Archive for the ‘Brave Writer Philosophy’ Category

Attention: New Spring Session Registration Information

In the past, I’ve asked you to enroll for Brave Writer classes via email. No longer. Do not send your registrations via email. Thanks to my tech-savvy husband, we now have a registration page that has a special enrollment form for Brave Writer classes. It’s simplified the registration process tremendously.

On Thursday, March 1, 2007 at noon eastern, I will post the link to a registration page with a special enrollment form:

The link to the registration page will be posted on the Brave Writer Classes Page at noon on Thursday.

I will not post it sooner. The moment you see the link, you may click on it and enter your registration. I believe this procedure will make the enrollment process easier for you (you won’t forget any important data) and it will make it more fair since everyone will have the chance to register at the same time.

You will be asked for the following information:

  • Your first and last name
  • Your email address (and a second one, please)
  • Student’s name
  • Student’s age
  • Additional student in the same or different class
  • Additional student’s age
  • Phone number
  • Classes (you may select as many as apply)
  • Method of payment you prefer (check or credit card)
  • Special Instructions: to tell me which student goes with which class or which session you prefer as your second choice or if there is some other circumstance I need to know about.

Having these ready ahead of time will help you fill out your form quickly. If for some reason the form fails to load or you aren’t successful in submitting your form, you may send an email. Please explain what went wrong.

We’ve added teachers and classes this spring. Additionally, I’m teaching an encore SAT/ACT essay writing class. Hope you get in all the classes you want!

Julie

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How Not to Talk to Your Kids

The Inverse Power of Praise

I praised Luke, but I attempted to praise his “process.” This was easier said than done. What are the processes that go on in a 5-year-old’s mind? In my impression, 80 percent of his brain processes lengthy scenarios for his action figures.

But every night he has math homework and is supposed to read a phonics book aloud. Each takes about five minutes if he concentrates, but he’s easily distracted. So I praised him for concentrating without asking to take a break. If he listened to instructions carefully, I praised him for that. After soccer games, I praised him for looking to pass, rather than just saying, “You played great.” And if he worked hard to get to the ball, I praised the effort he applied.

Just as the research promised, this focused praise helped him see strategies he could apply the next day. It was remarkable how noticeably effective this new form of praise was.

This article discusses the difference between unfocused praise for innate talents versus focused praise for specific efforts. I love the way it dovetails with Brave Writer philosophy which emphasizes offering support and affirmation for each writing effort a child makes, specifically praising successes in writing rather than general praise about a child’s abilities. Thought you’d enjoy it.

Posted in Advice from the pros, General | 3 Comments »

The Far Side: Living a Brave Life

The sun shines over the lift

I sat between two moms, friends of mine, on the ski lift yesterday. Our destination: The Far Side, the ski slope that took awhile to meander down, not too steep, but enough of a challenge. We found ourselves cycling through our children’s past years since the three of us had not been together in a long time.

As our feet dangled over freshly made snow, we chatted about which kids were going off to college and which might not go so quickly, how we felt about homeschool after having done it for a decade and a half, what we loved and missed about small children… The chair lift carried us up the mountain slowly, creaking occasionally, traveling between the trees, taking us up the hill where we couldn’t see the top even while we were traveling inevitably toward it. At one point the sun popped over the horizon, blinding us as it pierced our view of the mountain.

One mom felt ambivalent about some of her choices. Her oldest had finished high school early yet wasn’t emotionally ready for college at 16 and now at 17, he didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life. She wondered if she had pushed too hard too early and now he’d lost steam. The other mom talked about her 18 year old who is now elligible for football scholarships and we all praised her for that job well done… and then she mentioned that he has fallen head-over-heels in love. Not what she’d planned. Good girl, but still, scary with an 18 year old boy, at least for this mom.

I shared about my oldest and the fact that he took a year off before college, and now in college, is discovering that he has some learning issues that he is now, finally, addressing. The adjustment has been challenging for him and I worry.

Our oldest children… so often they take the lion’s share of our concern. It’s uncharted territory, every step they take. I was struck by how much we second-guess ourselves as we make decisions with the best intentions, best heart, full-hope forward. It also occurred to me that we are inevitably stuck in the chair, lifted by their choices and energy, worries and mistakes, not seeing the top, yet unable to get off the ride. We wait for that moment of sunlight that suddenly comes into view.

And just like that, the sun broke over the horizon. Gorgeous. However, we still had to ski down the slope.

