Bravewriter – I recommend it!

Writing is probably one of the most challenging things for a homeschooling mom to convey to her children. It’s particularly difficult when the kids don’t want to write or resist suggestions and constructive criticism. For those reasons, I enrolled my two older sons in a writing class at our homeschool co-op last year. My experiences with this particular co-op writing teacher were disastrous and unfortunately set us back in some ways even further.

Out of desperation I started looking for other options to teach my kids to write when I learned about Bravewriter over on the 4RealLearning forums. I ordered the book, The Writer’s Jungle and quickly started learning little techniques and ideas that I could use to start my children writing on their own. I also signed up for the Bravewriter Lifestyle e-mails . I even tried a back issue of The Arrow when we were working our way through Farmer Boy.

My son Sam just completed a writing course over at the Bravewriter web site. This particular class was based on Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories. Sam was supposed to read the first four of Kipling’s stories, making note of the language and other techniques used throughout the story telling. After that was done, Sam took a stab at writing his own Just So Story. A draft was turned in on the special private Just So Story message board for the class. The teacher corrected and encouraged each student and gave them ways to improve and expand their pieces. At the end of the class Sam turned in his piece and was given a grade. Here is his final draft of How the Turtle Got His Shell.

Probably more importantly for our family, I learned a lot from Sam’s class about how to encourage my child to expand his ideas and turn some of those creative thoughts into the written world. I learned techniques over the past month that I am using right now with all of my children.

The cost of the book and the classes wasn’t cheap, but the book was nonconsumable so I can use that with all of my children. When I added up what I spent with the co-op teacher as well as gasoline, snacks for the kids and other expenses, I think the Bravewriter course was actually cheaper. But more importantly it was effective and thorough with prompt, cheerful encouragement and correction for my fledgling writer.

I will definitely be a return customer!

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