Describe how you work toward a goal. Maybe it’s building a model airplane or finishing a challenging book or putting together a 1000 piece puzzle! Are you impatient, methodical, haphazard, meticulous? Share examples to demonstrate your process.
New to freewriting? Check out our online guide.
Celebration is going on in many places to mark William Shakespeare’s 452nd birthday this week, (he was baptized on April 26, 1564, and children at that time were usually baptized three days after birth) and the 400th anniversary of his death.
In fact, this Saturday, April 23, 2016 is World Shakespeare Day!
When I was in a Shakespeare class in high school, we had a HUGE birthday party for Shakespeare with British food and drink (rather like a high tea). A month beforehand, we had each drawn the name of a fellow student for which we were to make a handmade gift. I remember hemming handkerchiefs in pink embroidery thread with the initials “M.A.” for one student, and I still have the floral wreath strung with ribbons (meant to be worn on the head) hanging on my bedroom wall…although I don’t remember which young man made it for me (or more likely, his mother made it on his behalf, LOL).
So how is the 400th anniversary of the death of the Bard being celebrated?
Celebrations in Great Britain
In the U.S.
So let’s celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday/deathday this week in our homes.
Learn about Shakespeare! Check out this helpful resource guide for students and teachers by SuperSummary.
Talk Like Shakespeare! Have a Talk Like Shakespeare Day (or even just an hour, if that’s all you can handle): (This site also links to some hilarious Shakespeare Comic Relief with David Tennant and Catherine Tate of Doctor Who fame).
Shakespeare Teatime/Meal! Gather around the table with scones and jam and some Earl Grey tea (or, if you want to prepare authentic Elizabethan fare, check out this site and read some of Shakespeare’s sonnets aloud. You can also find Shakespeare sonnet apps for your smart phone. (Parents may wish to pre-read the sonnet choices beforehand as some get a bit too, um, romantic….)
Shakespeare Character Party Game! Write the names of famous Shakespeare characters on 3X5 cards with a Sharpie (pick characters that the kids know) and without letting the person see, tape a card to each person’s back. Then each person asks “yes-no” type questions of other players to try to determine which character’s name is on his/her back. When someone guesses their character, tape a different character to his/her back. Several rounds may be played, depending on the number of players. (Sample questions: Am I male or female? Is my father dead? Is a play named after me?)
Shakespeare Copywork with Quills! Make quills from feathers (either dip feathers into ink or insert the innards of a ball point pen into the bottom of a feather and wrap with florist tape if needed; see this link: Instructables) and copy some favorite Shakespeare quotations or insults onto parchment (or regular) paper. (Barnes and Noble carries a good selection of quills and calligraphy ink.)
Shakespeare Trivia! Play some Shakespeare trivia games on Sporcle: Shakespeare Trivia Home Page such as “Shakespeare vs. Batman Quotes,” “Shakespeare Threats & Insults,” and “Complete the Shakespeare Quote.” (Note: these quizzes are *challenging*–I missed quite a few!)
Shakespeare Monologues! Read some of Shakespeare’s famous monologues aloud dramatically, perhaps even in costume. Here’s a site with a listing of some of the best single-person speeches, one list for men and one for women. Try performing them for family members and/or friends or at a co-op!
Shakespeare Scenes! Perform a Shakespeare scene as a puppet show or act out a scene in costume; either memorize parts or make copies of the scene for all the actors. No Sweat Shakespeare has some modern-language scripts for your family to practice and perhaps even produce!
Shakespeare at the Movies! Watch your favorite Shakespeare play on film (mine is Kenneth Branagh’s Much Ado About Nothing). Check your local library or Netflix for some excellent titles, and the International Movie DataBase includes some helpful parents guides with advisory content for you along with ratings and information on most film versions.
Shakespeare Documentary! For older kids, check out Michael Woods’ in-depth documentary In Search of Shakespeare which first aired on PBS in 2004. Both the DVD and the companion book should be readily available through most public libraries.
Shakespeare Live!! Best yet, see a live Shakespeare play as soon as possible. Check out college/university performances near you as they’re usually much less expensive than professional productions.
“So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.”
~Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare
April and May are Shakespeare Months here at Brave Writer. The Shakespeare Family Workshop provides a multi-sensory approach to the study of Shakespeare and his works. A few informal writing assignments will be provided for families to do together or separately. The workshop class is an ideal choice for families unfamiliar with Shakespeare’s life and works.
