Brave Writer

Raising five kids during the internet era, everyone is dying to know what my thoughts on video games are! How many hours, how many minutes, how many days? Are they too violent? Is it okay if they love Minecraft? Will they lose all motivation to work? Let’s discuss all this and more!Ash Brandin (they/them) is a middle school teacher from Golden, Colorado. After researching the use of video games in classrooms, Ash found that there was very little research about how games compel people to play, and how this can be brought into the classroom — or any educational environment. Since 2016, Ash has spoken across the country about how academic spaces can mimic game structures to make learning compelling, motivating, and engaging. They believe games, specifically entertainment based games, can help us create better teaching, more engaged learning, and motivated lifelong learners.You can download show notes for the podcast here: http://blog.bravewriter.com/category/podcasts/Resources:Want help getting started with Brave Writer? Head over to bravewriter.com/getting-startedSign up for the Brave Writer Newsletter to learn about all of the special offers we’re doing in 2020 + you’ll get a free 7-Day Writing Blitz guide just for signing up: http://go.bravewriter.com/writing-blitzConnect with Julie:Instagram: instagram.com/juliebravewriterTwitter: twitter.com/bravewriterFacebook: facebook.com/bravewriter--Brave Writer is produced by Crate Media

The podcast has been dark for a few months… and for a good reason! Julie just wrapped up writing her newest book (out February 2022). Now that it’s in the hands of publishers, she’s ready to get back to the business of podcasting. The theme for this season comes from the topic of the book: Critical thinking. Let’s peel back the layers and get a closer look at what it means to be a critical thinker.Dr. Diana Hill is a psychologist and podcaster with Off The Clock Psychologists. At the beginning of the pandemic, when so many people unexpectedly had their children at home with them, Dr. Hill discovered Julie’s book “The Brave Learner.” She used the ideas in The Brave Leaner to become a home educator herself. In today’s podcast, Diana talks about how to create a better relationship with ourselves. She has co-authored a therapeutic personal journal that features a practice called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT is cutting-edge, evidence-based psychology that helps people develop psychological flexibility. Psychological flexibility is one of the best indicators of effective parenting, and recent research shows that psychological flexibility reduces the impact of pandemic stress on families and kids.Psychological flexibility involves directing yourself towards your values — even in the face of difficulty and challenges. It takes skills in acceptance, perspective taking, values, being present, stepping back from thoughts, and commitment to become psychologically flexible. The ACT Daily Journal breaks psychological flexibility into an eight-week program that helps people in each of these skills to get present, identify their values, and take committed action in the direction that matters most to them.You can download show notes for the podcast here: blog.bravewriter.com/category/podcastsResources:drdianahill.comInstagram: @drdianahillPurchase: "ACT Daily Journal"Listen: Psychologists Off the ClockLearn about our Brave Learner Home membership and our special offer at bravewriter.com/specialofferWant help getting started with Brave Writer? Head over to bravewriter.com/getting-startedSign up for the Brave Writer Newsletter to learn about all of the special offers we’re doing in 2020 + you’ll get a free 7-Day Writing Blitz guide just for signing up: bravewriter.com/blitzConnect with Julie:Instagram: instagram.com/juliebravewriterTwitter: twitter.com/bravewriterFacebook: facebook.com/bravewriter--Brave Writer is produced by Crate Media

Join Julie today as she talks with best-selling author and award-winning playwright Ken Ludwig. Together, they explore their shared enthusiasm for Shakespeare and how to bring the Bard to life for our children. Learn about memorizing soliloquies, examining Shakespeare’s language, and the details of how Shakespeare’s plays have been preserved for us to enjoy (it’s a great story!).You can download show notes for the podcast here: http://blog.bravewriter.com/category/podcasts/Resources:Want help getting started with Brave Writer? Head over to bravewriter.com/getting-startedSign up for the Brave Writer Newsletter to learn about all of the special offers we’re doing in 2020 + you’ll get a free 7-Day Writing Blitz guide just for signing up: http://go.bravewriter.com/writing-blitzConnect with Julie:Instagram: instagram.com/juliebravewriterTwitter: twitter.com/bravewriterFacebook: facebook.com/bravewriter--Brave Writer is produced by Crate Media

