07-21-2026

Hey friends 🩵

This week I attended a conference in Boston where one of the speakers shared some heartbreaking statistics about childhood literacy.

• Long-form reading is declining.
• Screens are consuming more of children's attention.
• Educators are seeing reading scores fall.
• IQ's are declining

And every bit of that matters.

As I sat there listening, I realized everyone in the room was asking the same question:

How do we get children to read more?

Now, this is an important question.But I couldn't stop thinking about a different one.

What are we programming them with when they do?

Because I believe WHAT we read to our children is every bit as important as HOW MUCH we read to them.

Stories don't just teach children how to read.They teach them how to see the world. Because the truth is that children are always reading something.

• Sometimes they're reading books.
• Sometimes they're reading our faces.
• Sometimes they're reading the tone of our voice.
• Sometimes they're reading how we respond to stress.
• Sometimes they're reading the silence between our words.
• Sometimes they're reading what we believe about ourselves.

Long before children understand neuroscience or psychology, they're becoming experts at reading the emotional world around them.

• They learn what love feels like.
• What conflict feels like.
• Whether emotions are welcome.
• Whether mistakes are safe.
• Whether they need to earn approval.
• Whether their voice matters.
• Whether the world feels predictable... or unpredictable.

They're not just learning facts.They're learning patterns. And that's why I am so passionate about the first eight years of life.

During those early years, the subconscious mind is incredibly receptive. Children aren't just collecting information—they're building the subconscious blueprint through which they'll one day experience relationships, confidence, money, success, failure, and even their sense of self.

Of course I want children to read.

In a world of shrinking attention spans and endless scrolling, long-form reading has never been more important.

I write children's books because I believe stories matter. Not just because reading builds literacy, but because stories help shape identity, beliefs, emotional expectations, and the subconscious patterns children carry into adulthood.

And I also believe the emotional environment surrounding those stories matters just as much.

Because children don't become who we tell them to be.

They become what they repeatedly experience.

Every repeated experience becomes part of the subconscious blueprint through which they experience the world.

That's why I spend so much time talking about nervous systems, subconscious programming, emotional safety, and reparenting ourselves.

Not because we're trying to become perfect parents, but because awareness gives us something previous generations often didn't have:

The opportunity to interrupt patterns before we unintentionally pass them on.

Maybe that's the questions worth sitting with are not simply...

• How much are my children reading?
• How much am I reading got my children?

But...

• What are they reading?
• What repeated patterns are they learning from me every day that no book could ever teach?

If this newsletter resonated with you and you're looking for a story that helps children practice emotional awareness, resilience, and calming their minds, I'd love for you to check out my children's book, Courage Finds His Calm.

It was written with this very conversation in mind—to give children an opportunity to rehearse emotional regulation, one story at a time.

📖 Get your copy HERE​

With strength and alignment,

📩 Email:[email protected]

🎙️ Podcast: (re)Parenting Radio​

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