Enjoy this fabulous guest post by Mary Wilson!
Good friends. Good food. Lots of tea, coffee, and chocolate.
And plenty of felt tip colored markers for the 15 pages of notes in my bullet journal!
All of the perfect ingredients for a weekend with Julie Bogart, learning about the Brave Writer Lifestyle via the Brave Writer Retreat DVD’s.
Imagine.
A weekend with Julie Bogart. Being inspired in your pursuit of the Brave Writer lifestyle. Getting help for high school. Learning the key ingredients to create your fantasy homeschool. Discussing the elements of a language rich environment. And doing all of this without having to leave your own house or local area.
That’s exactly what six friends and I did this weekend!
After receiving digital access to the Brave Writer Retreat DVD’s a few months ago, I immediately watched all five sessions. At that time, I wrote a detailed review of the DVD’s. The sessions were full of such great information that I knew it wouldn’t be the last time I watched them. In fact, an idea began brewing in my mind…
I decided to plan a Brave Writer weekend to share the sessions with friends.
Using Facebook, I created an event: Brave Writer Retreat DVD weekend and I invited a few local friends and one out of town childhood friend. The basic plan for the weekend was as follows:
Friday night
7 PM: Introductions
7:30 – 8:30 PM: Help for High School
8:30 – 9:15 PM Discuss
*Then head home for evening and return the next day
Saturday
arrive 8:30 AM
8:45 – 10:15 AM: Nurturing Brave Writers
10:15-10:45: Discuss
10:45-12:00: Ally, Coach, Partner
12:00- 12:45: POTLUCK LUNCH and discussion
12:45-1:45: Creating a Language Rich Environment
1:45-2:15 Discuss
2:15-3:45 Your Fantasy Homeschool
Then discuss and head home by 4:30.
(I am happy to say that our final ending time was 5 PM, which was pretty darn close to the original plan. Impressive for a group of 7 women!)
We kicked off our weekend on Friday night with Help for High School which is actually the fourth video in the series. It made more sense to start with it on Friday night so that anyone who wasn’t quite ready for the high school discussion could opt out. This allowed moms of little ones to stay home that night and only set aside Saturday. Of course, everyone was welcome to attend all of the sessions.
A hot tea, iced tea, and coffee bar were set up in the basement, scattered with some yummy chocolates. We planned a pot luck lunch including soup, salad, bread, fruit and veggies. Thankfully the weather cooperated and we were able to enjoy lunch on the deck.
After a packed morning of information, lunch outside was a welcome break to digest information and talk through ideas. Then we were ready for our last two sessions.
I have to warn you that you will receive a lot of information in one weekend. A LOT.
Be prepared with a ton of colorful felt markers, gel pens, or whatever your note taking medium of choice happens to be. I filled 15 pages, front and back, in my moleskin bullet journal.
We found that pausing the video was necessary because all of the discussion notes were shown on a power point presentation. The screens were shown briefly in the video, but not long enough to write down the information. Pausing was effective, but here is a pro-tip for you: snap a quick picture of the screen with your phone or tablet!
Having the “slide” on your phone allows you to look at it as Julie was talks, so you can copy down each of the bullet points as she explains them rather than having to copy them all at once and then squeeze in your notes.
It’s safe to say that we all filled pages upon pages with notes whether the Brave Writer Lifestyle was new to us or something we were quite familiar with.
When Saturday came to a close and the last session was over, our final discussion was brief. Most of us felt ready to go home and process the information, including myself.
Truly, it had been a fantastic twenty-four hours that we set aside for ourselves. We laughed and learned. We we were energized and challenged. The time spent this weekend was good for ourselves, our homeschools and even our parenting.
And it made me even more excited about the Brave Writer retreat!
Also available as a digital download!
Mary is a homeschooling mom of four kids, ages 13, 11, 9 and 6. She loves to travel, read, teach, and blog. Her families adventures in travel, homeschooling and life are recorded at her blog, Not Before 7.
Blue Poetry Tea is by Amy of Busy Boys Brigade!
We’re conducting a “just for fun” Poetry Teatime challenge on Instagram!
Pick a color, use it as the theme for your teatime, post a photo and tag @poetryteatime (use the hashtag #PoetryTeatime + the color)!
