Brave Writer

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• The Brave Writer Program

The Arrow

The Arrow is an indispensable tool for many Brave Writer parents. It is a language arts resource that equips you, the homeschooling parent, to fulfill your best intentions related to spelling, punctuation, grammar, literary elements and quality living literature. The Arrow features the practice of dictation and/or copywork as the primary method to teach your children the fundamentals of written communication. Dictation and copywork are practices that naturally facilitate the development of accurate mechanics in writing with the side benefit of savoring quality writing as revealed in those passages.

Each month, the Arrow features one classic novel. Four passages (one per week) are selected and included in full, from the novel. We offer a current, monthly version of the Arrow or Already Published Issues which can be purchased individually.

First, you and your child will read the passage outloud to hear the musicality of the language, to notice the correct use of apostrophes or semi-colons, to note new vocabulary and tricky spellings, to pay attention to the grammatical structure or the special dialog punctuation. The Arrow supplies you with notes to help you notice what you might overlook in the passage. I help you identify why the writing works and is enjoyable to read, as well as highlighting excellent uses of punctuation or alliteration or description.

After you’ve enjoyed the passage together, your child will either copy it into a copy book attempting to reproduce it exactly, paying close attention to all of the spelling and mechanical demands of the passage (copywork), or you will read the passage to your child and he or she will write it out onto a sheet of paper while listening to you, attempting to remember how to punctuate and spell the passage correctly. Copywork/dictation done about once a week over several years does more to increase your child’s ability to punctuate and spell correctly than almost any other practice I’ve ever run across. The French swear by it and use dictation from Kindergarten all the way through lycee (high school). I had to take dictation in college when I attended a French university!

Consistent dictation practice allows you, the home educator, to use quality literature to cover the aspects of writing that you care most about without the tedium of workbook sentences isolated from the context of real writing.

In the Arrow, with dictation passages already selected, explanations for why the passages were chosen as well as teaching tips for grammar, spelling and punctuation, parents like you have discovered that they can cover the mechanics of writing through literature.

In addition to the dictation passages, the Arrow includes a monthly literary element to learn and discover with your child. One month we might look at onomatopeia and another, alliteration or rhyme. Each literary element is presented in understandable language with examples taken from literature and poetry so that you are able to teach the elements in context to your kids.

Lastly, each issue also features a writing exercise, game or prompt so that you don’t have to think of them yourself. These often relate to the literary element and sometimes to the season of the year.

The Arrow is a full-service language arts guide that takes the burden off of you, the homeschooling parent.

How it Works

The Arrow is a language arts subscription program that provides support for development in spelling, punctuation and grammar for children ages 8-12.

Using the practices of copywork and dictation, each monthly issue of the Arrow includes:

• Four dictation passages selected from one novel each month. These passages will highlight not only grammar and punctuation, but also beautiful, cogent writing. I’ll explain why I selected them and what you can share with your kids when you use them, one per week.

• One literary element of the month. I’ll define and explain what the literary element such as rhyme, alliteration, metaphor, characterization, opening hooks, dialog and so on, is and then give you four examples from literature (various sources) that can be used as copywork during the month.

• One writing tip, game or exercise to try with your kids.

The Arrow is a digital product only. We post each month’s issue in a private folder for subscribers. When you sign up, you are granted access to the private folder where the Arrow is housed. You may then open the folder, read the current issue and print it. You have a month to access and retrieve your issue of the Arrow. It does not exist in hard copy format.

A word about grammar: Brave Writer has a specific philosophy about grammar. A grasp of proper grammar is mostly developed through reading and speaking. To cover grammar as a subject in its own right, we recommend that you include a grammar program three times in your child’s academic life: one year in elementary school, one year in junior high and one year in high school (though foreign language can substitute for grammar at this point).

The Arrow (and Boomerang) are designed to support the intuitive development of proper usage and syntax, as well as adeptness with grammatical vocabulary. It is not a substitute for a systematic study of grammar as a subject by itself.

The dictation passages are appropriate for writers between the ages of 8-12. The Arrow includes instructions about how to execute copywork and dictation practice, as well as how to modify dictation based on the age and stage of your student. Download a sample Arrow by clicking on the “Download a sample PDF” button in the upper righthand portion of this page.

2009 - 2010 Arrow Book List

(This new list becomes available for whole-year purchase in July and monthly subscription at the end of July. All Writer’s Jungle Platinum orders in July will be subscribed to this new list.)

• August: Thimble Summer (Spunky independent female protagonist in the 1930s.) Elizabeth Enright

• September: Soup (Wonderful male protagonist in endlessly silly predicaments; first in a series.) Robert Newton Peck

• October: The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn (Sherlock Holmes-style mystery set in 18th-century Japan.) Dorothy Hoobler

• November: Pippi Longstocking (Infamous redhead from Sweden.) Astrid Lindgren

• December: Moccasin Trail (A pioneer boy, brought up by Crow Indians, is reunited with his family.) Eloise Jarvis McGraw

• January: By the Great Horn Spoon (Two tales of trickery and exaggeration by the Newbery Medalist feature adventures in the Old West and during the California Gold Rush.) Sid Fleischman

• February: A Tugging String (A novel about growing up during the Civil Rights era.) David Greenberg

• March: Harriet the Spy (Female protagonist longs to be a writer and spends her days as a spy.) Louise Fitzhugh

• April: How Tia Lola Came to Stay (story of a nine-year-old boy and his younger sister attempting to adjust after their move from New York City to Vermont in the wake of their parents’ divorce) Julia Alvarez

• May: Detectives in Togas (A history-mystery set in ancient Rome.) Henry Winterfeld

2008 - 2009 Arrow Book List

(This list is still available all at once if ordered during June. All Writer’s Jungle Platinum orders will be supplied with this list during June.)

• August: Ida B (account of a homeschooler faced with going to school) Katherine Hannigan

• September: Henry Huggins (famous adventures with equally famous dog, Ribsy) Beverly Cleary

• October: Nim’s Island (a modern day Robinson Crusoe) Wendy Orr

• November: On The Banks of Plum Creek (continuing the adventure of the Little House series) Laura Ingalls Wilder

• December: Stuart Little (the mouse who becomes a member of the family) E. B. White

• January: The Borrowers (the little people who use the left-over stuff in our houses) Mary Norton

• February: Bud, not Buddy (a boy searches for his father in 1936) Christpoher Paul Curtis

• March: Hoot (a middle school eco-warrior in Florida offers a memorable, comic adventure) Carl Hiaasen

• April: Mary Poppins (the real story of the magical nanny) P. L. Travers (Odyssey edition)

• May: Because of Winn-Dixie (a dog who teaches her owner a few things about life) Kate DiCamillo

Each issue of the Arrow is $9.95.

If you’d like to purchase the whole year at once, you can do so by paying with a check or a one-time Paypal payment. Get all ten months for only $79.00 (that’s a savings of more than $20.00)! The discounted, year long price is a non-refundable subscription. If you aren’t sure whether or not the Arrow is for you, sign up for the monthly subscription at the end of July so that you can cancel if you choose to.

The Brave Writer Program