An author interview of me was published on Book Goodies the same day the interview of my 12-year-old daughter was published on Frog on a Blog.
You can read about what inspires me to write, what my writing process is like, how I decided to publish my books, and some advice I recommend to new writers in the interview on Book Goodies here.
Do you have any other questions for me you wish I would have answered in the interview? If so, please ask me in the comments below.
I had the opportunity to interview my 12-year-old daughter on the process of illustrating her first published picture book, Aah! Blown Away, Crash! An Alphabet Misadventure.
Alyssa answered questions about how the book was started, what the process was like for her, what she enjoyed the most, what the hardest part was, and things she learned. You can read the entire interview on Frog on a Blog here.
Are there any other questions you have about how we published Aah! Blown Away, Crash! An Alphabet Misadventure? If so, please leave them in the comments below.
(This page may contain affiliate links, which means I may make a small commission at no extra charge to you if you click on a link and make a purchase. As an Amazon Associate and SchoolhouseTeachers.com Affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. I greatly appreciate all purchases you make using these links. Thank you!)
A couple of months ago I provided descriptions of writing courses for young writers that one of my daughters had taken on SchoolhouseTeachers.com in my daughter’s own words.
SchoolhouseTeachers.com offers over 450 self-paced courses for preschool through high school as well as many resources for homeschooling parents for one low price. The price includes all of the courses, resources, family members, and more! There is no additional fee for textbooks.
Both of my daughters have completed quite a few lessons found on SchoolhouseTeachers.com, and we are looking forward to planning our upcoming year of courses.
We’ll probably enjoy some of the resources over the summer, too! Summertime is a great time to explore the resources available on SchoolhouseTeachers.com without having to worry about a school schedule. Perfect for nonhomeschooling families, too!
Click here for more information about SchoolhouseTeachers.com.
Since one of my daughters provided a description of all of the courses she had taken on SchoolhouseTeachers.com, it only seemed fair to have my other daughter do the same. So, here is a list of all the SchoolhouseTeachers.com courses my other daughter took this past school year with descriptions in her own words.
You can probably tell by the courses she selected that she is interested in being an entrepreneur.
If you liked Public Speaking, you will probably love Advanced Public Speaking! The student reads a paragraph explaining what their assignment is and then writes a speech based on the assignment. For example, I had to do an introduction speech, an entertaining speech, a “speech evaluation” form, a PowerPoint presentation, and learn listening skills.
This was a great course to learn more about subjects I was interested while still practicing my speaking skills!
While ASL Adventures only counts for half a credit, it is a wonderful introduction to American Sign Language and the deaf culture. Each week has a 30-minuteish video along with supplementary materials. This course requires zero background in ASL, and each lesson is taught by Sandra Hefflin who has been involved in the deaf community for over 40 years. Along with learning over a hundred signs, the alphabet, and counting, Sandra also explains sentence structure and what is and isn’t acceptable in the deaf culture. In some videos, she shows clips of deaf people signing songs, having conversations, and introducing themselves.
If you would like to learn more ASL, are just a beginner, or have known ASL for a long time but want something to keep you practicing, ASL Adventures might be just the course for you!
Do you have a child that doesn’t know what they want to do with the rest of their life or what career they want to have? Career Exploration will probably help.
In the course students take quizzes, find what their talents/interest are, make a long list of possible careers they find appealing, and then pick a few to research in-depth.
If you do not know what career you want to have, try this course as it may guide you to the right path.
Split into twelve weeks, four days a week, the student reads the material (about a page) and then does an assignment for each day. The course discusses Old Testament worship, how Jesus changed worship, the early church and its leaders, manuscripts that didn’t make it into the Bible and why, persecution of the Church, and how the different denominations were formed. Church History also discusses modern theology, missionaries, and our current fight. To finish the course, students have to do a project of their choice based off of something discussed in the course.
Overall, it was a very interesting class. If you want a basic outline of church history, I would recommend taking this course!
