Episode 16 Books We’re Loving Lately

Court and Jess are chatting about all the books in their homes right now—what we’re reading ourselves, what we’re reading with our kids, and what our kids can’t put down. Come along for a fun conversation and maybe find your next favorite book!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:02

Welcome to Homeschooling and Life Unfiltered with Court and Jess, where real talk meets real life. Court and Jess are two friends, fellow moms, and business partners who live in different time zones and juggle homeschooling alongside motherhood and entrepreneurship. Jess is a mom of eight and Court is a mom of seven, and together they're raising 15 kids and navigating the wild, wonderful world of homeschooling, each in completely different ways. Every week we invite you to pull up a chair for honest conversations, practical tips, and uplifting encouragement. You'll hear from moms across the country who are homeschooling in a way that works best for their families. Whether you're a veteran homeschool mom just getting started or somewhere in between, this is your space to feel seen, supported, and inspired. Because no matter how different our past may look, we are all in this together. Welcome to homeschooling and life unfiltered with Court and Jess. Today we are talking books. Guess who chose the topic?

unknown 0:57

Courtney.

SPEAKER_03 0:59

We are going to talk about what we're reading, what we're reading with our kiddos, what our kiddos are reading, just what do we have going on so far this year that we have loved or maybe hated because that happens sometimes, right? All right, do you want to start?

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Yeah, I certainly can. So should we I think we should go kind of back and forth? Let's talk about like what we're reading first and then go back and forth. But um, so what am I reading first? And I know I've already shared this book, but I want to share it again. So the big thing, the bane of my existence right now, you guys, is feeding my one-year-old. And I am so in my head about it. And so it's like um, there's just so much like we're the age of information, and there's so much information out there, and it's hard to know what's right, you know. Do you feed them local or you know, what's more important, local or organic? And do you wait for the molars to feed starches? I mean, there's just like it's just so much out there telling you do this or don't do that. And um, so it's a little bit consuming for me right now. What do I feed my one-year-old or 14-month-old? And so um I really have liked these books. I shared them before, these cookbooks. Um and so this one is the Nourishing Traditions book of uh child of baby and child care, and it's got a bunch of things in here about um what to feed the babies to, and there's an accompanying um cookbook as well. And so I'm spending a lot of time in this these days.

SPEAKER_03 2:28

Okay, that's I just want well, you just heard me an example. Like, what does she have for breakfast, lunch, and dinner yesterday? I'm just super curious. Like, what does it tell you to feed them? Because this is so different from how I did it.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Oh, and so different than how I did it um with all of my other children too. And it's so funny because you asked me what to eat yesterday. Well, I have it written down, so I can tell you. Um so uh yesterday, uh, let's see, it was Thursday. So for breakfast, she had um hamburger from uh like a local cow that we sourced from a farmer, um, hamburger and eggs, and I can't remember if we had spinach or not in the eggs. Um, and then for lunch she had a T-bone steak and carrots. Um so she's grinding it up or nope, nope. So we trim off most of the meat and any of the meat that's really easily to come off, and then she just gnaws on it, like mostly the bone. There's a little bit of fat, there's meats, and then we tore up a lot of the um tore and cut up uh several pieces of steak for her as well. So um, yeah, so that's what she had for lunch, and then for dinner she had chicken that we we have a really hard time finding local chicken here. Like you usually have to wait until so, for example, I couldn't get any chicken breasts in southern Minnesota from a farmer um with like organic chicken. And so I um I had to go to the cities, and all we could get were like a certain couldn't get like breasts. We had to get like thighs and and legs and different cuts like that. So she had that chicken and um carrots for supper, and then we don't really do a lot of snacks for her right now. She's really three meals because she still is a little bit, she still has some um formulas that she, yep, some formulas she drinks that's like fully, you know, nutritious or whatever. And we get that from Germany, we import it. Um, and so she's just eating the three snack or the three meals to right now. And so yeah, it's just it's a lot of it's I I'm too in my head about it, and I know it. Uh, and so we'll see. And so we're planning, we've got two big airplane trips coming up for her, and so I'm having to really think about what I'm what I'm gonna do. I'd like to get a dehydrator or not a dehydrator, um a freeze dryer. Do you guys have a freeze dryer?

