A Brave Writer's Life in Brief

The twelfth Brave Writer precept is: We affirm that a good enough homeschool is one where our family chooses to see all of life as an opportunity for an education—whether we homeschool to the end, or include traditional schooling in that journey.

It’s time to bring our precept journey to a close! We have twelve in all, and this one is the key to the whole experience of parent-invested education.

We may want a formula, or a plan, or a guarantee that what we choose will lead to high academic achievement and happy, life-long learners. We may think that the choices we make are so critical that if we miss the mark or experiment, we will fail.

A Shared Life of Learning

What we all know about homeschooling is this: it is merely a shared life of learning. Learning includes (by definition):

• discovery of what works and doesn’t,
• understanding more over time,
• gaining skills with practice.

If that’s true of math and writing, it’s also true of providing an education. We learn by doing and in doing, we discover what is best for each child in our family. Sometimes that journey includes going to traditional schools as part of the education process.

“You’re doing it right if you stay connected, and every now and then pause in awe. Look! Those are my amazing human beings!” –The Brave Learner

Brave Writer’s 12 Precepts

The eleventh Brave Writer precept is: Our children experience their achievements as personally meaningful.

The most important part of a child’s education is how well they value it. When a child values what they’re learning, they retain the lesson.

We can teach our kids to master the skills to pass tests, to get good grades, and to be excellent students. That’s not the same as valuing what you’re learning.

Tune In

The way education becomes meaningful to a child is for that child to feel a personal connection to what they’re learning. In Brave Writer, when we teach writing and critical thinking and history and math, we focus on how a child can make a connection that is meaningful to that child.

When you choose to be a Home Educator, that opportunity lays before you as a big blank canvas. No one else tells you what to put into your child’s academic life. If you want the results of school, reproduce school. If you want a personally meaningful education, tune in to your child and to learning.

Brave Writer’s 12 Precepts

The tenth Brave Writer precept is: We will come to know ourselves better as educators, parents, and awesome adults!

When you embark on homeschooling, you develop as a person! It’s one of the most delightful side effects of this lifestyle.

My confidence grew as I learned how:

• to parent,
• to educate,
• and to become an awesome adult—living out the privilege of being old enough to do all the things I dreamed of as a child.

What’s one gift you have received by homeschooling or parenting? What’s an aspiration you’ve fulfilled as an awesome adult?

Brave Writer’s 12 Precepts

The ninth Brave Writer precept is: Our allegiance is to what’s right for our family, not any one homeschool method, community, or model.

Today’s precept fits PERFECTLY with a Tea with Julie podcast I did called Finding a Homeschool Philosophy that Works for You. In that brief episode I remind home educators that their primary loyalty is always to their family—not someone else’s standards.

This may surprise you if you come out of the school system where you are used to being measured by teachers, transcripts, or the expectations of others.

A home education is specifically tailored to your family.

You have the power to:

• make choices,
• experiment and take risks,
• be sure that the learning is meeting the needs of your specific children.

I invite you to pop in your headphones and listen to my little pep talk. It’s 7 minutes long and is available on the Brave Writer blog (includes show notes), Spotify, Apple podcasts, or any podcasting platform.

Brave Writer’s 12 Precepts