The Chapters Of Our Lives: Everything You Need To know
We are so pleased to share the Chapters of Our Lives family memoir project with all of you. This project was developed by Dr. Debbie Pushor in collaboration with celebrated author, Sigmund Brouwer. The digital offering provides parents with the opportunity to engage in teaching and learning experiences with their children. Further, the course works to preserve the very special relationship you have together.
The course is fun, engaging, and so very special for you and your family. As you work together on your family memoirs, your child will produce meaningful stories about your family while reaching Language Arts learning outcomes along the way. Here’s a bit more about the experience and what you can expect:
What is it?
The Chapters of Our Lives is a digital project in the form of videos and guide books, all hosted on an easy-to-use platform. The course is comprised of 13 videos with accompanying guide books that families can download and work in or work online if they prefer.
The guide books will break down the process and put forth your activities, information, tasks, and reflection notes for the chapter. You can follow along in the guide books, work by hand on paper, or compile your stories via a word document. Throughout the process, the child will select family members to interview, with or without the parent’s help, and document the interviews however they choose (e.g. audio recording, video recording, notes). This is a valuable experience as they can pull out the special memories and anecdotes that they feel are the most important to their narrative. They will also be invited to collect artifacts (e.g. photos, letters, mementos) to accompany their written family memoirs.
Along with the course materials, families are also encouraged to join our private Facebook group. This is a community space for discussing and sharing ideas, sharing samples of your work, asking each other questions, and interacting with Debbie and Sigmund directly.
At the end of the writing process, you have the opportunity to publish your work into a physical book.
Who is the course for?
The course is suitable for families with children who are early readers and writers all the way through to and including families with teens. In families with children of multiple ages, everyone can participate, just in differentiated ways, perhaps with older siblings supporting younger ones. With very young children, parents will play a more supportive and hands-on role.
With teens, the process provides an applicable interviewing and writing structure although we expect that interviews of family members will be more complex and lengthy and that the resulting written family memoirs will be as well.
How does it work?
Once you’ve signed up for the course, you will gain access to the 13 videos and accompanying guide books in bundles. The first few bundles will come with four chapters at a time, the following will unfold a little more rapidly. You can complete the steps of the process at whatever pace is right for you.
When you sign up, you will receive the first 4 videos, which include an introduction and 3 chapters. In addition to the chapter guidebooks, you will also receive an Orientation Booklet to introduce Debbie and Sigmund, the parent engagement and literacy benefits of the course, and definitions of key terms that are used.
There is also a Publication booklet that clearly defines the three publishing options and provides links to two landing pages for the options that can be done with/through us.
Families will be guided through the entire process, from choosing who will be interviewed to putting together your stories with a beautiful introduction and author bios.
The process might take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, depending on how fast you’d like to complete the chapters.
What are the benefits?
Parent Engagement Benefits
This course has been mindfully crafted with both parent engagement and literacy outcomes in mind.
Parents are given the opportunity to collaborate with their kids in an authentic, meaningful, and educational way.
Parents and family members are able to share the knowledge and experiences unique to them.
Children learn the power of intergenerational storytelling and information sharing.
Everyone is enabled to feel heard, valued, and engaged in a profoundly transformative education process.
Parents develop a sense of their place and voice within their child’s education and just how much they have to offer.
Children unlock the educational potential within their households, coming to understand their parents and family members as key knowledge holders.
This collaborative project softly positions parents in a way that supports and uplifts their child’s educational endeavours.
Parents are invited to step into a facet of their child’s lives which they may have felt alienated from in the past.
English Language Arts outcomes focus on reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing, and representing. All of these strands are developed in The Chapters of Our Lives Family Memoir Project.
Literacy Benefits
The family memoir project is motivational for children, especially reluctant writers.
Children learn and grow with the support of a family memoir writing team.
Children learn how to frame and ask interview questions effectively.
Children gain and refine skills in structuring narratives and in expository writing.
Children learn the importance of, and gain proficiency with, editing skills.
Children develop a sense of the writing process, seeing it as a set of small, manageable steps.
Children gain confidence in not only their writing skills but also their storytelling talents.
Children learn to write for their unique audience.
Children get the opportunity to view themselves as writers.
Families get to produce family memoirs and publish their writing within the family and/or beyond.
What’s the final product?
When your project is finished, you will have a custom family memoir in whatever format you’ve decided to compile your work. At this point, you will be given the opportunity to publish your work in a physical book if you would like. We offer two options, one is a free option in which we provide you with all the guidance and tools you need to go about the publishing process yourself.
The second option is a paid add-on in which you submit your information and files and select a design you’d like us to compile your work into for you. After we send you your design, we will explain the simple process of uploading your designed book to Amazon KDP and ordering your books!
The entire process is simple, intuitive, and extremely engaging.