Hi Julie,
Tea time at our house has become a favorite time of the week! My daughters, ages 11 and 5, love coming up with ideas for tea time. Sometimes, we drink soft drink from the cordial glasses (like the pictures). This month we’ve been drinking from spooky champagne flutes or having our goodies on the deck because the weather has cooled down a bit. Sometimes, we even drink tea! Today, I actually let them drink some of my pumpkin spice coffee (could that be why my little one is spinning in circles at the moment? Hum….)
My older daughter was reading Poor Richard’s Almanac during the month of September. She would come to tea time with some of her favorite proverbs to share. This month she’s had fun finding poetry such as “The Cremation of Sam Magee” and “Annabel Lee”. Since my 5 year old daughter is just learning to read, and a bit of a drama queen, I have her act out books I’ve read to her. I’ve had both of them act out passages from the Bible. I read the story of Abraham and Isaac, which I know they have heard before. When I came to the part about Abraham putting Isaac on the altar for sacrifice, they both jumped and looked at me wide-eyed. “He can’t kill his baby!” They were both close to tears. Never before had that story of obedience been so clear to them. It was truly delightful to watch their brains comprehend complete obedience.
I’m an so grateful to you for Bravewriter. My 11 year old hated writing. It still isn’t her favorite thing to do, but she hates it less, which is a huge step in the right direction. She’s enjoyed the passages from The Arrow. Recently, she wrote a 3 typed page report on Alexander Fleming! She loves science and math and found Fleming an interesting subject. In her report, she really wanted to share with me, all the things she had learned about him. I was head over heels with praise for her!
My goal for my 5 year old daughter is to keep her from hating to write. I have her dictate her own make-believe stories to me and I put them in book form which she can illustrate. As you can see in one of the pictures, she is painting like Joni Eareckson Tada, as my older daughter read aloud some passages from her biography. When I read to her, I ask her to re-tell the story to me in her own words. I hope I am preparing her to write her thoughts and feelings in the same ways she is vocally descriptive. We use Konos, so the Bravewriter activities naturally fall into place.
I have added Bravewriter ideas slowly over the last year, just as you suggest. We are now doing copywork or dictation every day, journaling, and, I try very hard to quiet my own brain and really listen to each of them when they prattle on endlessly (at least, sometimes it seems that way) about the newest Barbie movie or how the iPod works. Bravewriter has been as good for me as a mother as it has been for the girls as learners.
Thank you,
Lisa,
(Clayton, NC)
