Archive for the ‘Julie’s Life’ Category

It’s All Learning

Brave Writer It's All Learning

“The more learning is like play, the more absorbing it will be—unless the student has been so corrupted by institutional education that only dull serious work is equated with learning.” (William Reinsmith)

See the images of my kids when they were young? It’s all learning.

What were they learning?

  • Baking, reading and following instructions, dexterity, patience, mathematical concepts for measurement & temperature, letting dough rise, joy at eating!
  • The value of being outdoors; immersion in the season; play.
  • Shopping for ingredients or meals. A little exposure to nutrition or measurements or prices, following a list, learning categories of food groups.
  • Crafts, creating a tea party for a friend (hosting), applying lessons about Japan, being responsible for a complete activity.
  • Visiting a museum, reading placards, learning about painting and sculpture, being affected by beauty, meeting artists through their art, history.
  • Creating a centerpiece for the season—exploring a natural space, identifying natural items, arranging them artfully, appreciating design and color scheme.
  • Cooperating with friends, competition, reflexes and response times, calculating, dexterity, immersion in a story, gracious winning and losing.

This post is originally from Instagram and @juliebravewriter is my account there so come follow along for more conversations like this one!

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Something Worth Saying

Brave Writer

Bogart Kids

I have a million photos of my kids. My 5 are forever hoisting one big kid sideways in celebration of a life event.

I love them, even when the faces are blurry.

I have one well-posed photo that we all hate. Before we took the “family portrait,” half of us were in tears. No one would stand still, there was an argument about whether or not to keep the top button buttoned on a shirt, and we had to stand in line WHILE behaving (as if behaving and line-standing at once are possible in this time-space continuum). The photo shows smiling faces. The family is arranged just so. And it’s lifeless.

Sure, I’ve got some well-staged photos of my kids that show all their teeth, each person looking at the camera and no one seething that they had to button the top button, too. As they’ve gotten older, though, even those photos have changed. They wear clothes that express their personalities, they stand in the order they prefer, they laugh or pose or act all serious.

And now: the Grand Analogy to Writing you were waiting for.

Would you still rather believe that stiff, lifeless prose that matches a format, achieved through tears, tantrums, and trauma will result in better writing than tapping into your child’s quirky, insightful, natural personality?

Can you imagine what would happen if you believed your child had something worth saying and that your only job is to capture it like a candid photograph—a snapshot of their inner life, at this moment in time?

Did you realize that the writing your child does (from their tender heart or their silly sense of humor or their fact-packed mind) IS the snapshot of their person that will preserve who they are for you even better than silly photographs and family portraits?

Nab it! Jot it down! The forms for writing come easiest when a child has full access to their ideas, beliefs, and words. Brave Writer has tools that help you teach the forms while maximizing your child’s originality! These forms match a child’s stage of growth (we don’t expect 3rd graders to write essays—PLEASE).

New to us? Start here!

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It’s a Privilege

Brave Writer

We are the lucky ones. We live each day, conscious that our choices shape the next generation indelibly. These little people are with us for a short 18 years and we get to see it all unfold, right before our eyes.

I’m cleaning out my files and shelves, stumbling across handmade birthday cards and handcrafts from my children when they were still children.

It feels like such a big responsibility to raise them and hope they choose to be decent people with good values. 

There’s a lot I couldn’t control. There are mistakes I made. Sometimes I got it exactly right. And often: the difference between a mistake and a good decision were razor thin apart.

So much is the result of that word we don’t like: luck. Or serendipity. Or lack of foresight.

But I do know this. At the end of the day, I have never regretted being there for all of it. I hope you can hold onto that too—that being with your kids, now, as their parent-educator is a privilege, even when it’s hard.

This post is originally from Instagram and @juliebravewriter is my account there so come follow along for more conversations like this one!

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You’re in a “No Shame Zone”

Julie Bogart

So I’m out and about the other day, and suddenly a darling family shouts hello and calls me by name…and I meet an after-schooling Brave Writer family! It is the most delightful discovery!

For those of you who would walk right by me at Kroger without a glance: welcome. I’m Julie Bogart and I’m dedicated to you (and my favorite sports teams and UCLA, obvz). I’m a homeschool veteran with five grown kids, one daughter-in-love (and one spectacular granddaughter). We homeschooled, Charlotte Mason schooled, unschooled, and even public schooled a little. The five all got accepted into great colleges and three into law school and grad school—a little reassurance for your journey! Your hopes and dreams—their hopes and dreams—are possible!

What you’ll find here at Brave Writer is an outlook on learning that I hope offers you:

  • support,
  • concrete practices to implement,
  • and vision for a life of love and learning with your kids.

Your fragile faith in that vision is justified!

“No Shame Zone”

You’re in a “no shame zone” when you spend time with me or Brave Writer. Risks? Welcome. Trial and error? Expected. Breakthroughs and insights? Promised.

All you need to start is desire: a desire to experience learning, love, parenting, and growing together as a family. You don’t get there in one big step, but little ones, over time, noting your moments of joy long enough to value them. When you do, you build momentum and your homeschool becomes more and more what you want it to be. Until it doesn’t any more and it’s time for the next dream—whatever that is. Until then: I’m here!

Welcome!

Brand new to Brave Writer? Start Here.

This post is originally from Instagram and @juliebravewriter is my account there so come follow along for more conversations like this one!

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Kids Need Access

Kids Need Access
Jacob: 4, Johannah: 6, Liam: 2

This hidey hole: brought to you by a scarf from Morocco, a hand-me-down dresser I repainted salmon-colored, a garage sale over-sized pillow and an artificial indoor tree. Result: three happy kids.

Your children don’t care about your house. They don’t care how it looks, or what furniture you bought, or whether the paint color is salmon enough. They don’t think like you think.

What kids want? Access. They want to move stuff around, to find the nooks and crannies that allow them to live their big imaginations.

  • See if math worksheets are more palatable in a blanket fort.
  • See if the reluctant reader would open a book if a reading nook could be fashioned under the stairwell.
  • See if the overwhelmed 4 year old would settle down if she were tucked behind a sectional with a flashlight and her dolls.

Use every inch! Moving furniture creates vision and gets all of us out of ruts. After months trapped inside with each other, consider how to bring novelty to the living space.

This post is originally from Instagram and @juliebravewriter is my account there so come follow along for more conversations like this one!

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