Archive for the ‘Brave Writer Philosophy’ Category

April: National Poetry Month

Did you know that? Old hat for Brave Writer fans, right?

One of the funny things about being in the “hot seat” for writing and language arts is that I’ve become a confessor of sorts. Mothers like to corner me at conferences or in the hallways of our co-op to ask me their questions and to tell me their guilty tales of failed writing attempts. One question I get frequently is: “How do I teach poetry? Do I have to? I’ve never liked it and don’t understand it. Truth is: we never read it.”

If that’s you, if you’re wondering how to give a lesson in poetry to your kids when you never spent much time with it yourself, I’ve got some ideas for you! April is obviously just the right month to tackle it.
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Posted in Brave Writer Philosophy, Copywork Quotations, Language Arts, Poetry, Poetry Teatime, Words! | 10 Comments »

Brave Writer vs. the other programs

For those of you I met at the APACHE conference, welcome to Brave Writer’s blog! So good to have you. I enjoyed getting to know the many moms new to Brave Writer. One of the primary questions I answered all day both days had to do with what makes Brave Writer distinctive in the homeschool writing market. Seemed like it was time to talk about that here on the blog, again.

Our company name is “Brave Writer,” not “Brave Writing” and there’s a reason for that. We teach writers (people). We’re interested in the quirky process of dredging up words from inside and making them accessible to readers. While it’s important to also talk about form and style, these aren’t relevant as long as the writer is tied up in knots worried about what he or she has to say. Until a writer wants to express an idea or insight or thought or fact, no amount of instruction in the paragraph will make words-worth-reading come forth.
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By spring, unschooling

By spring unschooling

I used to tell audiences that we had a three-pronged approach to home education: Sonlight, Charlotte Mason and Unschooling.

In Autumn:

We’d follow the Sonlight curriculum with its scheduled novels, fast clip workbooks, and history immersion. Fall brought energy and focus. I could prepare lessons, stay on top of a schedule, and take advantage of my kids’ love for crisp unused materials.

In Winter:

After the Christmas break, when bare trees, grey skies and snow took away our chance to head outdoors consistently, we moved into Charlotte Mason mode. The cozy house lent itself to fires and read alouds, candles and poetry teatimes. We’d watch birds, study pine cones, take brisk walks in barren parks or go skiing. We’d also delve into the arts: we’d visit the art museum, watch classic films, and learn to knit. Schedules felt wearying and workbooks, frayed and tired. Poetry teatimes and hand crafts, literature and the arts, nature and conversation.

By Spring:

After all that great academic effort, we’d collapse into unintended unschooling. Seemed our energies for organized education would suddenly evaporate under the glare of sunshine, spring sports and theatrical performance! We’d follow the educational muse wherever she took us. Spring turned into “party school” where we’d organize a big Gold Rush dig or we’d invite a gaggle of girls over to immerse themselves in what we’d learned about India (complete with foods, henna and saris). Field trips were so natural and easy in spring.

Today:

Now that three of the kids aren’t at home, schooling along with us, my younger two and I don’t follow a particular schedule or style. The two at home mostly wake up at about 12:00 noon. I do my work in the mornings and we have the routine of “school work” in the afternoons. Yet all those lifestyles live in me and in our home. We can and do follow a more disciplined approach to some subjects (math with a tutor has created a routine we can all sustain more happily than if I just expect the kids to learn it as they go). And we are utterly free with others (history is no longer tethered to a spine; we typically watch movies and read literature and allow history to find its way into our lives more organically; though we do use Story of the World as a good solid reference). We have lots more time and space (no more toddlers, only two sharing one computer). Conversations are deep, long and satisfying. Poetry teatimes are still a highlight.

Having grown up in our family, the younger two seem to naturally self-educate in a way that the older ones didn’t (or at least, they didn’t come to it as naturally). I’m amazed at the way each of them tackles what they want to learn. For instance, Caitrin (12) is vegan. She started as vegetarian and due to the influence of her “away-at-college” older sister, she decided to take it further. Veganism has led her to study about how food is produced in America, what conditions animals are raised in for our consumption (warning: it’s pretty graphic and ugly once you get into it), what it is to be healthy (she’s spent hours learning about nutrients, which ones she needs, how to get them), and how to cook! She’s taken over dinners, using her magazine “The Vegetarian Times” to help her produce very tasty meals for all of us.

There’s space and time for all of this because I don’t feel panicked about her education, because we don’t have toddlers, because I recognize a great learning trend when I see one. I didn’t always feel this way. I remember panicking, chasing toddlers and nursing babies, and I remember doubting that something like veganism could really lead to a quality learning experience.

