Archive for the ‘Brave Writer Philosophy’ Category

The Master Puppeteer and his following

So the four of us are sitting around the table with matching mugs of tea, scattered plates with crumbs and several notebooks stacked haphazardly. I’m reading about Saburo, the Japanese do-gooder who steals from the rich to give to the poor, and my 12 year old “gets it” right away: “Hey, he’s just like Robin Hood.”

I stop the eruption of guesses as the three of them attempt to solve the mystery: which character is the notorious outlaw? I want them to enjoy the suspense, which should grow like yeast in sourdough over the next few weeks as we read together.

At that moment, the thunderous thuds of size 10 male feet pound down the stairs. Into the kitchen they hurl my son’s body, his quick hands swiping the crusts of already-eaten toast which he thrusts into his open mouth all in one move. The lip-ringed, ponytailed, 19 year old man-boy pauses in his Trader Joe’s work shirt to say breathlessly, “Are you reading The Master Puppeteer?”

“Yep,” I reply.

“Awww.” He clasps his hands in front of his heart. “I love that story! I remember when you read it to us before.” He makes a sad face tinged by a smile. “Well, gotta go to work! Love you guys.”

“Love you too!” I call after those too quick feet which are already out the front door on his way to his future…

…and then think to myself:

I love homeschool,

and I love The Master Puppeteer, too.

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Writing curricula… changed perspective

Last summer, one of our brave moms (Michelle) started a conversation on our Scratch Pad forums. Thought it might give you all some food for thought as the curriculum scramble continues in the northern hemisphere before fall.

After leaving my local curriculum store, I was almost ill! I was only looking for a geography worksheet book, but as I walked around I saw the language arts section. It broke my heart to see how language and writing instruction have been reduced to their smallest parts. There were books on composition, making analogies, poetry, how to write a narration, ad nauseum. Being there reminded me that I am now a Brave-Writer mom. If I were not, I would have been shopping for some of those books, either at that store or online. I am resolved to be a mom who nurtures a love of language and self-expression in her children, not a mom who will try to stifle the creative process with a stack of language arts books.

Michelle,

The sad reality for me is I do not have to go to a store to see shelves full of writing and grammar curricula. A peek under my bed revealing two banker’s boxes full of the stuff causes a horrible sinking feeling within the pit of my stomach. $Cha-ching$. Oh, how the writing experts caught me with all the glitter, gizmos, and gimmicks. Brave Writer set us free from worksheets, upfront essay formats, correcting as we write; and dull and dreary driblets of properly squared paragraphs. My family embarked on a new journey where ink or crayon dance across paper–laughing, singing, playing. My reluctant teenage ds tells tales of adventure, dragons, perseverance, and good vs. evil. Dd spins stories of warrior queens on worldwide quests to save the king: a quest where many characters from mythology, the Bible, and Lang’s Fairy Tales appear throughout.

Way in the back of my mind over the years, I knew copywork and dictation were best for my children, but listened to the masses. I ‘ve found a perfect combination of materials based on NCDS: narration, copywork, dictation, and sentence structure.

I’ve fallen in love with writing all over again as I learn how to properly “show” the dc how to write, and no longer demanding that they write how I “tell” or teach the subject.

Hi Michelle,

I wanted to add that I feel this way about almost every subject. We use a simple approach for our homeschool – math followed by college-level science, reading from a challenging list, writing which includes vocabulary study, copywork, and dictation. Julie’s ideas have given us numerous ways to interact with the books we are reading, and her writing method has freed us from textbooks, workbooks and curriculum for that subject.

I recently sorted through all of my homeschool materials and asked that all important question, “Will we ever use this?” The result – one small resource shelf.

—

Our goal at Brave Writer is to nurture a natural and innovative approach to language arts and writing. Be sure to check out our archives here on the blog as well as the Scratch Pad forums for loads of free support and creative ideas!

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Party On, Cowboy!

Gold Rush Party
(Johannah 4, Jacob 15 mos., Noah 6, 1993)
Co-ops? Forget ’em.

Neat lesson planners? Not!

Workbooks and textbooks? No way.

