Brave Writer

Welcome to the first episode of a new segment I’m calling “Julie Pep Talks,” where I narrow in on one particular topic and give you my thoughts about it and suggestions you can quickly put into practice. Today’s topic is all about setting boundaries, not setting rules. At the start of a new year, we’re often coming from the combined high of family gatherings, as well as the residual resentment tha...

This week, we connect with Grace Llewellyn, a staple of the unschooling community who shaped my own homeschooling approach.  She taught for three years before leaving the profession to write a classic in the unschooling world: The Teenage Liberation Handbook. The book was published in 1991, when she was only 26 years old, and has been thoroughly updated and re-released for it’s 30th anniversa...

This interview did not go the way I expected – in the most delightful way imaginable. We wound up discussing the power of travel in a teen’s life! Super fun. Blake Boles is the Founder and Director of Unschool Adventures, and he’s written several helpful books including his most recent title, “Why Are You Still Sending Your Kids to School?” He also hosts the Off-Trail Learning podcast and has deli...

The hardest part of being a homeschooling parent in this era is the pressure of being caught smack dab in the middle of idealism and the Mamasphere. Anne Helen Petersen writes the substack newsletter Culture Study, which I’ve followed for quite some time. She’s a cultural commentator and journalist, and is the author of four books, most recently Out of Office: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of...

Even, and especially, when a task is easy for us, teaching children a life skill is harder than it seems. As a parent, this can be extremely frustrating. The positives, though, are worth the trouble. Consider this, the sooner our kids know how to help around the house, the sooner they can help us around the house!  More importantly, and beyond our own benefit, ensuring they’ve got the most re...

Picture this, your child asked for, and happily ate an easy and nutritious dish the other day. Today, you prepare the same thing but they’re not interested. They refuse to even entertain the idea. No, you’re not going crazy. And, no, you haven’t found yourself in a rebooted episode of The Twilight Zone. There is a method to their madness, even if they’re not acutely aware of it. Today’s episode of...

It took decades of researching, writing, and editing to be standing on the precipice of my book launch. Raising Critical Thinkers is now officially available to pre-order! I am thrilled to unleash this project into the world and stimulate a conversation on how we read and discern information – a theme on top of everyone’s minds – and social media feeds.  Tune in as I share why Raising Critica...

When it comes to politics, keeping your facts straight can feel nearly impossible. It seems as if every outlet has some political bias, and misinformation can run rampant on social media and take hold of millions without question. That’s why critical thinking — especially in this realm — is incredibly important. Sharon McMahon of SharonSaysSo has so much to teach me — and all of us — about governm...

As we talk about critical thinking, the conversation tends to skew towards teenagers and high schoolers, but you’d be amazed at the powerful wheels turning in the minds of our little ones. We can prime the environment for them to be quality thinkers at as young as preschool or even toddlerhood. Susie Allison has a lot of insight into this age group. She runs the popular Instagram account, Busy Tod...

Today’s guest is someone of which I’m a huge fan, who lives as a role model for my future, who has hundreds of thousands of followers, and who has even been featured in commercials for GoDaddy. She’s Lyn Slater, the Accidental Icon. She has multiple degrees and lives in New York where she taught social work at Fordham University for 20 years. She’s a fashion icon, but what really sets her apart is...

Is university a rite of passage or merely a means to success? Or is there even more to it? Could college grow our young adult’s minds and hearts in addition to their thinking and practical skills? Dr. Adam Clark is a professor and theologian at Xavier University. He’s committed to the idea that 21st century theological education must equip and inspire students to live according to the St. Ignatius...

The Enneagram can be a useful tool for understanding the different ways in which people perceive the world, but how can it apply to critical thinking? Leslie Hershberger has a unique blend of wisdom, practical training, and insight. She has worked with the three-centered Enneagram approach for over 20 years as a consultant, master teacher, coach, spiritual guide, facilitator, and mentor. She’s cer...