SPEAKER_02 4:48

I don't. I have a dehydrator, but not a freeze dryer.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

I'd love to do a freeze dryer, but they are so expensive. So but if we eventually get one, which I not anytime soon, that would be amazing because it's easier to like make your own snacks to go because they're they're shelf stable. So, anyways, that is what we got going on for my reading. Also, I guess I am reading. Um, I'm just starting this book called The Next Renaissance. Um, and this is um it's for work, it's all about um one of the so it's called the Ren the Next Renaissance, AI and the expansion of human potential. So, really, like the next one of the biggest things that will ever happen in our lifetime is this development of AI, and I'm just trying to wrap my head around it and what it really means for the future and how we can prepare our family for the negative and the you know any positive that comes out of it, but uh it's kind of a crazy thing. So I'm just kind of reading about that mostly, like I said, for work. And then the other book that I'm currently listening to right now um is called uh A Happy Pocket Full of Money. And it is I'm only a little ways into it, so please don't hold me hold it against me if it gets really bad by the end. But so far, it's really good, and it's really about it's not really about money at all, so far what I can tell. It's really about um, it's really about um what true wealth is and happiness and uh how to embrace that. And so I have really loved it so far. It's really, really good. And then one book that I just finished um that I was gonna share that was really, really good, and that is the Hawthorne series by Christy Hunter.

SPEAKER_02 6:40

Oh, so good.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

Yeah, Hawthorne Brothers series.

SPEAKER_03 6:44

Oh no, it's not a brothers, uh it is Hawthorne Brothers, it's like a um kind of like a it's like a I don't know how to explain it. It's a really good series, it's very entertaining. All my kids have read it, but it's probably not your genre.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

Yeah, no, I have not heard of that one, but this one, so the one that I just finished is called A Noble Masquerade, and it's a fiction in honor. Like I always give Courtney credit for my fiction reading. Um, and it is really, really good. So I I already finished it, so I can fully give it a full vetted two thumbs up. Is that the author again? Uh the author is Christy Christy Ann Hunter.

SPEAKER_02 7:29

I don't want to look it up.

SPEAKER_01 7:30

Oh, it was phenomenal. And so I'm starting some of the other I've tried to start two of the books in the series, but do you know what ruins uh like just ruins audiobooks when there's a bad reader? Ugh, so one of them, the reader is so slow, so we've tried to speed it up, and then the other one, um, the accent's just all wrong. So we're we're trying to do I I might just have to read those ones. Um okay. What's the I'm trying to, what's the name of the book again? Uh The Noble Masquerade.

SPEAKER_02 8:05

Noble Masquerade. Oh, there's a dog banging on my door. He wants in. I cannot find it, it's not coming up. Here's what it looks like. Oh, uh Noble Masquerade. Hmm. Okay. I have not read that one. It's on the counterbook. I haven't read.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

Yay! Okay, you're gonna have to read it and tell me how much you love it because it's all right. I've never liked mystery books and it's got a little mystery to it, but go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 8:33

Oh, I like a real life. I'm gonna let my dog in so he doesn't quit me on here. Uh um, yeah, for sure. If I close the door and he's not in, I didn't realize he wasn't in here. He like blends in with the pillows in the background, is which is where he normally lays, and so I just assume he's here.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Well, the other day when we were on a meeting together, and I had my little baby in my lap, Kinsley. He right away started barking. I'm like, what is she doing? And she could see the dog, and she did. She really your dog blended right into the pillows, and she spotted her right.

SPEAKER_03 9:03

He's the same color as that cream one, so he just like I never know he's even there. So funny. Okay, so you're not reading any fiction right now?

SPEAKER_01 9:10

You just finished that one, so you haven't started a new one. I'm not reading any fiction right now. Nope. Well, except for I know what you should read. Okay, tell me.