When we hit a wall where life becomes ho hum and kids want to do something, we throw parties. Real parties. Not the diluted kind that are veiled attempts to coerce learning, but the kind that feature snack foods with sugar and red dye #2, mud and loud music. Oh, and every one of our parties has some version of “pin the tail on the donkey.” (When we threw a party about India, we played “pin the bathing woman on the Ganges River.” :))

Noah got interested in the Gold Rush (California history) at age ten. We put sand in a sand box, buried fool’s gold, rigged a hose to reach the makeshift rockers, and provided pie plates to invited guests to pan for gold. We built a stand where you could exchange gold for pennies and buy root beer or licorice. We fired up a camp stove and served pork ‘n beans. Guests brought bed rolls. We sang “O Susanna” and whittled wood. Noah posted a drawing of Sutter’s Creek on a map of California and guests had to “pin the gold nugget” where gold was first discovered after being blind-folded.

Party guests came dressed in their western clothes and were given notecards with descriptions of who they were for the day. Noah had researched various famous people as well as a few made-up, yet likely, characters of the period.

What a party! I’ll never forget how the boys began hammering boards together to make some kind of elaborate sifting mechanism (tools and wood provided) while the girls, instead, went straight to the sandbox to dig for gold. After about fifteen minutes, a six-year-old girl screamed, “GOLD!” and just like 150 years before, everyone dropped their hammers and shovels and plunged their hands directly into the muddy sand.

Those who struck it rich, flaunted two cups of root beer to show-off their new wealth.

To plan that party took us six weeks… every day. We didn’t do anything else (besides the usual changing diapers, scrounging for food, and an occasional wipe-down of toilets). No math (except the calculating that went with building, sewing, measuring, and scales), no reading (except for historical fiction and library books about the Gold Rush), and no writing (except for the notecards that described 12 characters for the party, invitations, and instructions for how to play the games).

We’ve traded “school” for parties many times since with the following themes: a solar system tea party (at night of course), a Japanese dinner, a Farmer Boy breakfast, an Indian festival, a Medieval feast, an American Girl day, a re-enactment of the pony express (on bikes), a Moroccan wedding and more.

Why study when you can party with all the benefits (and good food)?

P.S. Thanks for the invitation to the Carnival of Homeschooling hosted by Sprittibee that inspired this entry!

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Pinch me; I’m happy!

I love it when I hear from students who take those pesky English placement tests for college and ace them. I had one student a few years ago write to tell me that his essay was chosen as the new standard model for proper essay format for the college he attended. The examiners had to ask his permission to use it. They said his form was fantastic. 🙂

Today, I heard from a mother of another student:

[M]y oldest, Sarah, who took most of your courses, placed out of freshman English at West Virginia University based on her ACT score. Her astonished advisor asked her if she had been an AP student. No, but homeschooled! And that’s with the writing portions not counting yet, on which she scored even higher. I hope I can continue in my homeschool group the writing philosophy you helped develop in my family. We will still take Bravewriter courses, but are taking a breather from subscriptions this year, filling in with yet-to-be-used back issues. Thanks again.

I like it!

I had some fun with my own son who has always struggled to enjoy writing. He loves to read it, keeps an online journal faithfully, attempted to write a novel in a month last year, but still finds the generative process of writing daunting. He took his English placement exam this week for the University of Cincinnati.

“How did it go?” I asked.

“Surprisingly well. The topic was music censorship, something I care about. I started with an anecdote that came to mind and then outlined three points, included transitions and then concluded. It was easy.”

(I should mention that the anecdote in question was supplied by our overly-controlling—censoring—behavior toward his musical tastes when he was 13, which included something about no computers for six months and lots of haranguing, shaming and pleading… So glad that bit of bad parenting came to serve him in the end!)

I pressed, “So you remembered the format and didn’t have a hard time thinking of what to write?

“No. You know, the essay format is pretty easy, like you always said. Once I had the anecdote, the whole thing just flowed.”

We both smiled at this point–that knowing mother-son smile that says, “I-told-you-so but I promise I won’t say I-told-you-so now because I’m so proud of you.”

