342. Brave Learning and Academics
Brave Writer
Julie Bogart and Melissa Wiley
4.8 • 927 Ratings
🗓️ 3 June 2026
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What if academic standards didn’t have to threaten your homeschool rhythm?
In this episode, we explore how to translate grade-level expectations into the rich, lived learning already happening in your home. From Poetry Teatime to bird watching, baking, narration, read-alouds, and everyday conversations, we look at how whole experiences often contain the very skills listed in scope-and-sequence documents. Rather than turning homeschool into school-at-home, we can use standards as information, not intimidation.
Join us as we make peace with checklists, protect our children’s investment in learning, and celebrate the evidence already unfolding in daily life.
Resources:
- Catch the replays of our free Brave Writer training webinars
- Shop our June sale!
- Visit the Brave Learner website at thebravelearner.com
- Order your copy of The Brave Learner from the Brave Writer Book Shop
- Brave Writer class registration is open!
- Visit Julie’s Substack to find her special podcast for kids (and a lot more!)
- Purchase Julie’s new book, Help! My Kid Hates Writing
- Find community at the Brave Learner Home
- Learn more about the Brave Writer Literature & Mechanics programs
- Start a free trial of CTCmath.com to try the math program that’s sure to grab and keep your child’s attention
- Subscribe to Julie’s Substack newsletters, Brave Learning with Julie Bogart and Julie Off Topic, and Melissa’s Catalog of Enthusiasms
- Sign up for our Text Message Pod Ring to get podcast updates and more!
- Send us podcast topic ideas by texting us: +1 (833) 947-3684
- Interested in advertising with us? Reach out to media@bravewriter.com
Connect with Julie:
- Instagram: @juliebravewriter
- Threads: @juliebravewriter
- Bluesky: @bravewriter.com
- Facebook: facebook.com/bravewriter
Connect with Melissa:
- Website: melissawiley.com
- Substack: melissawiley.substack.com
- Instagram: @melissawileybooks
- Bluesky: @melissawiley.bsky.social
Produced by NOVA
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Looking for a great math program? |
| 0:03.0 | CTC Math provides online video tutorials that make learning math easy and effective |
| 0:10.0 | by using creative graphics and animation that are sure to grab and keep your child's attention. |
| 0:16.0 | There's a great testimonial from Lori. |
| 0:18.0 | She said one day, my 10-year-old was in tears over math. I tried |
| 0:23.9 | my best to help, but I ended up in tears as well. That very night, I received an email |
| 0:29.5 | offer for CTC Math. The following Monday, we reviewed the curriculum together. She was |
| 0:35.9 | willing to give it a shot, and we have never looked back. |
| 0:39.8 | Start your free trial today by visiting ctcmath.com. |
| 0:50.1 | Welcome back to the Brave Writer podcast where we offer professional development for parent |
| 0:56.8 | educators. Hello, Melissa. Hello, Julie. Hello, everybody. I'm very eager to discuss this |
| 1:02.8 | crazy topic today. I want to forewarn everybody that by the end you might feel a little tired of academic language, |
| 1:13.0 | but we are here to save the day and help you continue your natural lifestyle of learning in service of some of those more vague academic standards you keep hearing about. |
| 1:25.5 | Academic standards. |
| 1:26.9 | Julie, as a homeschooling mom, when did this notion of academic standards |
| 1:32.3 | at grade levels enter your experience? And how did that land on you? I love that you |
| 1:37.8 | ask that because my initial experience with homeschooling was very unit study-ish. |
| 1:43.6 | Like we would pick a character trait |
| 1:45.9 | like listening. And then all of our activities were like build an ear with a cookie sheet |
| 1:52.3 | and a stethoscope. Listen to Beethoven. Draw a picture of an ear canal. You know, we were like, and then we had these listening activities where we would create |
| 2:04.8 | tin can telephones and then we would try to mirror each other's speech. |
| 2:09.6 | So it was very like immersive. |
... |
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