What I like to say to moms when they ask me about unschooling or child-led learning: it’s all a process for you too. You’re in your own learning process about what it is to homeschool, educate, nurture and lead your children. Be patient with yourself. Affirm the good, gently let go of what doesn’t work. Over time, you will find the rhythm that is right for your family.

Brave Writer Online Writing Class Nature Journaling

Posted in Brave Writer Philosophy, General, Homeschool Advice, Unschooling | 5 Comments »

Helping Your Late Reader

Brave Writer Late Reader

Let’s look at what you can do with late readers in your family.

Your Child Is Not the Problem

First of all, don’t fall for the idea that if your kids were in school, they’d be reading. Plenty of kids fall through the cracks in school too, and many are put in the wretched position of having to be identified as poor readers by virtue of being gathered together into a late readers group! Not only that, the primary function of school is to get a group of kids to assimilate skills and information at about the same pace. That means falling behind is a problem to be solved. It means that your child is a problem to be solved. At home, there is no “falling behind.” Your child is not a problem. The only goal is to move at a pace that supports and affirms your child’s progress.

Second, reading is a challenging skill to adopt. It’s a bit like learning to ride a bike. At first, the reader’s “balance” is all off. The sounding out of certain letters comes quickly while putting them together, skipping silent ones, adjusting to capital letters after being used to lowercase (and vice versa) creates lots of stall outs (where you think your child has made progress and suddenly she slips back to bleary-eyed pauses). Support your daughter’s attempts by modeling sounding out, putting your finger under the letters, affirming good attempts, and so on. Just like training wheels.

On bikes, some kids use training wheels a lot longer than they need to. They like the security. Same with reading. Your children may prefer to put their own fingers under the letters, may like to look to you for confirmation that they are sounding out correctly, they may memorize certain pages of a book to help them “feel” like they are reading. These acts are all part of a normal progression toward reading and are not to be dismissed.

The Breakthrough Moment

Eventually, a breakthrough moment occurs and your child will “get it.” In fact, when a child catches onto reading, he skips all kinds of phonetic steps and is suddenly reading digraphs and several syllable words that you never taught him because he “caught” on to what reading is, feels like. Just like bike riding – a sudden balance. You only learn to read once. It’s a kind of art and skill that can be transferred to any language, any alphabet once mastered. It does happen for just about everyone who attempts it, if they persist in their attempts to get it.

Still, if your child hasn’t caught on by 8, 9 or 10, panic is totally reasonable! I’ve lived it. The trick is to not shame your child into reading. I know this approach doesn’t work because I’ve tried it. It’s too easy to criticize your child as not trying hard enough, not paying attention, ignoring your perfectly clear explanations for how letters make sounds that blend together. But with a motivated a child? A child who wants to read but is not successful? What are the odds that he or she is being willfully resistant or lazy? Totally unlikely! In fact, if anything, a mounting internal pressure is growing. Shaming your child for failure adds to that pressure and makes it even harder to learn!

Think of it this way: you shouldn’t shame your child for not yet reading the same way you wouldn’t shame your child for bedwetting. It’s hard enough to be a kid who can’t read at 9 years old! There are plenty of kids in Sunday school, on the soccer team, at the slumber party who can read, who can play board games with cards, who can fill out forms and read billboards and menus, to remind your non-reading children that they not yet successful.

Your job is to support your child through this difficult passage by reminding her that she will definitely, most assuredly, absolutely read one day. That a day is coming and will come when reading will “click,” and on that day, you will have the most fabulous celebration! Until then, here’s what you will do to help.

1. Try various phonics programs.

Don’t assume that one didn’t work so none will work. A process of elimination is a good idea. Listen to your child. If he or she doesn’t like a program, then that’s a clue that it’s not right for that child.

2. White boards are wonderful.

Write short notes or single words and leave those up for a day. You might even try all sound alike words (we did this a lot). Listing sound alike words like cat, hat, mat, fat, bat then reading them, then looking for those items to tag in the house with the words can be a way to jump start the process of putting sounds with letters with items.

3. Take extended breaks.

Don’t keep pushing, pushing, pushing. If you reach a threshold, take a week or month off. Tears, resistance, and more tears are your clue that a break is a must! Take it.

4. You might try a different alphabet.

I know this sounds absurd. But see if you can approximate for your own experience the struggle it is to read and sound out by forming words with the Greek alphabet, for instance. It may help you to remember what you have to do to remember which letter makes what sound. If you struggle with your child, you’ll be on the same team (not one who knows it all and one who knows nothing).

