Archive for the ‘General’ Category

Thankful for you!

This has been a busier week than I expected. My two oldest kids are home from college and we’re making the most of it. The weather has been an odd mix of warmish 60s all the way down to sub-freezing this morning which led to snow flurries. It’s currently sunny. Go figure.

Thanks to all of you for your comments, the way you share your lives here and at home with others, and all that you share with me via email. I love our Brave Writer community. I’m working hard to make it useful and meaningful for you too. (I’m spending time this weekend putting our back issues of the Arrow, Boomerang and Slingshot into the new format so I hope to make them available soon.)

I’ve updated both The Writer’s Jungle and Help for High School description pages on the website to make them richer in content.

I also wanted to mention that winter classes still have openings. Kidswrite Basic has openings in the second session (starts February 25); the first is closed.

One mom wrote a beautiful description of Kidswrite Basic that I wanted to share with all of you here:

Have you ever walked alone in a neighborhood, not your own, on a cold winter night with dusk approaching? As the lights brighten the insides of the houses and the smoke rises from the chimneys, your own cold, dark path deepens.
Homeschooling can be like that sometimes. Brave Writer is like a door in one of those cozy houses suddenly opening right in front of you. Kidswrite Basic is the friendly face that invites you in and settles you at the kitchen table with a cup of steaming tea.

As you enjoy the splendid warmth and inviting atmosphere, you don’t even notice your host slipping a bowl of soup onto the table in front of you. When you do notice it and observe that it is not your favorite kind of soup you take a small bite anyway, just to be polite.

Right away you realize that, actually, this is just the soup you wanted but would never make for yourself. Each small bite is not only palatable, but downright yummy. It is nourishing…satisfying.
So it is with Kidswrite Basic—a surprising mix of what you never knew you needed with the ‘how to’ of what you know you need but wouldn’t (or couldn’t) make for yourself. Our instructor did a beautiful job of welcoming us and distracting us with some non-writing activities to create communication and relationship.

The hearty work that followed was presented in ways and amounts that worked beautifully. This class really set a foundation for us that I believe will continue to nourish our writing experiences.

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We had a blackout last night

So my blog entry isn’t finished. I will be posting a discussion of how Brave Writer can support kids in school (not just homeschool). Coming your way to a computer near you (sometime later today, I hope!). Have to get all those important Thanksgiving groceries first.

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Project Feeder Watch


Yellow finch in winter drab
Originally uploaded by juliecinci

My family has joined the ranks of birders who report to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology the birds that frequent our feeders. You can join or read more about birding by visiting their wonderful site.

If you are new to bird watching, here is a great site that has tips for how to identify birds you don’t recognize. One of the benefits of bird watching is that it s one of the easiest ways to teach careful observation and identification by details. Kids train themselves to be patient, to look carefully and to make distinctions (does the wing on the chickadee have a pale white stripe or not? Black-capped or Carolina?).

Additionally, keeping a log of all the birds you see, particularly what is called a “life list” where you note the very first time you see each species, is a great way to exercise those handwriting and listing skills.

I’d love to see photos of your bird watching! Send them to me. We’ll post them here.

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Friday Freewrite: Birds

Spend a morning watching birds. Pay attention to one or two specifically. Then write what you witnessed. Turn it into a description, poem, freewrite, story…

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Email: What if my daughter doesn’t believe she’s a good writer?

How to help children believe they're good writers

Hi Julie,

My 13 year old daughter reluctantly participated, ( I made her! ) in a Teen writing contest at our library. Much to her surprise, she won first place in the personal narrative category for 7-9 grade. My question is, how do you convince these kids that they have been blessed with talent??? She doesn’t believe me that her story was good, nor anyone else that has said so. This is our 3rd year to homeschool, while using The Writer’s Jungle.

Help!!

Thanks so much for reading.
Mary

Hi, Mary!

Some mothers would say, “That’s a great problem to have!” But when it’s your problem, it sure feels strange. You want your kids to feel valued and that their skills are ones they can count on. When they don’t see it, you want to insist more: “You’re great at this. Why can’t you see it?”

I like to start with what’s real. If your daughter feels she is not a good writer, then allow her to have that point of view. You might even say something like, “It must feel weird to receive an award for your writing when you don’t think you’re very good at it. What’s it like to feel that way?” Give her the chance to say the truth for her so that she isn’t always having to defend a position (which tends to entrench any of us in a position, sometimes more than we feel it).

I would also admire her for writing and submitting a story when she feels that her writing isn’t up to her standards. Let her know that you are impressed with that kind of perseverance and that you are looking forward to the day when her efforts to be a good writer match her evaluation of herself.

The truth is, when kids are talented, they are also much more able to see the flaws in their work. They have higher standards for themselves, they have more critical ability (that’s what makes them good writers to begin with).

So when we keep insisting that they are good when they don’t see it, they put those comments down to the person (or people) not having the skills to evaluate. This process is intuitive (they don’t say to themselves, “My mom doesn’t know how to judge writing”). They just know that what they are reading doesn’t feel as good as they thought it would and so anyone who says otherwise must not be able to evaluate writing.

To help your daughter grow into one who has a more balanced view of her efforts, make sure that you are very specific in your praise. Identify ONE good word pair or clever phrase or moving sentence. Don’t say “what a good writer she is” in general. Make the most of the specific things she does well.

“I really like the way you hooked me with your opening line. I wanted to know what would happen next.”

“You write such vivid descriptions. The blood-orange moon against the night sky made me think of Halloween and creepiness.”

Don’t say, “You write such great stories. Everybody loves them.”

See the difference? One enables her to understand what you see that is worth repeating and admiring, the one thing that works, the one thing that is a skill she can rely on. The other comment means she has to live up to some ideal that she doesn’t feel she’s achieved. That’s a lot of pressure! So take the pressure off. Honor her point of view and offer concrete compliments.

I hope that helps!

Julie

Brave Writer Online Writing Class Kidswrite Intermediate

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