Brave Writer
Brave Writer · Julie Bogart · Grades K-12
Charlotte Mason, eclectic, or unschooling-adjacent families wanting writing mentorship within existing read-aloud culture; verbally gifted creative children who resist rigid formats; secular homeschoolers wanting literature-based LA; kids with writing anxiety needing low-stakes...
$129-249/bundle
Overview
Brave Writer, founded by Julie Bogart, is the philosophical opposite of IEW: a lifestyle-of-learning approach to writing that emphasizes tea time, poetry, freewrites, and unforced practice over structured curriculum. The flagship program is 'The Writer's Jungle' (parent reading), and there are age-tiered programs (Jot It Down, Partnership Writing, etc.) and a Substack community. Loved by Charlotte Mason families and parents who want writing to feel like a relationship, not a worksheet. Critics say it's too unstructured; defenders say it's the only thing that worked for their reluctant writer.
Strengths
- •Builds genuine writing voice and love of writing. Most commonly cited outcome
- •literature guides pair high-quality books with writing invitations naturally
- •removes writing anxiety by decoupling mechanics from expression
- •Julie Bogart's philosophy resonates with CM/Waldorf parents
- •Arrow/Dart/Boomerang guides well-loved as standalone lit supplements
Limitations
- •Not a standalone writing curriculum. Needs IEW or Writing With Skill alongside for academic prep
- •progress is invisible (no tests, benchmarks, checklists)
- •Requires parent who embraces the lifestyle approach
- •online classes excellent but expensive ($199-249/month)
- •some children exploit low-structure to avoid writing altogether
Best fit for
Charlotte Mason, eclectic, or unschooling-adjacent families wanting writing mentorship within existing read-aloud culture; verbally gifted creative children who resist rigid formats; secular homeschoolers wanting literature-based LA; kids with writing anxiety needing low-stakes entry points
The honest read
Universally beloved in concept and inconsistently effective in execution. Parents who fully adopt the lifestyle (daily poetry tea time, freewriting, rich read-alouds) report powerful results for writing-anxious children. Parents who buy materials hoping for a curriculum-in-a-box are consistently disappointed: there is no spine, no sequence, no progress measurement.
Get Brave Writer
Charlotte Mason, eclectic, or unschooling-adjacent families wanting writing mentorship within existing read-aloud culture; verbally gifted creative children who resist rigid formats; secular homeschoolers wanting literature-based LA; kids with writing anxiety needing low-stakes...
SHOPRelated in Language Arts
Brave Writer
$129-249/bundle