[Podcast #254] Book Parties!

Brave Writer Podcast Book Parties

“Structure” might be one of the most anxiety-provoking words for a homeschooling parent. If you feel like you’re always struggling to achieve structure in your household or if you don’t even know what level of structure is best for your kids, this podcast episode (was a previously-recorded webinar) is for you. Yes, structure and parties are one and the same in the Brave Writer world!

Let’s Party!

Parties are, in fact, highly structured events. And this episode is full of examples of how to use the party-structure lens in your homeschooling:

  • snacks,
  • candles,
  • games,
  • movement,
  • decorations,
  • music,
  • and more!

You’ll be surprised how much easier learning happens with this structure, even if you have to put up with a little more confetti on the floor.

Show Notes

Parties as Structure

Parties have indicators of beginning, middle, and end stages. They have the clear purposes of reducing stress, increasing interactions between people, and making memories– which happen to be the foundational pieces of deep learning. 

Examples of Using the Party Structure 

So, does this mean you have to host a chaotic neighborhood party every week with sugar-crashing kids and mass home destruction? No. The idea is to apply a party lens to your everyday homeschooling.

  • It can be as simple as allowing your kids to have a snack during their least favorite subject.
  • It can be decorating a corner of your house as a reading nook based on their favorite book.
  • Another Brave Writer favorite is Poetry Teatime, which can just be some Gatorade in a cheap pitcher.

Using a party lens to build your homeschooling structure might sound like additional work, but it actually introduces more ease and joy into your homeschooling. Plus, lowering your child’s resistance to learning activities and creating embodied, deep learning is a powerful way to increase their retention and critical thinking.

Resources

  • Start a free trial of CTCmath.com to try the math program that’s sure to grab and keep your child’s attention.
  • Find “Becoming a Critical Thinker” in the Brave Writer Book Shop.
  • Check out all class descriptions here. 
  • Take a look at the Braver Writer fall class schedule. 
  • Sign up for Brave Writer 101. 
  • Sign up for our Text Message Pod Ring to get podcast updates and more!
  • Send us podcast topic ideas by texting us: +1 (833) 947-3684

Connect with Julie

Connect with Melissa

Produced by NOVA Media

Brave Writer Podcast

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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!

Brave Learner Home

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Friday Freewrite: The Wind

Friday Freewrite Windy

Today’s freewriting prompt:

Describe your relationship with the wind.

New to Freewriting?

Freewriting is that wonderful key that unlocks the writer within. It’s the vehicle by which we trick our inner selves into divesting the words and ideas that we want to share but are afraid won’t come out right on paper if we do. So, read the freewriting prompt, set the timer for 5-10 minutes then write whatever comes to mind. Just keep the pencil moving!

Need more help? Check out our free online guide.

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[Podcast #253] Literary Analysis & Writer’s Craft

Brave Writer Podcast

Literary analysis shouldn’t be a cold dissection that increases the distance between the reader and the text, but rather a way for the reader to more deeply engage with the text.

Today’s podcast is a rebroadcast of a training webinar where we talk about Brave Writer’s approach to teaching literary analysis and writer’s craft to your kids.

Noticing a writer’s craft can start before your child even learns how to read! Daily read-aloud time, with pauses to notice feelings about the text and guess what comes next, builds your child’s critical thinking skills. Literary analysis doesn’t need to be bound to books either–using a remote while watching TV shows or movies can work in much the same way.

Also, if you find this episode helpful, be sure to check out our Brave Writer 101 training, where we coach you on giving kinder, more meaningful writing instruction to your child.

Show Notes

Noticing

The first step of literary analysis is to notice how a text makes you feel. You can start teaching your kids this before they can even read or write themselves. Read aloud to them every day and pause to ask them questions about how the text is making them feel—nervous, sad, happy, excited? You can do this with TV shows and movies too. Teach them how to notice how the material makes their body feel.

Naming

The next step in literary analysis is to recognize the author intended the reader to feel a certain way, and that they used literary devices to achieve their goal. You can teach literary devices by having your student identify them in text. Then you can have your student master them in their own writing. This stage of literary analysis education gives your child the vocabulary to more deeply discuss their interaction with the text and appreciate the writer’s craft.

Thinking Critically

The final step of literary analysis is critical thinking (all these steps are part of an ongoing cycle, of course). This is where you engage your student in questions like: Why did the author want to make the reader feel a certain way? Did they achieve their goal? How does a reader’s own context shape how they interpreted the text? Critical thinking is the ultimate goal in teaching your child about writing.

Resources

  • Start a free trial of CTCmath.com to try the math program that’s sure to grab and keep your child’s attention.
  • Find “Becoming a Critical Thinker” in the Brave Writer Book Shop.
  • Check out all class descriptions here. 
  • Take a look at the Braver Writer fall class schedule. 
  • Sign up for Brave Writer 101. 
  • Sign up for our Text Message Pod Ring to get podcast updates and more!
  • Send us podcast topic ideas by texting us: +1 (833) 947-3684

Connect with Julie

Connect with Melissa

Produced by NOVA Media

Brave Writer Podcast

Posted in Podcasts | Comments Off on [Podcast #253] Literary Analysis & Writer’s Craft

One Right Answer?

Brave Writer One Right Answer?

Our in-person lives tend to put us in relationships built on agreement.

The internet, however, introduces us to people we would never meet in person. That’s both wonderful and challenging. We never know the condition of a person’s mind, heart, or personality when we encounter them online. Others come to us without context.

Yet we also have the chance to learn perspectives that would otherwise be completely hidden from us if we didn’t have online life together with so many different types of people and experiences.

The trouble is…

We’ve been conditioned to believe that if we declare a “fact” with a source of authority, everyone will fall into line and agree with us. Isn’t that what happens in school? One right answer for each test question, established by the authority, enforced by that teacher, regardless of who you are.

So we are struggling to adapt to a world where lots of answers with many sources of authority compete for space and truth value. It’s a huge adjustment! It will take time to overcome.

This post was originally shared on Instagram.
Watch the accompanying reel for more.

Also, for extra support in the process, my book Raising Critical Thinkers goes into much more depth about these ideas.

Raising Critical Thinkers

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