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Brave Writer Lifestyle

secular homeschooling
Brave Writer Lifestyle, Our Homeschool Week in Review series, S.T.E.A.M.

Our Homeschool Weeks in Review: January 28 – February 10

The Big, Fat Field Trip Extravaganza

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Right now, my life is consumed with highlighters, red pens, stacks of printed pages, and piles and piles of books. I am up to my eyebrows in final edits for our second grade curriculum, as well as a dozen different Book Seed issues. I love the madness of creation, and I even love the tedium of the editing process. But it’s called for a temporary shift in every other aspect of my world, including homeschooling.

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February 13, 2019 by
secular homeschool blog
Blossom and Root Early Years, Blossom and Root First Grade, Brave Writer Lifestyle, Our Homeschool Week in Review series

Our Homeschool Week in Review: September 10 – 16

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It was a wonderful, though busy, week. I had a lot of projects going on for work, which managed to fill every nook and cranny I had available, outside of homeschool time. By Saturday, I was exhausted. I’m sure waking up with Ringo-the-pup in the middle of the night has also taken its toll (a price I’m willing to pay for all those puppy-breath kisses!) Continue Reading

September 17, 2018 by
homeschool curriculum pre-k
Blossom and Root Early Years, Brave Writer Lifestyle

Nature-Based Homeschooling: Our 2018 – 2019 Pre-K Curriculum Picks

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My youngest daughter is turning five soon, and for the longest time I’d been planning to start kindergarten with her this fall. But something shifted in me this spring as I sat down to plan out the coming year. For my oldest, starting kindergarten at five made sense–she was very eager to learn to read, enjoyed sitting down to work at academic tasks, and craved the formal learning experience. But my youngest isn’t like that at all.

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August 31, 2018 by
homeschool planning weekly rhythm
Brave Writer Lifestyle, Homeschool Planning

How I Plan My Homeschool Part 4: Establishing Our Weekly Rhythm

Welcome to my favorite part of the homeschool planning process: establishing a weekly rhythm! The concept of using a “rhythm” over a rigid schedule was first introduced to me by Julie Bogart through the Brave Writer blog and podcast. What I love about her particular approach to rhythm is that it’s there when you need it, and can take a step to the side when you don’t. Continue Reading

August 1, 2018 by
big juicy conversations in our homeschool
Blossom and Root Early Years, Brave Writer Lifestyle, Parenting

The Gift of Listening: Why Big, Juicy Conversations are an Essential Part of Our Homeschool

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Any Charlotte Mason fan worth their salt is familiar with the concept of narration–the oral or written demonstration of knowledge and understanding as an alternative to the “memorize, regurgitate, repeat” model of testing used by the majority of public school systems. Narration is a uniquely profound way to discover what your child has absorbed, retained, and taken a deeper interest in during your work together. However, it can sometimes feel awkward or stilted, especially early in the game when your children are young, or the concept of narration is new to them. Continue Reading

March 26, 2018 by
quiver of arrows sarah plain and tall brave writer
Brave Writer Lifestyle, Reading and Writing

Using Brave Writer’s Quiver of Arrows: Sarah, Plain and Tall

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It never fails to amaze me how effective simple things can be when it comes to homeschooling. Copywork–probably the most basic of concepts you could possible conceive of–can cover everything from spelling to handwriting to grammar to punctuation and composition. Dictation and French dictation–also very simple as in concept–reinforce all of these. Put them together, Continue Reading

February 6, 2018 by
what a week of brave writer looks like
Brave Writer Lifestyle

A Week in the Life of a Brave Writer Family

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I’m not really sure which aspect of the Brave Writer lifestyle I fell in love with first. Was it our first poetry teatimes, calling out Shel Silverstein poems over the roar of the jungle rain? Or the permission to devour audiobook after audiobook as we drive through forests and fields together, and call it school? Or was it the idea that the excited words of my tiny daughters as they told me stories were the very first seeds of their writing selves, and that I should catch them on a page like a teacup catching rain, so they could see the significance of their ideas? Continue Reading

January 25, 2018 by