SPEAKER_03 9:19

And it's on Hoopla.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

Okay, okay, right now.

SPEAKER_03 9:22

So it is the best series ever. You and you, if you're on social media, like it's always everywhere, but it's it's the unselected diaries of Emma M. Lyon, and they're almost like like the first one's only three hours, like it's almost like a novella, but there's eight in the series so far, and it's about this young girl kind of coming of age in like the Victorian, like proper romancy time that you like, but it has like Gilmore Girls Witty banter. Like, I don't know if you're familiar with Go. That's like my favorite show. Love Gilmore Girls, yes. I love it. And it has though the first one I will fully own the first one's just a smidge slow, but it's really building, like introducing all the characters and kind of building what's going on. But then you'll just, I mean, I have I'm I've read them every year for the last three years. So like I just listened. I've never listened to them. They just came out on audio, and I actually listened to one in the car on the way home from California this weekend. Um, because I was like, I should give it a try. Um, because I like actually reading them. But I mean, I like you just laugh like out loud, you giggle because it's just so funny the stuff. And then I I'll like read it to my husband. He's like, Why are you laughing? And I was like, Oh, listen to this. And it's it's just entertaining, it's so funny. Anyway, that is so that's what I think you should read.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

I just put it in my hoopla okay library.

SPEAKER_03 10:41

I think my only pet peeve is I don't tend to listen books on one, I listen to like on 1.5. Shocking. I do everything faster. I didn't like the way that one sped up. It's like you could tell when it was when it was moving, which I don't normally think that that's, but I think it's how she recorded it. I I have no idea, but it drove me a little bonkers.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

So I don't like how most books sound on one and a half. I will I've tried several times because I know you do that too. Um, and I just also just don't have time. So I'm like, come on, let's go faster. But they always sound weird to me.

SPEAKER_03 11:16

Yeah, this is the first one I've ever noticed. You could hear every single time it like clipped it. I don't know. It was really annoying to me. So, but anyways, you have to, I think you'll really enjoy them. They're just very entertaining. You just you have to plug through the first one and move on to the second. Just know that the first one's just a smidge slower than the rest of them. Okay, which is really setting everything up, it's so good. Um, anyways, okay, so that's one I listen to like, or not listen, I always have like a dozen books going at the same time because I get bored or I want to depend on my mood. Like, what do I want to do today? Like, what am I listening to? Um, so the one of the things the only I only listen to one typically, like that's like my book that I'll listen to, like on walks or when I'm in the car or something. I'm listening to it's called Homegrown Guidance and Inspiration for Navigating Your Homeschooling Journey. Um, it's actually one I'm betting for our parent book club for next year. And it's it's super interesting, it's a bunch of collections of essays from different people, all about their different like homeschool journeys. So it's very diverse. So we're talking like you've got the you know Korean adopted kid that came over that lived and grew up in Kansas and she's a homeschooler, and she, you know what I mean? Like you have the southern anyways, it's very interesting, it's very eclectic. I've thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a little bit of everything. Some of these I'm like, oh, like that's not my jam, but like okay, for somebody who would like it. Um but it's just been kind of a nice, inspiring, it's been my walking book that I've been listening to while I walk. Nice. So that one's super fun. I'm reading. Um, I just finished for my fiction book that I just finished. Um, I just finished The Secret of Secrets. Have you ever, you don't read a lot of fiction, so maybe you haven't, but I almost count these as like non-fiction-esque because there's so much real things in it. But the um the Dan Brown series, the Da Vinci Co. series. Any of those?

SPEAKER_01 13:17

Um did we read I can't remember if we've read one or is there there's a movie series too, right? Yeah. Seen either we've I don't think so. I think we've just seen one of the movies.