Homeschooling should be an option for everyone. That doesn’t sound like a controversial statement, and yet many of us struggle to make our homeschool right for us and our family. Maren Goerss and Angela Sizer are the dynamic duo behind Homeschool Unrefined, an inclusive and non-sectarian podcast and community all about keeping homeschool simple, real, and fun. These friends of more than 20 years c...

Raising five kids during the internet era, everyone is dying to know what my thoughts on video games are! How many hours, how many minutes, how many days? Are they too violent? Is it okay if they love Minecraft? Will they lose all motivation to work? Let’s discuss all this and more! Ash Brandin (they/them) is a middle school teacher from Golden, Colorado. After researching the use of video games i...

The podcast has been dark for a few months… and for a good reason! Julie just wrapped up writing her newest book (out February 2022). Now that it’s in the hands of publishers, she’s ready to get back to the business of podcasting. The theme for this season comes from the topic of the book: Critical thinking. Let’s peel back the layers and get a closer look at what it means to be a critical thinker...

Join Julie today as she talks with best-selling author and award-winning playwright Ken Ludwig. Together, they explore their shared enthusiasm for Shakespeare and how to bring the Bard to life for our children. Learn about memorizing soliloquies, examining Shakespeare’s language, and the details of how Shakespeare’s plays have been preserved for us to enjoy (it’s a great story!). You can download...

It’s a little thing: that one comment, the nudge in the acceptable direction, the calm and carefully-worded reminder. You had the right tone of voice, the best intentions, the least egregious expectation. And then your child flies off the handle anyway. The resistance, the tongue-lashing, the pushing past whatever small boundary you set—putting on shoes to go to Target, taking the bowl to the sink...

When you signed up for the task of homeschooling, you surely imagined what the ideal homeschooling life would look like. This is the life you are fighting for. In homeschool, the vision for natural learning is a powerful draw. It’s also worthy of fighting for that vision. But because it is not natural to many of us and we have this controlling memory of traditional school interfering with our new,...

The number one question I get is not how to prepare kids for college, or what you need to start homeschooling, or even about homeschooling at all — it’s about chores. Should kids be assigned chores, should they be rewarded, and how do we enforce them? While we’ve got our little ones home all day, we’ve got to keep our house running and sanitary. We’re not necessarily looking for a perfectly presen...

How do parents ensure that homeschooling is challenging and rigorous enough for their kids to become smart, successful adults? Many parents are under the impression that rigor is the best version of learning. Education that is rigorous means students are learning more, so many see rigor as a measuring tool for how serious the institution is for learning. But is that really the case? Let’s deconstr...

I heard from a mom who wanted to know how to shed the fear that her children won’t be ready to enter the school system one day. She wanted to be able to put her kids in school at any given moment—next semester, next year, maybe high school, definitely college. So, let’s talk about the difference between being educated and schooled, being a learner and being a student. Are you worried that you may...

Did you ever think of learning as training your brain chemistry? The goal of skill-building in learning is automaticity, fluency, ease of use. It’s as useful to the child learning to ride a bike as it is the teen learning to think critically. Becoming automatic looks just like ease, skill, or fluency. Think of what it’s like driving: You can sing along to the radio and think about the upcoming ele...

Are you one of those people that thinks you just aren’t inventive enough to imagine creative learning experiences? We tend to think of creativity as something in the arts or something that is crafted—maybe even cooking, woodworking, and gardening. There’s a belief that creativity is attached to the imagination, and when we hear that word we are immediately thrust into the world of storytelling. It...

This episode addresses a specific question: What do I do about children who refuse to learn—children who balk, who throw fits, and who are consistently in a bad mood about their educations? How do we address this? What we need to do is step back from insistence and coercion and rediscover the joy of learning—whether that comes through interest or directed school subjects. I will offer you a strate...

Ideally, homeschooling as a common interest should be enough to unite us and drive us forward to forge friendships with a variety of people and learn from a variety of cultures. It should, but for many, that’s not how it is. How do you create a healthy, diverse homeschool culture for your local group? What kinds of guidelines, policies, and practices help bridge difference within a homeschool grou...