5. Reward all progress.

Hugs, kisses, laughter, cookies. Then take a break.

6. Intercede for your child.

If you know your kid will be in a context with readers and reading matters to the context, give a private head’s up to the leader (Brownies, Sunday School, art class, piano lesson, camping trip). Ask the leader not to call on your child to read anything aloud, and ask the leader to assign someone as a buddy to your child to do the reading on his or her behalf. If you forget to do this, you may face the uncomfortable moment where a leader mocks your child as pretending not to be able to read to get out of group work. I’ve experienced this and it is painful and horrific so don’t forget to prepare the circumstance to support your 9, 10 year old who can’t yet read!

7. Read to your non-reader every day.

Keep the joy of reading uppermost! Help your child experience the pleasure of reading vicariously so that the motivation to work on it remains high.

8. Get help from a language and reading specialist.

I did it for two of my kids and that help (the amazing Rita Cevasco of Rooted in Language) was invaluable! If your child is really struggling then it’s well worth the money to have an expert analyze and offer you some strategies you may not have tried yet.

Hope these help!

Stuff Every Parent Needs to Know About Reading

Growing Brave Writers

Posted in Brave Writer Philosophy, Learning Disabilities, Reading | Comments Off on Helping Your Late Reader

Reading and Writing – a match made in linguistic heaven

Reading and Writing

Seems like I’ve had a spate (what a great word!) of emails asking about reading and writing, and the connection between these subject areas. So let’s tackle it.

Reading is the single most important part of your homeschool.

It matters not if your children read or you read to them. What matters more than anything is that they are repeatedly immersed in written language. (I’ll talk about learning to read in a moment.) Written language has its own cadence. It differs from conversation. Conversational language is stacatto, is inflected by facial movements and vocal intonations, is accompanied by body language and is contextual (often replying to words, ideas known to both speakers).

Written language can’t see your face, can’t hear your reactions. It takes nothing for granted. The whole world it seeks to share must be conjured by magic – the magic of words. Reading to your kids, ensuring that they read every day, does more to shape how they will write than any workbook, writing course, or curricula. I will repeat that because no one believes it on the first pass:

Reading every day is the best writing program you can “buy.”

So now we can talk about how and why it works. Language acquisition is largely intuitive. It comes from “hearing” and “mimicking.” When your kids learn to speak their native tongue, they are incorporating sounds, movements, intonations and facial expressions into their spoken words. We crack up as much at their surprising use of volume, deadpan humor, commands and sophistication at ages 2-3 as we do at their word choices. They combine so many different aspects of communication into their words that we hardly notice (they are hitting all the right intuitive strokes, and even risking a few that are beyond their maturity or grasp).

Written language functions in a similar way. The more you read, the more you become conditioned to detailed description, to housing your dialog in attributive tags, to building suspense, to attaching meaning to an idea through the use of metaphor. These “habits” are the intonation patterns of written language. They are as natural to natural writers as raising an eyebrow to convey suspicion is to native speakers.

However, you don’t see all the fruit of that reading in year one. Just like speaking takes at least five years to master sufficiently to be considered “fluent,” writing requires at least that long and then some, due to its unique delivery method (learning to manage a pencil and all the mechanics of writing is more challenging than syncing your tongue, teeth and vocal chords). So I say: give it ten years instead. Signs of mimicry will erupt sooner than that (and for those, be grateful!). Still, to become a fluent, competent writer takes ten years. Reading is essential for shaping the intuitive inner ear that tells the writer that he or she is speaking the right language.

So what if your child isn’t reading? We have three kids who read late: 8 1/2, nearly 9, and 10+. We had two early readers: 6 1/2 and 7. All five of them are avid, fluent readers now. In fact, I noticed that the reading of lengthy chapter books started at around age 11 with all five kids, no matter when they began reading. Our youngest read latest! Go figure.

Regardless of when they began reading for themselves, though, I have always read aloud to them. We’ve read novels, non-fiction books, the Bible, poetry, Shakespeare, comic books and picture books, websites, and instruction manuals. I used to read about an hour a day to them from a variety of sources. It’s the one thing we never failed to do.

So today, carve out that time. Put aside writing, spelling, even that essential math book. Read aloud today and every day.

Tell yourself that if you read to your children, you did homeschool them today.

The Arrow language arts program

Posted in Brave Writer Philosophy, Family Notes, Homeschool Advice, Young Writers | Comments Off on Reading and Writing – a match made in linguistic heaven