I love our kids. I love moms. It takes courage to parent, to make decisions when you can’t see where they’ll lead, when you hope you’re doing the right thing, when the forest and the trees crowd your vision. Eventually we all get to the far side, though. And thankfully, it’s downhill from there.

Posted in Brave Writer Philosophy, General | 4 Comments »

Reboot Your Homeschool Midyear

Reboot your homeschool midyear

Sometimes when the grey and dreary days of winter hit, we find ourselves equally uninspired by the homeschool curricula we have stashed in our white homeschool cupboards. There’s a feeling of inertia. “I don’t wannas” are in the air.

To reboot the system, try one of these ideas:

  • People watch. Get out of the house and head to Barnes and Noble or the local mall. Take your journals with you and do a little people observing. Suggest that each child pick several features of people they see (hair color, clothing, glasses, mustaches, hoop earrings, hats, keys hanging off the belt loop, boots, high heels) and combine them to make a new person. What might that person be doing in the bookstore or mall?
  • Ice skate or ski. Getting the blood moving is a great way to break out of monotony. Math will keep. So will writing.
  • Light fires. Both the real kind and figuratively. You can light a real fire in your fireplace and roast marshmallows or hot dogs. You can light a figurative fire by rearranging your book shelves or adding a new afghan to a corner of the couch. You might try rearraning the artwork on your walls or adding an ottoman to a comfortable chair and then stocking a basket with yarn, library books, crochet hooks, knitting needles and a new box of Legos. Get the creative surge working for you during this “in the house” time of year.
  • Buy muffin mixes. I’ve been a scratch cooker most of my life, but lately, a good mix or two is really handy when I want to change the mood or add ambiance to a lifeless setting. The smell of pumpkin muffins makes the morning less foreboding and dreary. Don’t forget to light candles on the table.

What does all this have to do with writing? Not much, if we think in terms of writing “assignments.” But remember, rich living leads to happier people. Happier people have more stories to tell, more experiences from which to draw when they do write. Happy people like to share themselves with others. If you give some reasons for smiles in the middle of winter, you are creating a climate that will lead to risk taking which leads to writing, eventually. 🙂

The One Thing Principle

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Inspiration and Perspiration

Inspiration and Perspiration

We all nearly worshiped her. Mrs. D, as we called our director, led with no-nonsense jeans, glasses and checked blouses during after-school rehearsal by day, then transfigured into a goddess with Farrah Fawcett hair, flowing chiffon dress and fragrance infusion by performance night. Mrs. Daniel, our hard-working paragon of inspiration, taught me just about everything I know about learning.

And theater.

In fact, I learned so much under her tutelage and passionate commitment to both excellence and joy, that even today, I can teach acting, I know how to direct scenes. I didn’t have to study it in college. Twenty-five years after the fact, theater is one subject area I tattooed on my soul.

Eileen Daniel knew something other teachers didn’t. She understood that to command our respect, she needed to both challenge us (naturally) and to inspire us (the more subtle and crucial). She did it in a variety of ways. She worked as hard as we did (always had a hammer in her hand or a script open). She gave generous feedback yet didn’t hesitate to call us to higher standards. She believed we were capable of more than any other adults in my life. If the set needed painting, she would turn over the project to teens, give the supplies and drawings and then let them do the work.

The theater program was so successful, we had football players leaving the team to be in the plays because that’s where students were both

challenged
and
inspired.

Each spring, our theater department hosted a banquet where awards were given for excellent work. There was a pair of awards that I especially liked. Mrs. D called them the 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration awards. She recognized intrinsically that these went together.

In Brave Writer, we want to remember how critical inspiration is to the perspiration of hard work. If you are spending a lot of time grinding through math or history or writing, ask yourself if you’ve contributed a dose of inspiration today. You only need 10%. Six minutes for every hour. That’ll get the job done.

For every ten minutes of sweat, there should be one minute where you devote yourself to inspiring the troops. All these provide relief from hard work.

  • Music
  • Cookies
  • Writing together
  • Telling a joke
  • Taking a break
  • Going for a walk
  • Reading a sample that goes with the hard work
  • Appreciating the beauty of a well-crafted sentence
  • Celebrating a small success (like handwriting your name in cursive for the first time)
  • Noticing the way fractions in math relate to fractions in cooking

And remember, you need to work as hard as your kids do. If they see you working, they’ll respect you more. When you sprinkle the day with inspiring colors, tastes, moments, sounds, and achievements, they’ll see the dynamic at work: 90% perspiration is created by 10% inspiration.

The Homeschool Alliance

Posted in Brave Writer Philosophy, General, Homeschool Advice | 1 Comment »