We have used a Charlotte Mason approach to language arts for many years now. Reading great books, copying prose and poetry, dictation selections, oral and written narration have all produced great results in our home. Choosing dictation selections and knowing which elements to highlight and discuss is one part I struggle with. So when I stumbled upon Brave Writer, after reading this post at Here in the Bonny Glen , I was very interested. After viewing the sample lesson here, I was excited to find out someone had done a lot of work that I could benefit from. Not only are there dictation passages from great books with literary and grammar elements highlighted, but there are other writing ideas in each lesson that may light a spark with young writers. There are also many free ideas on the website and blog. Check out the writing prompts found under Friday Freewrites.
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Today when I shared one idea from the Brave Writer lessons, I almost fell off my chair when my 15yo sounded enthusiastic. Not only was she enthusiastic but she threatened that if I didn't require it of her, she would probably do it on her own! This is the child who never wants to write anything that comes from her own mind, though she will willingly do written narrations and loves to keep a commonplace book of quotes and favorite passages from her reading. So I have ordered and printed off many of the lessons and can't wait to try them out. We may just have to have special 'Summer Writing' notebooks just for fun!
1 comment:
We've been using Brave Writer with our 10yod since September, and we love it! She is a very reluctant narrator and writer, and I think we had tried literally everything else. She is mildly autistic (Asperger's), so needs a purpose to spur her on- Brave Writer has given her that. As a busy mom, I love the fact that dictation, grammar, etc. are all included in the program. I hope you have as much luck with it as we have!
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