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Healing Your Parent-Child Relationship

Healing Your Parent-Child Relationship

When I first started teaching writing online, I imagined helping parents figure out how to coax delightful words out of somewhat resistant children. I figured that if I could help parents see that the stuff in the heads of their kids was interesting (at least to the kids having the thoughts), writing would follow and that would make Mama happy. A happy Mama would mean a happier home and homeschool… and writing children.

What followed astonished me. Mothers from around the world sent emails to say that the Brave Writer classes had rescued their relationships with their kids. One mom claimed that she had forgotten that she liked her son, so frustrated she’d become with his foot-dragging approach to homeschool. Another mom revealed that she didn’t listen to her children almost ever. She didn’t know that listening was important to writing and had forgotten how important it was to mothering.

By learning to help their children break through,
moms were making discoveries as well.

The conditions we set up for writing seem to foster better relationships between parents and children, almost as a side-benefit! Writing, it turns out, is the “school subject” where souls are exposed, where the chafing in the parent-child relationship becomes most obvious. Somehow by helping children break through their writing blocks, parents discovered how to break through in relating to these stuck kids in a more compassionate, satisfying way.

What surprised me in the teaching of writing, then, is that the communication required to write well led to revived relationships between parents and their children. Kids were asked to express their thoughts forth-rightly, honestly. Parents were expected to “hear” the thoughts, not to judge or modify them. Parents discovered that many times they not only hadn’t been listening, they hadn’t even wanted to listen. Yet they expected their kids to listen to them and to do the things they expected.

Healing Your Parent-Child Relationship

There are a few behavioral tactics and principles to draw children out that are a part of the Brave Writer Lifestyle that I want to share here. If you are currently struggling with one of your kids, see if any of these might help. They work for writing and they may just work for your relationship too.

  • Touch your child.
    In freewriting, I suggest rubbing your child’s shoulders to get him ready to write. This bit of affectionate contact can ease the strain of a “schoolish” demand. Remember throughout your homeschool days to give a hug, run your hands through her hair, hold hands, wrestle, tickle, play a hand-slapping game, snuggle on the couch, or put someone in your lap.
  • Look your child in the eye.
    Showing interest in your child’s thoughts is essential to good writing. Looking him or her in the eye proves you care. You might be surprised how little you stop what you’re doing to look a child in the eye while he or she talks. Be sure to do this once per day with at least one of your children each time.
  • Invite truth.
    If one of your kids is struggling with math, reading, writing, beating a level on a computer game, or learning to do a cartwheel, invite an honest description of the struggle. Don’t help the child get beyond it yet. Rather, ask for the truth and listen to it. Don’t fix or change it. Honor it by acknowledging the disappointment, sense of failure, hopelessness, fear, anxiety or frustration that accompanies the attempt. As in writing, the only way to words for writing is through the true ones right there on the surface stopping the flow of ideas. Solving the problem may follow at a later time, but for now, hearing the truth with empathy is more important.
  • Get on your child’s level.
    In writing, getting on your child’s level means that you will let the child set the pace and agenda for writing, that you’ll sit side-by-side while the child still needs that support as he or she writes. In parenting, it can look like this: getting on the floor, jumping on the trampoline, sitting next to him on the couch holding a controller, laying on her bed at naptime, sharing a stuffed armchair for reading, crawling on all fours with a baby. There is something about reducing the size of your body to your child’s eye-level that helps you see the world from his or her perspective.
  • Surprise your child.
    Skip the hard math lesson, eat dessert first, tell a shocking story, decorate the table, sing to an old pop tune at the top of your lungs, paint the out-of-date patio furniture in six different colors. We parents love routines. Our kids love surprises. See life through your child’s eyes. Surprise catalyzes new language and the desire to communicate which in turn may translate into writing.
  • Change one thing.
    What one thing would make life happier for your child today? Take it seriously and see if there is some way to accommodate it. (Doesn’t like chores and is too tired to do them… you offer to do them today.) Trust is built when you take a child’s needs seriously. Trust is essential to a writer/editor relationship.

Writing is built on trust. A writer wants to know that the person doing the reading of that writing is on her side, is rooting for her success, will take her ideas seriously. Same thing for parenting.

The communication required to write well
can revive a hurting parent-child relationship.

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