It’s a little thing: that one comment, the nudge in the acceptable direction, the calm and carefully-worded reminder. You had the right tone of voice, the best intentions, the least egregious expectation. And then your child flies off the handle anyway. The resistance, the tongue-lashing, the pushing past whatever small boundary you set—putting on shoes to go to Target, taking the bowl to the sink, not licking the jug of milk with his tongue, not making that scooching sound with his chair...When we face resistance or challenge, it’s so easy to abandon ourselves and declare: I’m overwhelmed!Today’s episode is all about overturning that overwhelm and reclaiming our power—especially for women (though men are welcome to listen along).You can download show notes for the podcast here: http://blog.bravewriter.com/category/podcasts/Resources:Want help getting started with Brave Writer? Head over to bravewriter.com/getting-startedSign up for the Brave Writer Newsletter to learn about all of the special offers we’re doing in 2020 + you’ll get a free 7-Day Writing Blitz guide just for signing up: http://go.bravewriter.com/writing-blitzCyber Monday: https://store.bravewriter.com/Connect with Julie:Instagram: instagram.com/juliebravewriterTwitter: twitter.com/bravewriterFacebook: facebook.com/bravewriter--Brave Writer is produced by Crate Media

When you signed up for the task of homeschooling, you surely imagined what the ideal homeschooling life would look like. This is the life you are fighting for. In homeschool, the vision for natural learning is a powerful draw. It’s also worthy of fighting for that vision. But because it is not natural to many of us and we have this controlling memory of traditional school interfering with our new, fragile vision of what homeschool can be, we often wind up fighting about it more than for it. We’re going to unpack the differences between the two, and how you can focus on fighting for the things you want instead of fighting about them.You can download show notes for the podcast here: http://blog.bravewriter.com/category/podcasts/Resources:Want help getting started with Brave Writer? Head over to bravewriter.com/getting-startedSign up for the Brave Writer Newsletter to learn about all of the special offers we’re doing in 2020 + you’ll get a free 7-Day Writing Blitz guide just for signing up: http://go.bravewriter.com/writing-blitzConnect with Julie:Instagram: instagram.com/juliebravewriterTwitter: twitter.com/bravewriterFacebook: facebook.com/bravewriter--Brave Writer is produced by Crate Media

The number one question I get is not how to prepare kids for college, or what you need to start homeschooling, or even about homeschooling at all — it’s about chores. Should kids be assigned chores, should they be rewarded, and how do we enforce them?While we’ve got our little ones home all day, we’ve got to keep our house running and sanitary. We’re not necessarily looking for a perfectly presentable home, but we are looking for order and a sense that yesterday’s mess will not impede today’s progress.Let’s go over three myths regarding chores as well as practical solutions.You can download show notes for the podcast here: http://blog.bravewriter.com/category/podcasts/Resources:Want help getting started with Brave Writer? Head over to bravewriter.com/getting-startedSign up for the Brave Writer Newsletter to learn about all of the special offers we’re doing in 2020 + you’ll get a free 7-Day Writing Blitz guide just for signing up: http://go.bravewriter.com/writing-blitzConnect with Julie:Instagram: instagram.com/juliebravewriterTwitter: twitter.com/bravewriterFacebook: facebook.com/bravewriter--Brave Writer is produced by Crate Media

How do parents ensure that homeschooling is challenging and rigorous enough for their kids to become smart, successful adults?Many parents are under the impression that rigor is the best version of learning. Education that is rigorous means students are learning more, so many see rigor as a measuring tool for how serious the institution is for learning. But is that really the case? Let’s deconstruct the notion of rigor and see if there is something easier to implement and more effective for learning.You can download show notes for the podcast here: http://blog.bravewriter.com/category/podcasts/Resources:Purchase A Gracious Space: Fall Edition at bravewriter.com/gsfallLearn more about the Brave Writer Lifestyle: store.bravewriter.com/collections/brave-writer-lifestyle-toolsThe Stanford Article: "Why Relaxed Alertness Provides the Optimum Emotional Climate for Learning"Want help getting started with Brave Writer? Head over to bravewriter.com/getting-startedSign up for the Brave Writer Newsletter to learn about all of the special offers we’re doing in 2020 + you’ll get a free 7-Day Writing Blitz guide just for signing up: http://go.bravewriter.com/writing-blitzConnect with Julie:Instagram: instagram.com/juliebravewriterTwitter: twitter.com/bravewriterFacebook: facebook.com/bravewriter--Brave Writer is produced by Crate Media

