The Brave Writer Lifestyle: How To Add Joy Back To Your Homeschool

At the beginning of our homeschool journey, I realized that things were not going the way I wanted. I had envisioned this happy homeschool full of fun, field trips, learning, and togetherness. I had researched all the homeschooling methods, read dozens of curriculum reviews, and bookmarked page after page of homeschooler bloggers. I spent hours that summer putting all the lesson plans into a software program I had used during my teaching years. I had each day laid out with breaks smattered throughout.

I had a plan – a beautiful, detailed, typed-out plan.

It was fail-proof.

That is – until it failed.

I realized that more than our language arts program had changed -- our entire homeschool had changed. Click To Tweet

When at First You Don’t Succeed…

I wasn’t going to let a little failure derail my happy homeschool vision. So, I threw out half the curriculum and started over. I jumped back on the horse and came up with a NEW beautiful, detailed, typed-out plan. This plan was destined to succeed. And it did – sort of.

We managed to get through the year, but some days were touch-and-go. We had fun, field trips, learning, and togetherness, but they weren’t often, and they weren’t always at the same time. I realized I had lost my joy in the idea of homeschooling and I feared my children had, too.

So, I did what any determined homeschool mom would do. I began to research how to solve my problem. I came across the Home Education Council of America’s Not Back to School Summit. As a member of HECOA and a fan of webinars on homeschooling, I was looking forward to hearing the different speakers. Little did I know that one seemingly simple idea by a writing expert would turn my thinking upside-down (or perhaps right-side up).

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A New Language Arts Program: Brave Writer

The speaker was the fabulous Julie Bogart, the founder of Brave Writer. I was initially interested in her talk because I have a “reluctant writer.” I say reluctant, but that sounds a bit mild. She refused to write more than one or two sentences for any assignment. I was frustrated and convinced I was failing at keeping my child from becoming an illiterate adult who would live with me into her 30’s and never be able to hold down a job.

But, I digress.

I had already decided that I needed to toss our grammar program for a new, more relaxed, lifestyle approach to language arts. Brave Writer seemed to be the answer to my problem. So, I began following Julie on Periscope and absorbing everything she said. I purchased The Writer’s Jungle, the centerpiece of the Brave Writer program, and read it cover-to-cover. We began implementing Freewrites and adding the Arrow as our new grammar and spelling.

Julie Bogart and the amazing Brave Writer team brought new life to our language arts. But, slowly I began to realize that more than our language arts program had changed — our entire homeschool had changed.

The Brave Writer Lifestyle

You see, Brave Writer is more than just a language arts program. Julie designed it to be an encouragement to other homeschooling moms, and she came up with 16 different ideas that make up the philosophy. They are:

• Poetry Teatime
• Reading Aloud
• Big Juicy Conversations
• Freewriting
• Literary Elements
• Nature Journaling
• Writing Projects
• Art Appreciation
• Movies and Television
• Copywork
• Dictation
• Shakespeare
• One on One Time
• Jot It Down
• Language Games
• Sharing Your Writing

The 16 guidelines are not meant to be implemented all-at-once or even all-at-anytime. They are suggestions to help you add some joy to your homeschool; to help you relax and reconnect with your kids.

But what does this lifestyle look like in daily life?

How can you add this philosophy to your life and bring back the joy that has been stifled from you homeschool?

There is no right way to implement the lifestyle. Each family has to come up with a plan that works for them. Some enjoy adding movies and television. Others add games to their daily life. Some moms concentrate on spending plenty of one on one time with their kids. The truth is that you have to try each out for yourself and see what sticks. Maybe your kids simply don’t love Poetry Teatime. That’s ok. However, they may love Freewriting. And while you’re finding out all these amazing things about your kids, you may discover a few new things about yourself.

Poetry Teatime

My girls love Poetry Teatime. They enjoyed it when it was just us, their cocoa, and a few snacks. But when they discovered they could invite friends, Poetry Teatime jumped to a whole new level of awesome.

It all began when we decided to invite the homeschool cousins to Poetry Teatime. The problem? They lived two states away. But with modern technology, we were able to circumvent this issue and meet anyway. Thank you, FaceTime.

We met at least once a month to sip on cocoa or lemonade, eat some fun treats and read our favorite poetry. Then one day we went to visit the cousins in South Carolina, and a new magical world opened up to us — tea that was delicious and properly served.

Having Poetry Teatime in a Tea Room was beyond exciting for the girls (even those of us who are a tiny bit older). We learned what tea we actually liked, how to properly brew and serve tea, how to properly wear a hat and even, how to sit when addressing the Queen.

Since then we have spiced things up and added a Poetry Teatime with our homeschool group. We meet once a month at our local library. Children are encouraged to bring poems they want to share, but they are always welcome to just sit and listen while enjoying the snacks.

Slowly, we have added in poetry discussions and freewrites. I am simply amazed at the change that has come over some of these children. The boys who once sat in the corner giving me a look like “Mom made me come” are now sharing poems and free writing them during Poetry Teatime.

By adding themes to the Poetry Teatimes at the library, we have upped the “pixie dust” level and created an atmosphere of anticipation.

• What will next month’s Poetry Teatime be like?
• What will the decorations be like?
• What type of poem will we be writing?

Now, I have the kids interested in poetry all by adding a little excitement.

Reading Aloud, Copywork and Dictation

In our home, the Brave Writer Language Arts program is implemented by family reading and self-guided reading. Each child has one novel to read that corresponds with the month’s Arrow or Quiver of Arrows. Sometimes they read to me, sometimes I read to them, and sometimes they read on their own. Unless I’m hosting the book club that month, I let them choose.

