It’s so easy as a home educator to wonder if your kids are keeping pace with their schooled peers. Sometimes we want reassurance that we aren’t ruining their lives!
We pulled our kids out of school to get out of a system of evaluation that often crushes:
In a recent Substack Live, I spoke about the danger of a grading mentality in learning and offer some thoughts on how to measure progress without them!
What if your child’s next writing breakthrough started with a stamp and an envelope?
In this Brave Writer podcast episode, we explore how simple handwritten letters can become powerful “writing stations” in your home. We share stories of Melissa’s son, Stephen, whose praise letters to companies have sparked remarkable, human responses—and how that practice turned into rich, authentic writing.
We talk about:
Join us as we rediscover letter writing as a joyful, doable way to nurture real-world writing skills at home.
Do you ever wonder if handwriting still matters in a world of texts, DMs, and disappearing messages? We see it every time a child sends a real letter: ink on paper has a way of slowing the moment down and making connection tangible. A simple note of appreciation can travel across the country, land in someone’s hands, and be tucked away in a drawer for years. That’s powerful writing.
Turning Companies into People
One of our favorite ways to invite kids into meaningful writing is to encourage them to send praise letters to the companies behind the products they love. Instead of treating big brands as faceless entities, we help our children see that there are actual human beings opening mail on the other end.
We can start small. At breakfast, read the label on a cereal box together and look for the mailing address. Ask your child what they genuinely like about this cereal: the crunch, the flavor, the silly mascot. Then help them turn those thoughts into a short note: “Dear Cheerios people, I love your cereal because…” The goal isn’t to fish for coupons or freebies (though those sometimes appear!); it’s to practice gratitude and to experience the thrill of sending kind words into the world.
This practice works beautifully for kids who have big feelings and unique communication styles. Some children, especially neurodivergent kids, may share more of themselves on paper than they do out loud. A letter gives them time, space, and structure to express what’s on their minds without the pressure of a live conversation.
Letter Writing as a Gentle Path to Writing Skills
We know many kids who insist, “I’ll never use handwriting in real life.” Letter writing lets us gently prove otherwise. Instead of a worksheet or a forced assignment, they’re learning:
We don’t need to nitpick spelling or punctuation for these letters. A few quirky spellings and crooked margins only highlight that a real child wrote this note. The point is authentic purpose, not perfection. When a reply arrives—a handwritten card, a thank-you note, even a small sample or coupon—kids see in concrete form that their words mattered enough for a stranger to respond. That’s writing feedback you can’t get from a grade at the top of a page.
Handwritten letters also create a record of family life that email simply doesn’t. Grandparents and older relatives, especially, tend to treasure cards and notes. They save them in boxes and pull them out years later. Our children get to experience their writing as something that lasts.
Creating a Home Writing Station
To make all of this easy, we love setting up a writing station at home. It doesn’t have to be fancy. A shoebox or small drawer works beautifully if it’s stocked with inviting materials:
When everything is gathered in one place, letter writing can happen spontaneously: after a birthday, during quiet time, on a rainy afternoon. Children can paint on one side of a postcard and dictate a message for us to write on the back. Older kids can take full ownership, from composing the note to affixing the stamp.
If we’d like inspiration for what to include, we can raid our own desk drawers, browse a bookstore for pretty stationery, or explore curated collections like the “Tools for the Art of Writing” list in the Brave Writer Bookshop. The point isn’t to create a perfect Pinterest corner, but to make writing feel possible, accessible, and even a little bit luxurious.
When we treat handwritten letters as small acts of kindness rather than assignments, kids begin to discover what we’ve known all along: their thoughts are worth sharing, their words have weight, and there are people in the world eager to hear from them. That’s the heart of writing we want to nurture—one stamp, one envelope, one delighted recipient at a time.
Connect with Julie
Connect with Melissa
Produced by NOVA
We had a great conversation on Instagram (go here and scroll through the screenshots) about how to inspire your kids to learn when they don’t want to do the work you assign. I’ve written books that are dedicated to this subject!
What is the underlying principle that guides my work?
Believing them when they tell us they are bored or disinterested or hate something. Understanding what motivates a child from a child’s perspective not the adult’s reasoning.
When we shift how we see our children and we shift how we understand learning, all kinds of ideas for teaching emerge. It’s difficult when the system is against you.
You have all the hours in the day when they are not in a system to experiment and see your children for who they really are. Stay curious. You don’t completely know them yet.
It’s an ongoing odyssey of discovery to raise a child and to believe what they say to you.
This post is originally from Instagram and @juliebravewriter is my account there so come follow along for more conversations like this one!
My Honest Thoughts about Tech in Schooling
And what I wish for today’s homeschool parents.
EXCERPT:
When we put kids on a computer to “learn,” they may associate learning with lessons given to them by a machine, rather than seeing learning as their natural state—that thrives in relationship to other human beings and the world around them.
Homeschooling, in its purest form, has been about learning as a lifestyle—something that goes on everywhere, all at once, all the time.
Our kids don’t need to fear the online world, but we also don’t want them to associate it with the primary place where learning occurs.
Subscribe to Brave Learning on Substack where we chat, discuss, problem-solve, and create together. Here’s what you can expect: weekly themed content, freewriting prompts, and a podcast for kiddos called Monday Morning Meeting (first 6 are free)!
Julie Bogart and Melissa Wiley reunite to reflect on one of Charlotte Mason’s most enduring ideas: that education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life. What begins as a heartfelt story about a cozy childhood home becomes a rich conversation about the environments we create for learning—spaces that invite participation, curiosity, and joy.
Together, Julie and Melissa trace how atmosphere extends far beyond decor: it’s about invitation and accessibility—baskets of art supplies, blocks within reach, and time to be alone with one’s imagination. They explore:
From Charlotte Mason’s 19th-century wisdom to 21st-century challenges, this episode is a practical and deeply reassuring guide to cultivating meaningful education that feels alive, attentive, and full of enchantment.
Charlotte Mason once wrote that “education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life.” More than a century later, her words still point us toward a gentler, truer approach to learning—one that honors the whole child and the home that surrounds them.
An Atmosphere That Invites Participation
Atmosphere isn’t about how your home looks—it’s about how it feels. It’s the warmth of being invited to join in, to create, to make, to wonder. When we fill our homes with tools for exploration—paintbrushes within reach, books in easy stacks, a cleared table for projects—we invite our children to participate in learning rather than simply receive it. An atmosphere rich in invitation nurtures curiosity far more deeply than a picture-perfect space ever could.
Discipline as Gentle Habit
Discipline, in Mason’s sense, isn’t about control or rigidity. It’s about forming life-giving habits that allow focus and flow to emerge naturally. A few minutes of consistent practice—writing, sketching, tending a bird feeder—teaches persistence and attention in ways that worksheets cannot. Discipline provides the rhythm that helps curiosity take root and blossom into skill.
A Life Infused with Joy
When atmosphere and discipline work together, learning becomes a way of life. Children discover joy in attention itself—in getting lost in a book, a hobby, or an idea. In our world of constant distraction, this joy is revolutionary. It reminds us that education isn’t the pursuit of outcomes, but the cultivation of wonder, purpose, and delight.
When we slow down enough to notice what truly matters—time, focus, shared curiosity—we rediscover education as it was meant to be: an atmosphere of love, a discipline of growth, and a life of continual discovery.
Connect with Julie
Connect with Melissa
Produced by NOVA