I heard from a mom who wanted to know how to shed the fear that her children won’t be ready to enter the school system one day. She wanted to be able to put her kids in school at any given moment—next semester, next year, maybe high school, definitely college.So, let’s talk about the difference between being educated and schooled, being a learner and being a student.Are you worried that you may “ruin” your kids? They may love learning but they will have serious academic gaffes if you keep your kids home. Or perhaps you worry they won’t be socialized or will miss out on school traditions like sports, marching band, prom, and Spanish club.Do you wonder how a child “catches up” if behind in a particular subject area? What happens to the child who wants to enter school but never kept up with math or skipped over science? What if your child is entering high school without ever having studied a foreign language? And finally, how can you tell if you are doing a good enough job at preparing your child for tests, lockers, or self-management in a classroom?The underlying belief that I hear behind this fear is: To be successful in school, you have to go to school for years without interruption. Is that really the case?Homeschoolers have proven for decades that they can enter the school system at any point in time and be successful. We know that in theory, but there’s always the feeling that your child may be the exception. So let’s take this topic one piece at a time and put that fear to rest.You can download show notes for the podcast here: http://blog.bravewriter.com/category/podcasts/Resources:Want help getting started with Brave Writer? Head over to bravewriter.com/getting-startedSign up for the Brave Writer Newsletter to learn about all of the special offers we’re doing in 2020 + you’ll get a free 7-Day Writing Blitz guide just for signing up: http://go.bravewriter.com/writing-blitzConnect with Julie:Instagram: instagram.com/juliebravewriterTwitter: twitter.com/bravewriterFacebook: facebook.com/bravewriter--Brave Writer is produced by Crate Media

Did you ever think of learning as training your brain chemistry?The goal of skill-building in learning is automaticity, fluency, ease of use. It’s as useful to the child learning to ride a bike as it is the teen learning to think critically. Becoming automatic looks just like ease, skill, or fluency. Think of what it’s like driving: You can sing along to the radio and think about the upcoming election simultaneously, all while changing lanes on a highway at 75 miles per hour. Driving is so automatic that you have the bandwidth to focus on other things—but it wasn’t like that when you were first learning, where just the radio could be a distraction. How can we facilitate this growth of a mind, skill, fluency? How can we train our children’s brain chemistry for learning?The three primary tools that we want to teach children and then build upon as teenagers are the “3 R’s” of reading, writing, arithmetic. These are the tools that help children get at everything they will ever want to know, but we often unload them in the most uninteresting way possible—through a workbook. For novice homeschoolers, teaching from the book seems like the easiest and most approachable way to educate. But what if you looked at the workbooks as a reinforcing tool, not the main teaching tool, and you found ways to convey the power of that subject outside of the book first? Let them have the same excitement for the subject they had when discovering the world.You can download show notes for the podcast here: http://blog.bravewriter.com/category/podcasts/Resources:Want help getting started with Brave Writer? Head over to bravewriter.com/getting-startedSign up for the Brave Writer Newsletter to learn about all of the special offers we’re doing in 2020 + you’ll get a free 7-Day Writing Blitz guide just for signing up: http://go.bravewriter.com/writing-blitzConnect with Julie:Instagram: instagram.com/juliebravewriterTwitter: twitter.com/bravewriterFacebook: facebook.com/bravewriter--Brave Writer is produced by Crate Media

Are you one of those people that thinks you just aren’t inventive enough to imagine creative learning experiences?We tend to think of creativity as something in the arts or something that is crafted—maybe even cooking, woodworking, and gardening. There’s a belief that creativity is attached to the imagination, and when we hear that word we are immediately thrust into the world of storytelling. It’s hard to summon a different definition for creativity and imagination—but that’s just what we’re going to do. Along with the true definition of creativity and imagination, I will walk you through the five stages of creativity in teaching so that anyone who believes “I am not a creative person” will be able to conjure creative ideas.You can download show notes for the podcast here: http://blog.bravewriter.com/category/podcasts/Resources:Want help getting started with Brave Writer? Head over to bravewriter.com/getting-startedSign up for the Brave Writer Newsletter to learn about all of the special offers we’re doing in 2020 + you’ll get a free 7-Day Writing Blitz guide just for signing up: http://go.bravewriter.com/writing-blitzConnect with Julie:Instagram: instagram.com/juliebravewriterTwitter: twitter.com/bravewriterFacebook: facebook.com/bravewriter--Brave Writer is produced by Crate Media