However, we always have at least one, if not several, read alouds in our morning basket. Those vary with our interests. Currently, they are:

The Children’s Homer

How They Croaked

Elijah of Buxton

Pink and Say

Echo and Echo

As you can see, they don’t have to match a theme, though often they follow a particular interest we have in history or literature.

Each week the children copy passages from their book into their journals while I discuss the grammar relevant to that passage (which is all very nicely laid out in the instructions).

Later that week the girls will transcribe the passage using Dictation or French Dictation (a modified dictation with the passage already copied with keywords and punctuation left for the student to fill in). The girls then review and correct their own work.

This method has worked so much better for us than the traditional spelling list and weekly test. The girls understand the words and grammar in context. It makes sense to them, so they retain what they’ve learned.

We still use a separate grammar program (that we absolutely love!) as suggested by Julie, so that we don’t miss anything in Arrows that we might not read.

Literary Elements, Writing Projects, and Freewriting

The Literary Elements instructions included in the Arrows have been helpful to me in teaching these concepts. For example, this month we used the Literary Element of Similes. Using the Arrow, we wrote similes with different settings, characters, and plots. The girls enjoyed coming up with their own similes and trying to out-do each other.

Each month we practice writing projects. These are in Partnership Writing (other levels are Jot it Down and Faltering Ownership) and sometimes included in our Arrows. The projects can last from one to four weeks.

Remember that I mentioned I have a reluctant writer? Well according to her she still “HATES WRITING!!”. However, she writes in her Partnership Writing journal each week and doesn’t even realize she is completing a writing project.

Some examples include a fabulous project using codes and another with homonyms.

Freewriting has been a blessing in our homeschool. Giving my budding writers free rein over their writing has given them the freedom to express themselves and write for much longer than the mandated “5 minutes.”

The rules are pretty simple. Pencils move for the entire 5 minutes (even if you are writing “I hate this. I hate this. I hate this.”). You can stop at the end of the 5 minutes or keep going. You are welcome to share your Freewrite, but you also may choose not to share. Both are acceptable. Moms are encouraged to Freewrite along with their children. Grammar, punctuation, and spelling are ignored for this exercise. It’s all about the storytelling.

I’m not a writing expert, but something about a timer and the freedom to write her name 100 times has given my daughter a new lease on writing. She frequently writes for much longer than 5 minutes. She has written lengthy stories with colorful descriptions, and all while convinced that she hates writing.

Nature Journaling

In good weather, we will do Nature Study around once a week. I’ll admit, we don’t do a lot of writing in our journals. We’re more of amateur artists and occasional documentors of pretty leaves and the odd shell.

Art & Music Appreciation and Shakespeare Study

There are several ways to incorporate art appreciation into your homeschool. Art books and art cards are “strewn” throughout the house on coffee tables and in our morning basket. Several of these we use for Picture Study during our Morning Meetup. My girls love to go to museums and study pieces of art. I strongly encourage “fieldschooling” to a local museum or art gallery to expose your children to beautiful and interesting art.

Listening to different genres of music while we work and learning about composers are some of the ways we add music appreciation to our homeschool. Studying opera and then attending a performance of La Boheme is something we all enjoyed (well maybe not Dad as much. He hadn’t studied it with us and had to read all the subtitles).

Each spring, we begin our Shakespeare study by picking one or two plays. Since my daughters are young, we have concentrated on more of the light-hearted fare like A Midsummer Night’s Eve. They have also enjoyed Romeo and Juliet and were morbidly fascinated by Macbeth.

Because the language is a bit difficult, we read excerpts from the original plays and then read abridged versions like Shakespeare’s Stories for Young Readers. Then we attend a live production of the play, if possible, or watch a movie version.

Games

Games have been the saving grace of the mundane winter months. The period between Christmas and the first days of Spring can drag any homeschool down. At this point, I’m ready to throw out everything and purchase a bunch of workbooks to make my life simple. Adding games to our curriculum gave us all a bit of a mental break and helped us get through the miserable winter months.

Party School and Book Clubs

But, my favorite parts of the Brave Writer Lifestyle are “Party School” and Book Clubs which aren’t one of the 16 guidelines but are definitely recommended by Julie. It is my firm belief that any time you can add food, decorations, and the occasional costume, anyone will suddenly enjoy whatever you are teaching.

We add party school at the end of our history studies to celebrate the time period we just studied. We’ve added party school by simply adding a day to celebrate a holiday.

Gingerbread House Party

And we’ve added party school to celebrate the birthday of a beloved author.

We also have “Party School” after each Arrow book we finish. This is in the form of our Book Clubs. One of the most asked questions I get is “How do you plan book clubs?”  I have a detailed article on the steps to forming a book club that lays out each step in the process.

There is no right or wrong way to host a book club. The goal is for the kids to have fun and become excited about the next book on their reading journey.

Inviting a Relaxing Atmosphere into your home with the Brave Writer Lifestyle.

This is how we implement the Brave Writer Lifestyle in our home. In your home, it may not look like this. The most important part of the Brave Writer Lifestyle is connecting with your kids and creating a relaxed, inviting atmosphere in your home. When you connect with your kids, the Big Juicy Conversations come easier and more frequently. The language of your family becomes richer.

Have questions about implementing the Brave Writer Lifestyle in your home? Comment below and I will be happy to answer. 

Facebook Live video on What the Brave Writer Lifestyle Looks Like in our Home.

Dachelle

Hi, I’m Dachelle. I’m a homeschooling mom of 3 in the South. I love chocolate and have been known to hide it from my children. I can often be found reading a good book (or even sometimes just an okay book) and enjoying a jar of Nutella — don’t judge. I blog, here, at HideTheChocolate.com when I’m not creating book clubs and making lists…lots and lots of lists (it’s an addiction). Learn more…

www.hidethechocolate.com