You can also use the photo to enter our Poetry Teatime Contest to be eligible to win
Help us create a rainbow of teatimes to share.
Hi Julie!
Below is the journal that my son wrote about his “trip” out to California. There were certain pieces of information he was asked to include (why he chose the particular route, landmarks along the way, distance and time spent traveling, etc) but truly, the storyline, characters, and ideas are all his.
I partnered with him in the typing, in keeping him on track in the storyline, and in encouraging him to find colorful words. (There were times that I wanted to “encourage” him to change some of his wording, but I kept reminding myself that this was a child’s journal and I wanted it to be authentically HIS voice.) ? So, he would freewrite a particular day’s entry, and then we would flesh it out together as I typed what he decided on. We had a great time together in the process, and I loved watching him enjoy the challenge of it all.
What you have written and spoken about partnering with our kids in writing really helped me to feel comfortable being a part of the process without feeling like I was writing the piece for him. I have learned through you how to guide without intruding on his creativity. If I made a suggestion, I always reminded him that HE was the author, so it was HIS choice if he took it or not. Sometimes he liked an idea and sometimes he stuck to his own. It was magnificent!
February 15, 1850-
Wow! It had been a sad and exciting day! The past couple weeks have been filled with packing, and working extra hard with my dad. He is a carpenter and has been trying to get as many buildings up as possible before we leave. It has been really hard, especially because the snow in Boston this time of year has slowed our work down. But my dad knew it was important to make the extra money to save for our trip. It cost us $200 each for our tickets!
My mom has been helping me pack. She keeps telling us how brave we are to go on this trip without anyone else we know. I am thankful for her encouragement, but she is also making me feel more nervous about going. I am afraid that I will get lonely.
But, I am excited to head to the gold fields with my dad! We are going by ship around the continent of South America! We chose the Cape Horn route because we heard that it was cheaper and faster than going by the overland route. Anyway, today when I woke up, I was nervous, yet excited. I felt like I had butterflies in my stomach. I quickly ate my porridge, grabbed my bags, and headed toward the ship with my family. At the dock, we paid our fare and got two tickets. When I was about to walk up the ramp onto the ship, I turned back to my mom and hugged her. She gave me one final, “Oh! How brave you are!” Then I said goodbye to my sisters. After that, I boarded the ship with my dad.
Being as I have never been on a ship before, I was curious to know what our room would be like and who we would be sharing our room with. It was larger than I had expected. Our two cabin mates were already there: a judge and his son, who is about my age of ten years. We talked with them for a little while and then wandered off to go explore the ship. The ship blew its whistle to signal our departure and immediately, I started getting woozy and nauseous. But, the gold fever overtook the yucky feeling, and my adventurous self came out again.
Tonight at dinner, we sat next to our roommates. We talked about what we have been doing for the past week, and it turns out that the judge, John, has a wife and only the one son, James. The cook made a wonderful meal for us! I loved it! I really can’t wait for breakfast tomorrow!
March 15-
Today I am starting to feel sea sick again. It has come and gone ever since we departed. We spent the past month talking and going fishing off the side of the boat with our cabin mates. Sometimes we would read a book, play card games, and tell jokes. My favorite thing to do is to sit alone dreaming of what it will be like in CA, and wondering what my mom and sisters are doing at home.
I am kind of getting tired of the meals that the ship’s cook makes. We eat a lot of fish and potatoes as well as hard tack, pork, beans, and rice. For dessert sometimes we have plum pudding. It’s not bad food, but I am just getting tired of it.
April 21-
I woke up to shouts of joy today because of the cry “Land, ho!!” coming from the mast. The passengers were running to the sides of the boat to see the land because we have been in the middle of the ocean for two months! There it was! Rio!!
Mountains, mountains everywhere! Reaching to the sky with their green heads, brown clothes, and white sandy feet. I saw a huge beach line with the white foam rushing up against the land and the sparkly blue water so calm and peaceful. I pushed through the people and peeked through the rails. Men were shouting and talking excitedly.
“Hey, I can’t see!”
“Look at those beautiful mountains!”
“Do you see those nifty villas with their orange groves?”
“What is that glittering?”
“That’s a cross!”
“Oh, it must be a convent!”
And on and on and on it went.
