Dropping the writing curriculum...

While I love the premise of Igniting Your Writing, and I think the writing assignments are pretty solid, it just isn't quite hitting the spot for us. Instead, I have been drooling over the Brave Writer Lifestyle. I signed up for the yahoo group with reminders right away, and have been reading them in my inbox, thinking "someday, I should implement these ideas!" Well, I think someday is here. It seems to me a very Charlotte Mason-ish approach, which I love.

Here is a quote from the Brave Writer site that I found quite enlightening--as I am a public school product, I always think more is better when it comes to writing, and it worries me that Beetle doesn't write a lot. But this helps...

"A mother asked us at Brave Writer if she was doing enough writing with her child. She told us that her son wrote in his journal on Monday, wrote a poem on Tuesday, crafted a short three paragraph essay on Wednesday, sent a thank you note to his grandmother on Thursday and polished a written narration on Friday. Was that enough writing for her 11 year old? she sincerely wondered. We responded, “That’s more writing than anyone should do in a week!”"

Less is more apparently. According to my email this morning, I should have him do some good copywork once a week. Just once. And there are other approaches to literary awareness, such as poetry tea time, and movies. Yes, movies. And art appreciation, nature journaling, listening to stories... all of it enriches a child's linguistic skills, which in turn leads to better writing.

So, how will I do this? I have a loose schedule in mind, and plan to incorporate more ideas from the daily emails as we go. For now, with Bug, I have planned:
Monday Copywork
Tuesday Poetry Tea Time
Wednesday Art appreciation (may include narration, written or verbal)
Thursday Nature Journal
and Fridays, when we get to them (we tend to "do school" 4 days a week), free writing, or movie time.

Of course, he'll continue with spelling and our grammar lessons. Next month, I'll start the writing project phase of the Brave Writer Lifestyle. And the month after that, maybe some Shakespeare, and eventually dictation.

For Cricket (and Bug), I can immediately incorporate language games, one-on-one time, and read alouds, which we do already. Cricket can do copywork as well.

It will be interesting to see what this approach does for Bug's writing! At least he will continue to develop his vocabulary, listen to good stories, develop a comprehension of literature, and I think both kids will enjoy once-a-week tea time!