Brave Writer

We recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Barbara Oakley, Ph.D., educator, writer, engineer, and perhaps most importantly, a female Indiana Jones!Barbara’s work focuses on the complex relationships between neuroscience and social behavior, and we think that any Brave Writer fan is also going to be a fan of Barbara’s newest book – Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens – which teaches kids and teens simple tricks for learning difficult subjects, even if they don’t feel like they’re “good students.”You can download show notes for the podcast here: http://blog.bravewriter.com/category/podcasts/Resources: Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens by Alistair McConville, Barbara Oakley, and Terrence SejnowskiWatch: “Learning how to learn | Barbara Oakley | TEDxOaklandUniversity”Check out this brand new, free product designed to kickstart your writing program this school year: 7-Day Writing Blitz (and tag your creative young writers using #BWBlitz on Twitter & Instagram!)You can download Free Writing Lessons here: go.bravewriter.com/free-writing-lessonsJoin the Homeschool Alliance: bravewriter.com/homeschool-alliance-- Brave Writer is produced by Podcast Masters

Do you ever feel stressed out talking about home education philosophies? When Unschooling, Classical Education, or Charlotte-Mason come up, do you ever feel like you’re going to have to defend yourself? Have you ever felt this way in an academic homeschooling community?It’s weird, isn’t it?In this episode, Julie discusses the importance of safe communities, the dangers of ideological purity, the red flags she saw around Unschooling, and three principles for a healthy education.You can download show notes for the podcast here: http://blog.bravewriter.com/category/podcasts/Resources:Check out this brand new, free product designed to kickstart your writing program this school year: 7-Day Writing Blitz (and tag your creative young writers using #BWBlitz on Twitter & Instagram!)You can download Free Writing Lessons here: go.bravewriter.com/free-writing-lessons-- Brave Writer is produced by Podcast Masters

Before getting into the topic of this episode – the top 10 things to have done by the end of highschool – we want to make something clear: you can’t teach your children everything by the time they’re 18.As a matter of fact, your education wasn’t finished when you turned 18, either!It’s okay to save or discover some things in adulthood. And truly, life would be so much less satisfying if learning and growth just stopped when we turned 18.Homeschooling is, as Charlotte Mason says, providing a feast of ideas and giving your children the opportunity to sample many things, while developing confidence in their own self-educating powers.That said, there are still some things that all parents probably want to equip their children with before the end of high school – and today we’re going to talk about them!You can download show notes for the podcast here: http://blog.bravewriter.com/category/podcasts/Resources:Check out this brand new, free product designed to kickstart your writing program this school year: 7-Day Writing Blitz (and tag your creative young writers using #BWBlitz on Twitter & Instagram!)You can download Free Writing Lessons here: go.bravewriter.com/free-writing-lessons-- Brave Writer is produced by Podcast Masters

A disclaimer for this episode: we are not trained experts and our specialty is not special needs, so anything we share today is based on our own efforts to do research and learn from other trained efforts. So nothing in this episode should be considered clinical diagnosis or expert referral – this is all parent-to-parent sharing.And Julie’s children are all adults now, so the stories she has to share come from the perspective of someone who has already made it to the other side and can see how it all worked out.You can download show notes for the podcast here: http://blog.bravewriter.com/category/podcasts/Resources: Partnership Writing BundleLearn from Rita Cevasco: rootedinlanguage.comIf you have a child on the spectrum, check out surfershealing.orgCheck out this brand new, free product designed to kickstart your writing program this school year: 7-Day Writing Blitz (and tag your creative young writers using #BWBlitz on Twitter & Instagram!)You can download Free Writing Lessons here: go.bravewriter.com/free-writing-lessons-- Brave Writer is produced by Podcast Masters

Are you a happy family… or are you not? Today, we hope to solve that dilemma!There’s a temptation to only consider the family identity when we think about our families, and that can be a wonderful identity to share!But a family is a collection of individuals and we can’t forget that. The friction of human beings living in a family space together is always going to feel a little bit like controlled chaos – and it’s totally okay if that’s the way that it is!However, making space for everyone in your family to have some of your focused attention and some alone time or downtime is the challenge, particularly for big families. So how can we leverage the unique benefits of homeschooling to do that – and what should we avoid?You can download show notes for the podcast here: http://blog.bravewriter.com/category/podcasts/Resources:Check out this brand new, free product designed to kickstart your writing program this school year: 7-Day Writing Blitz (and tag your creative young writers using #BWBlitz on Twitter & Instagram!)You can download Free Writing Lessons here: go.bravewriter.com/free-writing-lessonsPick up your copy of Family Math -- Brave Writer is produced by Podcast Masters

