run its course. You can keep the happy going by enjoying it when it appears.
Walk down memory lane with me and see how we practiced the Brave Writer Lifestyle in my home!
My best memories are from all the times I went off-script in home education. I followed the rabbit trails, I followed my children’s leads, and I stayed alert to great ideas from unconventional sources. I used Family Fun magazine, for instance, as a resource for educational ideas far more frequently than any traditional curriculum. Immersive experiences created the kind of education I always wanted my children to have.
In the broadcast below, I share how I did what I did with my kids and I even showcase some of their writing!
They are 3rd-6th grade book specific literature guides designed for parents to guide their students through four weeks of language arts activities. The Arrow Guide includes weekly copywork/dictations passages alongside notes about the passage incorporating grammar, spelling, punctuation and literary style. A specific literary element is focused on in each guides as well…read more.
I recently read a post on Facebook, written by the infallibly-soothing Julie Bogart of Brave Writer, about how to reprogram type-A checklist tendencies by writing a new kind of checklist. This new checklist includes such things as “cuddled someone on the couch,” “affirmed a child for his or her self-expression,” and (my personal favorite) “ditched the plan, followed a great idea (bonus: without guilt!)” At the brand-new, sparkly beginning of the school year, this was exactly what I needed to read…read more.
Writing is like learning to ride a bike. At first, the “rider” needs our full support to steady things. After a while, all the rider needs is some gentle support as we keep our hand on the back of the seat, prepared and ready to help. Once she gains more confidence and skill, we’re able to run alongside being the encourager, but still being there to bandage the skinned knee if she falls…read more.
I’m a devoted homeschooling mama, who has spent the past couple of years learning that killing myself in an effort to “make memories,” isn’t actually in the best interests of my family. But I still really, really want to do cool stuff…read more.
As we sift through our literature options, I’d like to offer a few thoughts to encourage homeschooling parents to embrace the role of an innovator when it comes to literature…read more.
You’ve probably heard the story by now, but I didn’t set out to homeschool. My husband and I are both products of the public education system. Before having children, I worked as a school psychologist in and around Boston and I loved it. I had every intention of returning to urban education once my children were in school…read more.
When I got the okay to review The Writer’s Jungle, I was uncertain what Brave Writer was even all about. I had only vaguely heard of it and, quite honestly, I was skeptical…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 (blog@bravewriter.com). Thanks!
Pumpkin image by miriampastor (cc cropped, tinted, text added)
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