A Gracious Space: Winter: Daily reflections to sustain your homeschooling commitment

by Julie Bogart

A Gracious Space: Winter Edition is designed to offer support, encouragement, and guidance to home educators who take on the daunting challenge to educate their children themselves. Daily readings are provided to give you support and encouragement in your homeschool adventure. These 50 essays are designed to offer you new ways to think about homeschooling, comfort for when you run up against your limitations, and energy for tackling your highest aspirations! Each day's reading includes a quote from a parent or notable individual, as well as a sustaining thought to take with you through the day. These essays originally appeared on the Brave Writer Facebook page and blog, shared hundreds of times. Julie Bogart, creator of Brave Writer, shares insight gleaned from working with thousands of families over 15 years and her own homeschooling experiences (five kids, 17 years).

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Parenting

200 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2015

About the author

Julie Bogart is the popular voice of common sense and compassion for home educators. Her online coaching community, The Homeschool Alliance, her podcast A Brave Writer's Life in Brief, and her YouTube channel are lifelines for tens of thousands of weary homeschoolers all over the world.

Julie’s the creator of the award-winning, innovative online writing program called Brave Writer and the fast-growing weekly habit called Poetry Teatime. She home educated her five children who are now globe-trotting adults.

Her newest book, The Brave Learner tackles the conundrum of parents who want their children to have academic success, and children who want to be happy.

Can’t we get these two desires together: learning that develops skill and creates joy? Creating a love of learning in your family is as easy as lighting a fire. You just need a book of matches. The Brave Learner is that book.

Today, Julie lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, and can be found sipping a cup of tea, planning her next visit to one of her lifelong-learning kids.

Reviews

[Bridget · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love, love, love this book! Julie is such an encouragement to parents and homeschoolers! It's a way of looking at education based upon each individual child....a tailor made education that is "human being time, not school time." She shares personal stories, ideas, and ways to enjoy your homeschooling journey without making you feel like there's only one right way. I like the format of the book also, being "devotion" style with short, daily readings.

[Shelby Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very slow 1-2 pages a day read for me. When I did pick it up, it had some great nuggets of encouragement. It is geared toward Mamas of slightly older children I feel like, but it gave small reminders to give yourself grace and try something a little different from time to time. Looking forward to picking up the next season in this series!

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a lovely, positive, inspiring collection of thoughts, ideas and suggesting. And, of course, encouragement.

My 500th book

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is like sitting down with a good friend. Great encouragement and practical ideas for a healthy home educating mindset. Although Christian principles are scattered here and there, it does not specifically state any Scripture references, specifically support or denounce any religion, and is geared to the general public as a whole. As a Christian, I would of course appreciated that perspective to shine through more on some topics anyhow, but I still found this book valuable and would recommend it. I like the simplicity of her writing, the variety of topics, and the chapter rhythm of Reflection, Quote of the day, and Sustaining Thought. Each chapter is very brief, which makes it easy to work into even the busiest of days.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This entire series is like a daily warm hug and my favorite way to start off the homeschool day. Each morning before school, I make a cup of tea and read the days entry. I have been doing this routine for YEARS and Julie has a way of building me up, keeping me centered and ready to start the day. I highly recommend the A Gracious Space series for all homeschooling parents.

[Alicia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like a daily dose of inspiration. This is a must read for every homeschool mom.

[Sarah Carter · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some great ideas here for keeping things fresh and fun for everyone, as well as some good reminders to encourage curiosity and foster love in our homes above adhering to a pet curriculum. I appreciate the fact that Bogart has been homeschooling far longer than I have and respect the long view she is able to take on retaining joy and wonder in home education.

That said, it did feel repetitive in many places and I thought it was odd that the author’s “quote of the day section” was almost always a comment from one of her readers that praised the author versus offering further insight to the topic at hand, (examples: “Awesome advice!!” “Stop spying on me. Lol. Wow, so timely!”). There wasn’t anything wrong with the comments themselves (as comments on a social media post), it just felt like a missed opportunity for adding in a salient excerpt from a poem, song, work of literature, etc. that would have made each chapter more meaningful. This could be easily implemented in a future edition.

[Sarah Forster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though I don't have school-aged kids yet, these are super encouraging words of wisdom for each day to any parent. Some of them are geared specifically towards teaching kids how to write (which is her thing), but honestly I get so much fresh perspective even from those that these are ones I will read and re-read. Meaty, mom encouragement for the day. I look forward to reading the other seasons.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I enjoyed the autumn edition of this book, I thought this one was sadly lacking, and I won’t be purchasing the spring edition now. I felt it heavily advertised the author’s writing program, and the quote of the day section often left me feeling annoyed and like the author was trying to promote self...there’s literally a quote of the day that says, “You see why I love this woman?” 🙄 I thought the quotes would be more homeschool related. 😂

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The invisible curriculum of a home education is the gift of self-awareness.”

“Your child is a thriving jungle of competing impulses and talents- each one seeking sunlight, looking to bloom or grow and expand. A vibrant education comes from that rich inner life- or at least, it can come from that rich inner life if that thinking, dreaming, imagining, contemplating person is nourished in a such a way that promotes growth. After all, we don’t home educate to reproduce the cookie cutter outcomes of school. We chose this path because it gave us the chance to do this brave thing: fashioning an education to an individual- a fascinating, interesting, quirky, wonderful, bright child- your child.”

[Agnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Julie is the homeschool fairy godmother we all deserve. I just love reading a little bit of her wisdom to start my day. It feels like having a supportive friend who believes in you and knows what you’re going through. I truly appreciate that religion isn’t a factor here, you can have one or not and that’s so not the point - this book is for all of us.

[Kristin Gerela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this book! I soaked up every piece of wisdom Julie Bogart dished out in this book. Our winter homeschooling has been amazing thanks to this book!

[Eileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent, encouraging.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wisdom-filled encouragement on every page! I’m a big fan of Julie Bogart, and I’m sure I’ll be reaching for this one again.

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some suggestions are good and fun, others not so practical in practice, but I appreciate the attepmt.

[Charity · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspiration to keep going when the homeschool year is just dragging by. I read one each morning to help keep me focused and motivated. Her style won't agree with everyone but it helped me to remember to give myself, and ultimately my kids, more grace, more love, and less stress each day.