When we docked, we found John and James and went out with them to explore. James and I stumbled around at first trying to get our land legs back. We saw fountains where slaves got water to carry back on their heads. We talked with a slave girl named Emily. All the buildings in the town were half finished, which made my dad want to complete them. We wandered through a marketplace on the street that was filled with people and fruits and homemade dolls. Dogs sniffed around. Buyers bargained with vendors.
Our dads bought two bananas each and we gobbled them up immediately! I had never tasted a banana like this before! I said to my dad, “These bananas are really sweet!” He answered, “Just like your mother.”
Later, on our way back to the ship I was able to see another vessel from home. Can you believe that?!
May 30-
Today we passed Cape Horn. I thought that we would be in high spirits. But this morning when my dreams dripped away and I sat up, my dad was still sleeping. John and James were already gone, so I went up to the top deck of the ship. Everyone was gathered at the side of the ship.
“Look!” James said. So I pushed my way through the men, their eyes still half-closed. What I saw was Cape Horn, with its long mountain range dressed from head to toe in her frosty frock. Everyone meandered back down below deck to play cards or listen to music or attend the chapel service. As for me, I wandered back to bed, arms shivering and all.
Later, two storms passed by, back to back, each lasting two hours. The good news is that after they passed, I was able to see a double rainbow! It was like the sky was making up for all of its bad deeds! By the middle of the afternoon, it was sunny enough for James and I to go catch some fish. We caught five! While we were out there, we saw a shark and a shoal of blackfish! And I forgot to write down that last week when we were by the coast of Argentina, I saw a huge penguin!
June 25-
Today I woke up as happy as a dog with a bone! I went upstairs and saw a crowd of people in the dining hall. So I went over next to my dad, who was up before me, and immediately, they all yelled, “Happy Birthday!” and started singing “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” to me. For today was my birthday! Eleven years old! I am sad that I can’t see my mom and sisters on my birthday. I’ve been away for what feels like forever, and I miss them. But I’m glad that I can have friends like James and his dad on the ship with me for my birthday. I am also glad that my dad is with me.
We are going to get rich with gold. I think the gold fields are going to be small with lots and lots of miners. I want to go pan and mine for gold, and if we find enough of it, we can live there with my family and friends from home.
While I was thinking of this, we all went up to the top of the boat. Men were shouting, guns were booming, and birds were getting killed. Then….SPLASH!! A whale spouted! The men stopped the bird shooting and went over to the side of the ship. Hundreds of whales! And they were all around the ship!
Later that night, I saw my dad shaving for the first time since we departed from Boston!
“Are we going to be there soon?” I asked my dad.
“Yep. Happy birthday, Son.”
July 31-
Well, after 5 ½ months and over 15,000 miles, we made it to San Francisco! This morning, my dad was smiling at me when I woke up. We got dressed and headed up to breakfast. Lo and behold, there was land!!! I looked at my dad and he was laughing at me.
“That’s not funny!!” I said jokingly. He hugged me.
We ate breakfast with all the people on the ship one last time. Even the captain came down! Then we disembarked.
In town, we bought our pans and a shovel. We checked in to a hotel and unpacked our things in our room. For some reason, he took me back to the harbor. There was the ship from home that we saw in Rio!! And guess what? My friend Sophia was on it with her family! My dad chuckled and smiled at me. He knew all along that their family was coming!
Later after they disembarked, Sophia’s family, my dad, John, James and I went out for dinner. The parents discussed it and decided that we would all go together to the mining fields. The five of us kids shouted for joy! My dreams are coming true!
And thus ends my tale of my electrifying adventure to the gold fields.
The video below is Judah’s project on Mission Santa Barbara (with his friend, Sophia). I really crack up every time I watch it because the whole thing is filled with their silly senses of humor and excellent ideas. My parents laughed because it was so much like the videos I would make with my friends for our school projects in the 80’s as my dad filmed us on his enormous camcorder! ? I hope you enjoy it!
Carla
Oh my goodness! Do they even have to do any more writing for the rest of the year?!?! The production values of that video are incredible! What an imaginative program and such a wonderful explanation of all they learned about Mission Santa Barbara.
And the diary—spot on. Totally gets the idea. These are both brilliant. You can hardly know how much they learned through these amazing experiences of writing. Far more than a dusty old report. I’m blown away. You’re doing it all right! —Julie
