Brave Writer Arrow & Girls Only Book Club

In our little mini co-op we are using Julie Bogart's Brave Writer curriculum for our language arts this school year. Megan used it last year. She was so excited when explaining the curriculum and how it worked, it seemed like an easy choice. We are using the Arrow which is for 3rd-6th grade. The Arrow is ten books that are used one per month over the the course of the school year. The above book, Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai, was the Arrow's September's selection.  

Each month, in our monthly subscription comes four selected passages are used for each week. The selected passage from the book that are used for weekly copy work and dictation as well as monthly literary element that is usually a fun writing exercise. You can purchase it month by month. I purchased the entire year in August as soon as it came out. It's still all very new to me. Two months into this the girls are enjoying it. The one thing that we all do is read the book on our own and have the five girls discuss the book together. The first book club discussion was awkward but we have faith as the school year continues that it will become easier and easier.  

It was Olivia's turn to host book club. We had dim sum soup and glutinous rice cakes. We went to a Asian Food Market and the lady helping us suggested the correct noodles to use, Vietnamese tea and the type of incense Vietnamese would most likely use as she was Vietnamese herself.  Olivia was so excited as we put together our dinner. She even found some Vietnamese music to play when our friends arrived. We are loving our little all girls book club. We are looking forward to next month's selection, Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm. 

Our Very First Poetry Tea Time

 We are using Brave Writer by Julie Bogart for our language arts this school year. One of her suggestions is having tea once a week where we read aloud poetry to each other. Instead of just poetry we are going to also include song lyrics as Vivian is all about Cher lyrics these days.  That is what I love about homeschooling, the flexibility of tweaking things to fit our interests.

The girls got a bunch of fabulous books from their older cousin that they are enjoying reading aloud. We even incorporated Vivian's speech "home work" in reading aloud and working on pronunciation but along with Earl Grey tea and cucumber sandwiches.

Vivian put together our table centerpiece. A globe puzzle that Uncle Eddie gaveVivian, her scarf and some candles. I pulled out my china that I got when we visited England a few years ago. It is nice to actually use it instead of just look at it.

After our first tea time Vivian suggested that we have tea everyday. It was nice. I ordered a deluxe sample pack of tea from Stash Tea. I think this is going to be a fun way to spend our Tuesday mornings. Our first Poetry Tea Time was a hit!