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LLMom
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| Posted: March 18 2007 at 7:17am | IP Logged
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Anyone using this? I am almost done reading it and it sounds wonderful BUT I don't know if I can do it. It sounds very chaotic for a large family (as in mom having time to help everyone) and I don't know if I will be able to tell if my children are improving/writing well. (I don't want to use their classes for various reasons) So, I will be relying on myself to tell whether they write well or wher ethey need improving and I don't have confidence in that area.
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Lisa
For veteran & former homeschool moms
homeschooling ideas
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: March 18 2007 at 7:23am | IP Logged
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I am using it, loosely. But I am only schooling 2 right now, so can't help with the logistics. I can tell you that is has made a huge difference here. Ds used to hate to write, and now he loves it.
You could always just try it for a season and see how it goes.
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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Karen E.
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| Posted: March 18 2007 at 8:38am | IP Logged
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I haven't used it, but have always heard great things about it. Julie used to be on this board, and may still be. Maybe she'll be able to chime in and talk a little about how it works with a large family (I think she's a mom to five.)
Theresa's suggestion to try it for a season is good, or maybe you could do it with a couple of older kids, and keep something more boxed and predictable with younger ones while you get your feet wet with Bravewriter?
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Karen E.
mom to three on earth, and several souls in God's care
Visit my blog, with its shockingly clever title, "Karen Edmisten."
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juliecinci
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| Posted: March 18 2007 at 9:00am | IP Logged
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Karen, thanks for letting me know about this thread. Lisa, I understand your dilemma about giving that kind of time to each child who is writing when you have multiple kids in multiple stages.
One of the benefits of Brave Writer in philosophy is that you aren't needing to bring every writing piece through the entire writing process. Rather, you will be selective in which ones you take through each of the steps. As a result, you can stagger who you work with so that you don't have to have four kids all working intensively with you each week.
We usually suggest working through about one piece of writing a month (but even if you do less than that, you will still be helping your kids discover how writing ought to be experienced and carried through each time you do work on one piece).
Here's a suggestion I like to make to moms. It's called the 8 week freewrite. For eight weeks, have your kids freewrite once per week (perhaps on a Friday). Set the timer and let them write (you can follow some of the suggestions for freewriting in the WJ or you can use some of the writing prompts in the freewriting section of the Brave Writer blog).
Each week, thank your kids for writing. You don't even need to read what they write. If they would like to share their writing with you or the group, they may read what they've written aloud. Otherwise, just slide the writing into a manila folder (one per child).
After eight weeks, pick one child. Take out the folder and ask him or her to look over all eight pieces of writing. Tell him or her to pick one that he or she'd like to take through the writing process with you.
That will be the only piece of writing that will get expanded, revised, edited and polished. You only need to help your child expand or revise two to three things (you don't need to overhaul the entire piece every time - it's too taxing to the child and undermines their love for writing.... over the course of a year of revising, they will discover multiple principles to bring to their writing and will grow). These expansions/revisions are usually created through more freewriting.
Then when you've got the original piece with a couple more sections of writing, together you can sit down and move those pieces around until they fit a pleasing order. At that point, edit for spelling and punctuation (first the child, then you) and print it out.
With multiple kids, simply do one child at a time (not all at once) and trust that in the course of a year, this kind of attention to individual products will lead to improved writing. The difference with BW over other programs is that other programs want you to believe there is a shortcut to good writing that doesn't include this kind of feedback (give them instructions about what to write and they will write it). What I've seen over and over again is that kids need to learn how to write first. They learn this by experiencing the writing process with a supportive ally - you!
We offer all kinds of free support on the BW forums if you have questions as you go. And the Kidswrite Basic course format is perfect for moms hoping to have some instruction from writing coaches who know how to help you gain confidence in the feedback you give.
Hope that helps!
