Our Brave Writer Lifestyle Begins
This post was written on my former blog (now private) in November 2013. It was part of a three part series on the Brave Writer Lifestyle in our homeschool. I thought it appropriate to repost the entire series here as a record of our on-going journey with Brave Writer. The follow-up posts can be found here and here.
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I don’t even know how to begin describing the changes in our homeschooling since I found Julie at Brave Writer. I have been inspired and encouraged to finally embrace the homeschooling lifestyle that I think has always been “me” deep down inside.
When I first began homeschooling, I focused on giving my kids a Classical Education. It was a great start to our homeschooling journey and I have NOTHING bad to say about a Classical Education. The classical model provides a framework for a fantastic education and the students taught using this method are evidence of what a great option it is. The problem was that it just didn’t inspire me. Ultimately it stressed me out.
Eventually, I discovered the educational practices and philosophies of Charlotte Mason. Slowly, I began to change the way we were doing things. We found ourselves journalling on nature walks and searching for living books. Yet, I struggled with ideas like copy work because it was so different from anything I had done in school. I had a ton of questions.
Then, somehow, I came across Julie’s Brave Writer curriculum and everything began to click. THIS is how I want to teach. THIS is inspiring and fun for me. THIS is going to work because my inspiration overflows into their learning!
We’ve all had teachers who made even the most mundane topic exciting because they were excited about it.
In wonderful twist of fate, I learned that Julie was coming to Richmond in August 2013 to speak at a small, intimate conference for 2 days. As soon as I found out about this opportunity I bought a ticket, even though the timing was going to be nutty.
But I made it. I was there. Even though I had just purchased a new house in a new state only 7 days prior to that conference. Wild horses could not have kept me away!
After all, I was finally going to learn how to implement copy work! Of course, it turned that that copy work isn’t nearly as mysterious as I thought it might be. Ha!
The conference was so worth my time! Julie was very down to earth and eager to engage the audience with every topic she introduced. We asked questions about implementing her ideas in our house with our children. She was generous to answer all of them….and still does via email if you ask!
After the conference, my mentality about Language Arts took on a whole new look. I was eagerly looking forward to getting home to implement all of my new ideas!
As part of the Brave Writer community, I love the emails I get daily filled with writing ideas, parenting encouragement, and wonderful wordplay. Julie’s blog is filled with great ideas and encouragement.
If you do poke around, check out Kayleigh’s (age 11) work. She was featured on Julie’s blog with her poetry!
Tomorrow, I’ll summarize our school year with its new changes!
Reading this old post was so much fun for me. What a delight to see the poem my 11-year-old wrote when we moved! We are now entering our fourth school year using the Brave Writer curriculum and implementing the Brave Writer Lifestyle. So much has happened since we began in 2013, yet so much stays the same. The next post in this series contains an update of our first few months using the tools from Brave Writer.
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She believes that creativity, laughter, and fun are the backbone for engaging and inspiring homeschools. You can find her encouragement and tips on this blog, Mary Hanna Wilson.
She is an enneagram 7 and an extrovert. She enjoys traveling, tea (iced or hot), good conversations, and books. You can connect with her on Instagram and Facebook.
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