A book review of The Brave Learner: Finding Everyday Magic in Homeschool, Learning and Life by Julie Bogart
Stars: *****
Tarcher Perigee (2019)
Education>Homeschooling
320 pages
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
Summary: Parents who are deeply invested in their children’s education can be hard on themselves and their kids. When exhausted parents are living the day-to-day grind, it can seem impossible to muster enough energy to make learning fun or interesting. How do parents nurture a love of learning amid childhood chaos, parental self-doubt, the flu, and state academic standards?
In this book, Julie Bogart distills decades of experience–homeschooling her five now grown children, developing curricula, and training homeschooling families around the world–to show parents how to make education an exciting, even enchanting, experience for their kids, whether they’re in elementary or high school.
Enchantment is about ease, not striving. Bogart shows parents how to make room for surprise, mystery, risk, and adventure in their family’s routine, so they can create an environment that naturally moves learning forward. If a child wants to pick up a new hobby or explore a subject area that the parent knows little about, it’s easy to simply say “no” to end the discussion and the parental discomfort, while dousing their child’s curious spark. Bogart gently invites parents to model brave learning for their kids so they, too, can approach life with curiosity, joy, and the courage to take learning risks.
The Brave Learner
I got this book from my library and I LOVED it. It’s by Julie Bogart, the BraveWriter creator. I don’t use her curriculum but you don’t have to to get something out of her book.
She shows us how to make homeschooling fun and interesting while still making sure they are learning. The first section is about how learning happens and how we can encourage it. Part two is titled “Casting the Spell” and is about using your superpowers to engage with your children. Part three is about “sustaining the magic” once you’ve inspired it. Part four is about what breaks the magic and how you can get it back.
I loved every bit of this book and I might even read it again. That’s saying something because I rarely reread books. I’ve also been watching her videos on YouTube. Just search BraveWriter on YouTube.
If you are homeschooling and find it’s too boring or your kids are really fighting you on it, maybe you need to read this book.
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