SPEAKER_03 13:30

Yeah, so that's it. His newest one is called The Secret of Secrets, and it was like heavy science. It took me a while to read because it's not one that you can just plow through. You have to like read and then digest and then read and digest. It was actually my treadmill book for a while. I always have a book on the treadmill that like I'm only allowed to read when I'm walking on the treadmill to like make me do it. That I would fall off the treadmill, Corney. You told yourself, I would tell myself this was a heavy hardback book. So it was I regretted my lab choices with this one. I finally gave up and just read it in bed because I was it was so heavy to try to like walk on a treadmill and so you're I just sorry, I've got a picture of this.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

So you're holding the books when you like you're holding the book and and reading, or you've got it propped. Normally, yes, I hold it.

SPEAKER_03 14:14

Normally I hold it, but for this book, because it was so heavy, I have this board that I lay over. You know, like a treadmill has like arms. Yeah, you can so I have a board that I lay over it that I can put my laptop on because I'll work on the treadmill sometimes. And so for this book, it was so heavy I had to like prop it up on the board.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

You know, you need some free time where you don't do anything but just one thing, just one, just Courtney's only doing one thing. I can just picture you up with this board and working. Um have my kids take a picture of it for you. I think that Courtney's kids should take a video and we can post it because this is too good. Okay, but when you're reading it, do you hold on then?

SPEAKER_03 14:55

No, I actually swap hands, so depending upon what side I'm reading, I'll swap hands because my hands get tired to like hold them up. So I'll like swap pants back and forth.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

Jessica's subordinated because I could not do that. So you should try. Maybe I'll make you try when you're here. I am told to break a bone. Okay, I've made it 41 years, knock on wood without breaking a bone. And I could enter the next 40 years without a bone, too. Oh my gosh, that's a broken bone.

SPEAKER_03 15:26

The best was the other day my dog tried to get on the treadmill the treadmill with me. That one was ridiculous. I can't tell you that. Oh, it was so funny. I was that's the first time in you know, which this little dog had it. No, it was the big, my big huge dog, the one that goes on walks with me. He was mad that I wasn't taking him on a walk, I think. He thought, Oh, I'm gonna walk with you if you're gonna walk on the treadmill. Yep, so hilarious. Um, okay, so that's I just finished reading that. I always have a series going in the background. So whenever I have like a lull in a reading or when I'm like too lazy to go find a book, I always have a series that has a bunch of books going like every year. Like one year I read the Anna Green Gable series, which is so fun. I had never read all of them. All nine or ten of them. Um that was a series I read in the background. This year I'm reading it's the Lord Edgington Investigates. I like mysteries, and they're very like it takes place in the 1920s, like in England. Like it's a long time ago. And he's like a retired detective, like head of all the detectives, and and he's like training his 16-year-old grandson how to be a detective. And so everywhere they go, someone dies and they have to solve a mystery. Um, it's kind of neat because I don't know a ton about I've never been to England, I've never they're exploring the continent, and so it's kind of fun to hear all the different places and things. And I've gone and like looked stuff up and like, well, what does that look like? Or where's that? And you know, so that's just there's a million books in the series. I mean like 19 or something, and so it's just it's just in the background of whatever I like have a lull, I'll read one of those. Um and like last year I read um like Lewis Penny, his series of um, it was a Canadian detective, and it was the whole series about him, and there was like 19 books in that series. So that was my background series. So um I am so that's my hold on, sorry. I gotta look at my list, you guys. I read so many books, I have to like I keep track of it on Goodreads. So hey, if you want to follow on Goodreads, you can find me on Goodreads and see all the crazy books I'm reading. Um, the non-fiction book I'm actually reading right now is well, I actually have a couple. I just started the the new art and science of teaching or the one that we were talking about the other day. Yeah, so I just started that last night, which is super interesting, by the way. Oh, um I'm reading The Gap in the Gain. It's the High Achievers Guide to Happiness, Confidence, and Success. My husband's work, they required all their leadership team to read it. It's so good. It's all about um kind of how like Thomas Jefferson Yahweh put like the pursuit of happiness, like as part of the thing, and how it kind of set everybody up for failure, that everyone's pursuing happiness, which means you can't achieve it. Like in that, if you think of it in that way, and how there's like you're you're in the gap or you're in the gain, and the gain is where you're living in your in happiness, right? And the gap is where you're always you're never you're just trying to get there, you're never going to get there. Super interesting.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

Title and the author again.