We often see families join Brave Writer or The Homeschool Alliance who get excited about this style of living, but then we struggle to find other like-minded individuals out there in the world.Even in the homeschooling community, there can be a big disconnect between your theory of education and a friend’s. This may be someone you like personally, but they have a different vision of homeschool and it causes a little bit of conflict.There are a few types of friends that you’ll want to cultivate in your homeschooling life, and today we want to share principles and stories that will help you do that.You can download show notes for the podcast here: http://blog.bravewriter.com/category/podcasts/Resources:Join The Homeschool AllianceJoin the Brave Writer Lifestyle Facebook GroupCheck out this brand new, free product designed to kickstart your writing program this school year: 7-Day Writing Blitz (and tag your creative young writers using #BWBlitz on Twitter & Instagram!)You can download Free Writing Lessons here: go.bravewriter.com/free-writing-lessonsNeed support in sustaining your homeschool commitment? We invite you to read Julie’s three-part A Gracious Space series. You can find print copies on Amazon or digital copies in the Brave Writer store-- Brave Writer is produced by Podcast Masters

Today we want to talk about the roles in our families – and the incredible power of choice. We delve into the labels and roles we use to characterize our kids, how those may limit our children, and how to let young people explore who they want to be through choice.Homeschooling is an empowering choice, and we can leverage that power to provide the best learning environment for our kids!You can download show notes for the podcast here: http://blog.bravewriter.com/category/podcasts/Resources:Connect with Julie on Instagram: @JulieBraveWriterCheck out this brand new, free product designed to kickstart your writing program this school year: 7-Day Writing Blitz (and tag your creative young writers using #BWBlitz on Twitter & Instagram!)You can download Free Writing Lessons here: go.bravewriter.com/free-writing-lessons-- Brave Writer is produced by Podcast Masters

Julie spends a lot of time looking at the homeschooling zeitgeist, and she notices a common theme coming up every so often: the search for the one thing that’s going to magically create a flawless homeschool.But really we shouldn’t be aiming for perfection – we should be aiming for progress!You can download show notes for the podcast here: http://blog.bravewriter.com/category/podcasts/Resources:Check out this brand new, free product designed to kickstart your writing program this school year: 7-Day Writing Blitz (and tag your creative young writers using #BWBlitz on Twitter & Instagram!)You can download Free Writing Lessons here: go.bravewriter.com/free-writing-lessons -- Brave Writer is produced by Podcast Masters

In the last episode, Julie started breaking down some research on brain-based learning, or the science behind what it looks like to be a good learner. Today, we’re going to dig into the rest of that research so that we have a holistic understanding of how our children learn!You can download show notes for the podcast here: http://blog.bravewriter.com/category/podcasts/Resources:Check out this brand new, free product designed to kickstart your writing program this school year: 7-Day Writing Blitz (and tag your creative young writers using #BWBlitz on Twitter & Instagram!)You can download Free Writing Lessons here: go.bravewriter.com/free-writing-lessonsFunderstanding.com -- Brave Writer is produced by Podcast Masters

When Julie started learning about home education, she read a lot of work by home educators. Of course this makes sense because she wanted to understand the philosophy behind home education. However, learning the philosophy didn’t teach her to understand how learning functions inside a person’s brain.So much of educational training is focused on organizational skills, but it’s also important to understand what’s happening inside our children's’ noggins!You can download show notes for the podcast here: http://blog.bravewriter.com/category/podcasts/Resources:Check out this brand new, free product designed to kickstart your writing program this school year: 7-Day Writing Blitz (and tag your creative young writers using #BWBlitz on Twitter & Instagram!)You can download Free Writing Lessons here: go.bravewriter.com/free-writing-lessonsFunderstanding.com-- Brave Writer is produced by Podcast Masters