**PLEASE NOTE: I am currently on hiatus from teaching!**

I'm Crystal Bowden - a Brave Writer trained Writing Coach, Owner of Kids Write with Crystal and the Editor of The Clothed Mole Rat Magazine.

An active mentor within the homeschooling community, I've taught children over the past 9 years in creative writing, poetry, and literature.

My Approach

I enjoy nothing more earnestly than working with kids to provide an educational experience that won't bore them to tears! I love working with young writers to nurture their ability to tap into their writing voice and find the words they have inside them.   

"To live a creative life, we must first lose our fear of being wrong." - Joseph Clinton Pierce

I approach coaching children in writing with this thought in mind. As parents and educators, we tend to treat writing as an academic subject to be tackled, but it's foremost an art form and one of the most important ways we express ourselves creatively.

The goal of good writing is to capture the writer's vivid perspectives, which is all about communication. As writers grow, they will be able to influence their readers to think, feel, and see what they've written. I'm a firm believer that the mechanics of writing should be developed separately from a child's original writing. Kids can't find their voice if we bog them down with rules and create fear. They need permission to make mistakes! 

My primary goal is to aid in the development of a happy and confident writer. I approach this goal by offering support, enthusiasm, ideas, and affirmation to growing writers. Writing can feel hard for kids, but it doesn't have to be that way! I explore writing by going OUTSIDE the lines and encourage children to consider what constitutes writing in new and fun ways. I take a cross-curricular approach in my classes, regularly combining writing with art, music, history, literature, poetry, and analysis.

Keep an eye on Upcoming Classes or sign up for our newsletter to receive updates and see what's coming!

More About Me

I live outside of Atlanta with my husband and two children. An established cat lady, I can be found most days, enjoying kitty snuggles and dreaming of hiking the Appalachian Trail - all 2,190 miles of it. Things that bring me joy - yoga, fluffy blankets, reading, Christmas lights, hiding away in the woods, hot drinks, writing poetry, and creating mixed media collage art.

My poetry and artworks have been featured in Dreamers Creative Writing Magazine, Refresh Magazine, Unlost Journal, The Raven Review, and others. I currently work on the Creative Team at Humankind Zine.