Homeschool Methods: Brave Writer Lifestyle

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Today’s post is the next in my homeschool methods guest post series.  We get to learn about the Brave Writer Lifestyle. I will be honest, this was new to me, and I LOVE it!  Dachelle from Hide the Chocolate write this post for us. Read on to learn more about her and how her family learns.

When homeschooling, choosing the right style or method can be overwhelming. That’s why I decided to start this guest post series. I have been wanting to write a series of posts on different homeschool methods for a long time, but felt like I was not expert enough on the different styles.  Having experts share about the method they use seemed like the best way. It has turned into such a beautiful thing for me to learn from all of these other homeschool moms as they share their passion.

The Brave Writer Lifestyle

In the earliest days of our homeschool journey, I researched all the homeschooling philosophies and decided that we were Charlotte Mason homeschoolers. I stuck to that belief even though I felt like I was a failure on more than one occasion.

Choosing a method of homeschooling is a lot like choosing your style — it has to fit your personality. Though I really wanted to fit into the literature-rich, nature-loving, habit-forming, handicraft-making lifestyle of Charlotte Mason, my personality (and my children’s personalities) simply wouldn’t allow it. I mean I love all the wise and wonderful things Ms. Mason says, and we follow most of her principles, but we just couldn’t fit them all into our lives… and we needed a little inspiration. That’s when I accidentally discovered another wise homeschooling guru, Julie Bogart, and her philosophy called the Brave Writer Lifestyle.

What is the Brave Writer Lifestyle?

On the surface, the Brave Writer Lifestyle sounds like a curriculum, and to some extent it is. There are specific Brave Writer curricula that homeschoolers can use for their literature, language arts, and writing. But, there is so much more to Brave Writer.

The Brave Writer Lifestyle is designed to be an encouragement to homeschooling moms. The spine of Brave Writer is The Writer’s Jungle – a book that outlines the philosophy. There are 16 different ideas that make up the lifestyle. 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.

What does the Brave Writer Lifestyle look like in a typical week?

Honestly, there is no typical week with the Brave Writer Lifestyle. The great thing about this particular philosophy is that it is moveable, changeable, and personal. You can make it what you want. But, for us, it looks a little like this.

Each morning we start with a morning meetup. During this time we work on all our family subjects like geography, ancient history, Bible, and read-alouds. After that, we break up into individual work of math, science, and others.

Each month, each child has a new book to read. This book is the book we will celebrate when we meet with our local book club. On Mondays, we do copywork and go over the grammar and spelling using the Brave Writer Arrows and Boomerangs. Later in the week, the kids will do dictation on the copywork. At the end of the month, we go over the literary elements and writing projects in the Arrows and Boomerangs. We also have a book club each month. These “party schools” have food, decorations, and fun activities that dig deeper into the book and help us experience literature in our lives.

Because the Brave Writer Lifestyle is heavily influenced by Charlotte Mason, most of our other subjects are literature based. We use a lot of living books for science and history. We also add in many hands-on activities.

Once a month we have Poetry Teatime with our friends. We meet at the local library and read poetry while eating snacks and drinking tea. Then we spend some time writing poetry about our monthly theme. Sometimes these themes are based on holidays, others have been on geography. We pick a topic we think we will enjoy exploring.

We go on field trips often during the month to experience art, nature, theater, and science. But, the most important part of the Brave Writer Lifestyle is connection. We are connecting as a family through all these different parts of the philosophy. We are listening and learning from each other. We are having big, juicy conversations about life and we are living in a home that invites inspiration.

About the Author: 

Dachelle is a homeschooling mom of 3 in the South. She loves chocolate and has been known to hide it from her children. She can often be found reading a good book (or even sometimes just an okay book) and enjoying a jar of Nutella — don’t judge. She blogs at HideTheChocolate when she’s not creating online book clubs at Literary Adventures for Kids.

Love this post?  Want more homeschool methods posts?  Check out the rest of the guest post series:

Unschooling
Relaxed/Eclectic
Charlotte Mason
Classical
Unit Studies
Natural Learning
Delight Directed