Julie
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Julie
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MarilynW
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I have recently started using the Bravewriter ideas with my 10 yod dd and twin 7 yod ds. I started the year doing more formal writing - what I found is that my kids could write grammatically but there was not joy in writing and their creativity was being killed. My sons especially did not enjoy writing. So I switched gear - we have started small with the ideas on the Bravewriter list - Friday freewrite especially is a big event in our house - I do it too - and even the toddler scribbles away and does his "writing" We often use our own topics. My boys are so different in just a few weeks - their writing is not cohesive or grammatical but they LOVE it. I had a wonderful surprise a few weeeks ago when one of my twins (the one who really found writing a struggle) - brought me a composition book last week - he had started writing his own "book" called The Adventurers. He writes without me asking him and is daily completing new "chapters". It has inspired my other twin to do the same. OK the stories are not great pieces of literature - quite amusing really. But - they are enjoying it. My daughter who is signed up for the year in a curriculum where they mainly do paragraphs and reports - has gone back to her own writing in her spare time.
Sorry for rambling - but I felt like writing was so neglected in our house this year - and I am just so glad that we are making steps back. I am considering purchasing the Writer's Jungle next year - just need to do more research and look at my budget. Maybe I will just continue using ideas from the website.
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momwise
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| Posted: March 18 2007 at 4:45pm | IP Logged
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Julie's the Bravewriter expert of course, but if you want to track technical improvement (punctuation, spelling, paragraph placement and grammar) in multiple children simply keep dictation and copywork going on a weekly basis while using the Bravewriter lifestyle.
For example if you have 6 school-aged dc have 1 or 2 of them do dictation each day, then re-copy the next day. I have been doing this for several years and it is so easy to see improvements in all those areas, especially when comparing Sept. to May! And Bravewriter has the Arrow, Boomerang or Slingshot monthly subscriptions if you don't want to figure out what to use for dictation yourself.
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Gwen...wife for 30 years, mom of 7, grandma of 3.....
"If you want equal justice for all and true freedom and lasting peace, then America, defend life." JPII
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alicegunther
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| Posted: March 18 2007 at 5:58pm | IP Logged
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Just poking my head in to say that The Writer's Jungle is my favorite resource for encouraging writing skills, easy to implement, not at all boring, and perfect for those of us who lean toward Charlotte Mason. I read it over a year ago, but still find myself using many of the tips as I critique and advise the children on the fine points of writing.
And just to prove I am not only saying this because Julie is in the room ( ), here is a thread with a review of the book I wrote before I even knew she was a member: Bravewriter. (Please scroll seven posts down in the thread.)
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Kristie 4
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| Posted: March 19 2007 at 3:14pm | IP Logged
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Hi.
I second bravewriter.
Julie, I loved your ideas about the freewrite 'envelope' for each child. However, my kids aren't big on freewrites. How about a narration envelope for my 12yos? He likes (or we might say, puts up with at times) narrations, and prefers them to freewrites! He does a good job with them, and often it is hard to look over them all (I don't endever to do this). Also, I think that to really look at a piece of writing it takes time, and if I just picked one piece every month or so this would be doable and fun. (I'm sorry, I read the WJ a year ago, have had some arrows, loved the website and blog and just finally have now seen how the one piece per month could work out here..... the wonders of a mother's mind at times )
Thanks for all you do Julie,
Kristie
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juliecinci
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| Posted: March 19 2007 at 10:05pm | IP Logged
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Hey Gwen, Alice and Kristie.
Thanks for sharing how things are working for your families. As always, it's important to do what suits your family's personality, meets your children's specific and individual needs and keeps mom sane! :) Like all of you, I keep discovering that different seasons suggest different emphasies.
Well, off to finish up my thesis (for those who know, I graduate from Xavier with my MA in just eight weeks). If anyone needs anything else, send me an email as I won't be checking in.
Peace.
Julie
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Julie
Homeschooling five for fourteen years
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4Real Forums : Language Arts Come Alive
Topic: Bravewriter