This was a great full credit course for anyone (not just teens!) wanting to start their own internet-based business! Students create a vision, design a logo, brand their company, develop a slogan, discover the pros of being an internet-based entrepreneur, and so much more. They can choose a name, color, and font for their business and learn the basics of illustrations, photos, and graphic design. They can also market their business through video, podcasts, multimedia, a website, social media, and blogging by taking this course.
Dissecting Internet Entrepreneurship for Teens takes some time, but it may help you become the best internet entrepreneur you can be!
This was probably my favorite class in 9th grade as it was very quick and simple. Although Logic is supposed to last fifteen weeks, four days a week, it took me much less than that. The first week is an introduction to the course. From there, students study a new fallacy each week. Once introduced, the course shows how to spot the fallacy and quizzes the student to make sure they understand.
This class was not only easy and taught me a lot, but it was also super fun and a little humorous. Although there was a little bit of copywork, I would recommend this course to anyone!
This was another wonderful course through SchoolhouseTeachers.com! Even if a student doesn’t like public speaking, this course is a great way to learn how to research, write better, dissect speeches, and have fun along the way!
Some of my favorite assignments for Public Speaking included a sales pitch and an expository (instructional) speech.
This .25 credit course is a great way to help students learn how to start their own business. Written by Carol Topp, who also wrote Career Exploration, Starting a Micro Business (For Teens) might be perfect for the student who wants to have a business of their own but doesn’t know where to start. This course helps students discover their skills and needs in their community and shows how to make a business around them. Students make marketing and business plans and start a business. While this course shows the basics, I love looking through my notes as it helps me remember the purpose of my own micro businesses.
SchoolhouseTeachers.com offers courses for additional subjects such as math, science, and English, but my daughter did not do any of those this year. Instead, she used Geometry: A Teaching Textbook for math and BJU Writing & Grammar for English.
Together with my other daughter, we =completed Apologia: Exploring Creation with Physical Science textbook and Apologia: Exploring Creation with Physical Science notebook for science and Route 66: Travel Through the Bible workbook along with the teacher’s edition (on CD) for Bible.
We also read through multiple books in the Who Was book series. You can see all of the books we have read together from the series on my Pinterest board here. (The library is a great resource for the majority of these books!)
Which one of these courses seems the most interesting to you?
(This post contains affiliate links, which means I may make a small commission at no extra charge to you if you click on a link and make a purchase. Thank you!)
Last year, I had the opportunity to interview Brooke Van Sickle, founder of Journey to KidLit, for an article I wrote and had published on SCBWI Iowa’s website.
Brooke Van Sickle has accomplished a lot since that interview! She has continued to grow Journey to KidLit, founded a publishing company called BiblioKid Publishing, published a book called Pirates Stuck at “C”: An Alphabet Adventure (and has two more books scheduled to be released this year), and started a podcast. Wow!
If you are a children’s book author or aspiring children’s book author, I recommend checking out Brooke Van Sickle’s website Journey to KidLit. She offers a lot of information about writing and publishing children’s books.
Recently, Brooke Van Sickle took the time to interview me about my self-publishing journey for her Journey to KidLit podcast, which is now available as Episode 10: Publish Your Children’s Book on KDP with Author Brigitte Brulz.
In the interview, we talk about:
The episode is about 18 minutes long and is now available to listen to on Journey to KidLit here.
I was really nervous to do the interview, but I think it went well. Please let me know what you think about it!
I had written “maybe join Twitter” on my writing goals list for 2019. Well, over a year later, I have officially joined Twitter.
I spent more time than I would like to admit trying to think of what to say for my first tweet.
I guess we’ll see how this goes. You are welcome to follow me @BrigitteBrulz.
My 12-year-old daughter, who had illustrated Aah! Blown Away, Crash!: An Alphabet Misadventure, designed the banner for my Twitter profile. She chose to use the colors and font from my website along with the cover images of the books and journals I have published.
Please let me know in the comments below if you have any suggestions for using Twitter!
Brigitte Brulz 