(Formerly known as the Quiver of Arrows in an exciting new design!)
For brand new readers and writers!
Wanted: Personal Tutor
Available each month
Gives instructions in plain English
Teaches parents and kids together
Covers the early essentials in grammar, spelling, and punctuation
Playful and friendly
Meet: the Dart
Our hand-holding handbook is that personal tutor you crave!
Even if you’re rusty in grammar and punctuation rules...
Even if you’ve never done copywork and dictation practice before…
We’ve got you—and your wee ones—covered!
Each month, we’ll lead the way by:
- Picking a classic read aloud
- Selecting four gorgeous passages for copywork and dictation
- Giving simple, essential instructions for how to implement copywork and dictation
- Offering expert, easy-to-understand notes for grammar, spelling, and punctuation
- Asking big juicy questions for playful book conversations
- Planning book club parties so you don’t have to!
How it works
- Each Dart is a digital PDF file that includes four weeks of writing mechanics instruction
- New Darts are uploaded to a private folder on the first of each month
- Check your email (once your purchase is complete) for login instructions
- Download the Dart(s) and the Dart Guidelines at your convenience starting August 1, 2020
- Print or read on your device (you own them)
- No matter when you purchase, you’ll have access to all 10 Darts by May 2021
- See the tab at bottom of page for in-depth Program Details.
Special Offer: Free Coaching!
Until May 27, 2021, spend $198.00 in one shopping cart purchase of any Brave Writer products, receive FREE lifetime membership to the Brave Learner Home!
Receive coaching for how to implement the Dart this year and for your homeschool experience every year! Your membership will begin after purchase.
Dart 2020-2021 Read Aloud List
August: Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
September: The Prairie Thief (Melissa Wiley)
October: Finn Family Moomintroll (Tove Jansson)
November: The House at Pooh Corner (A.A. Milne)
December: The Mouse and the Motorcycle (Beverly Cleary)
January: Mr. Popper’s Penguins (Richard & Florence Atwater)
February: Sarah, Plain and Tall (Patricia MacLachlan)
March: The Trumpet of the Swan (E.B. White)
April: The Year of the Dog (Grace Lin)
May: Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective (Donald Sobol)
The Dart appears in our Beginning Writers Bundle and Growing Writers Bundle.
All purchases of digital products are FINAL. No refunds.
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Age: ages 8–10; kids who are reading readers, needing easier copywork passages.
Format: PDF files, downloadable to your computer or tablet. Permission to print is included.
See https://thehomeschoolprintingcompany.com/ for good prices and quality printing.
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Download the free sample.
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What is the Dart?
The Dart is a digital downloadable product that features copywork and dictation passages from a specific read aloud novel.
It is the indispensable tool for Brave Writer parents who want to teach language arts in a natural, literature-bathed context, using copywork and dictation. It is a language arts resource that equips you, the homeschooling parent, to fulfill your best intentions related to:
- Spelling
- Punctuation
- Grammar
- Literary devices
- Big juicy conversations
- Quality living literature
- Book Club Party Ideas
The practices of copywork and dictation teach your children the fundamentals of written communication. These practices naturally facilitate the development of accurate mechanics in the context of quality literature (the best words, in the best style, accurately edited).
The Skinny
- Each month, the Dart features one classic novel to be read aloud to your children.
- Each week, it features a selected passage from that novel. The passages are accompanied by notes that detail spelling, punctuation, grammar and literary style elements found in the passage. These notes are designed to make it easy to pre-teach the passage (no advanced preparation necessary). Three of the four weeks, we feature a specific grammar or punctuation concept taught with creative exercises.
- Each handbook also highlights a literary device of the month. These are devices like assonance, alliteration, dialogue, onomatopoeia, powerful verbs, rhyme, and more. Examples of the device are included in the issue and are taken from poetry, other novels, or the novel featured in the Dart.
- Each literary device is accompanied by a writing tip or exercise that gives your kids a chance to play with the device in their own writing. The goal is to help kids notice quality writing and why it is successful. Then they can practice using the device so that eventually, they will naturally incorporate it into their original writing.
- Each month party ideas for a book club are included that feature the themes of the selected novel.
How do I use it?
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Read the Guidelines (separate download, included with purchase) before you begin.
- Read the first week’s passage and the accompanying notes.
- Investigate (orally) the passage with your children, highlighting the grammar, spelling, punctuation, and literary devices.
- Give your children the opportunity to copy the passage or to write it from dictation (the Dart highlights a different practice each week to help you and your child learn).
- One of the weeks, explore the featured literary device and try the writing activity.
- By the end of the month, discuss some of the Big Juicy Questions and hold a book club party.
How the Dart fits into a Complete Writing Program
The Dart is one part of a three-part complete writing and language arts curriculum, meeting the need for instruction in writing mechanics and the reading and study of quality literature.
A three-part Brave Writer writing program for ages 8–10 includes:
- A tool for mechanics and literature: punctuation, grammar, spelling, literary style. (Dart)
- A tool that teaches the writing process for original writing (The Writer’s Jungle).
- A tool that supplies writing projects (assignments) that makes use of mechanics and original writing skills (Partnership Writing and Online Classes)