SPEAKER_03 18:23

It's The Gap and the Gain by Dan Sullivan.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

Okay, I'm gonna have to read that one. Let's do that.

SPEAKER_03 18:29

Super interesting. I really, really, really like it. Um, and I'm just barely getting into it, but that one is super good. Um, okay, so there's my fiction, there's a nonfiction. I mean, I actually have three other nonfictions in the background, but I don't need to tell you all of them because they're just ridiculous. I have too many books going on. Um, what I'm reading with my kiddos, do we want to talk about those?

SPEAKER_01 18:50

I have a question really quick. So funny story, and I know that you probably can relate, but I have my oldest daughter is 22. And so she reached out to me the other day and asked me if I had read a parenting book. And at first I was like, what are you saying? And she's like, No, I think you'd really like it. Like it's definitely up your alley, and it's called Hunt Gather Parent.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

Oh no, I haven't.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

I don't know anything about it. So, you guys, if it's a terrible book or it's like super biased or something weird, she hasn't read it yet either, and I haven't read it. She just said she's been hearing about it on social media. So okay. Can't recommend it. I was just wondering if you've read it. So I haven't.

SPEAKER_03 19:28

I haven't even heard of it. I guess the book I started last night, too, that I'm my fiction book, because I just needed a new one. It's called Hometown Vendetta. It's um by Tracy Hunter Abram Abramson. It's a um, it's kind of like a mystery, it's uh modern day though. Like it has to do with like it's FBI agents and um like CI agents, and there's like a bombing. There was a bomb that went off, and they're trying to find out who did it. So it's but it's a series, it's the first one of a Luke Steele series. It's pretty good. Um, I don't know who told me about it, somebody did, but that's my my fiction that I'm reading that I just started yesterday. And I might have stayed up a little late last night reading it because it it hooked me in like really fast. I was like, oh, this is good. So that's the only problem. I I just like will keep reading, you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

Oh, 100%. No, that I I did that a couple nights ago, and so last night I didn't even let myself read at all or listen to a book. I'm like, nope, I am going to bed. So but okay, on the oh, go ahead. I was just gonna say I read every night before bed because it makes me tired.

SPEAKER_03 20:34

Like otherwise, I won't go to sleep.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

Yeah, yeah. Okay, what were you gonna say? You're reading with your kids.

SPEAKER_03 20:40

Okay, so with my kiddos, I have been um, we've been reading the Little House in the Prairie series for honestly like two years. I think we're we're into it because I had never read it with my second set of younger. So I have like my older set of kids and my younger set of kids, and so I had never read it with my younger set of kids. Um, and so we are all the way on the happy golden years. We're on book eight, so we've been doing it for a while.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

Oh, that's awesome. Oh, have you guys ever done the pageants? Like come to one of the pageants?

SPEAKER_03 21:08

No, I've never been back there. I just found out about those last year when Sarah Robbins told me about them because she went.

SPEAKER_01 21:15

It's super good. We've only been once, and it's it is amazing. Like they do such a great job. We went to the one, I mean they have them all over, all the places, but we went to the one in um western Minnesota, southern, southern, southwestern Minnesota. I can't remember what town it is, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:34

Yeah, I didn't realize there was more than one. That's I think I didn't I thought there was just the one in the place where I don't know I do.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

There's a couple because there's she has all different sites. So I guess I don't know if they all do cadence. I think at least two do. But um there's like you know, all the different places that she left that she lived. Where is the the main place she lived? I'm blanking on the name.

SPEAKER_03 21:56

Um, like the banks of Plum Creek or the um went.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

for the for the um the pageant and the the banks are like the like the little sod house like the hut house or like the uh you know what it's called like the house is the side of the hill yeah side of the hill that's like on private property now but they and you can't see like there's nothing really there but there's like a plaque or whatever and they allow you to go there and see so oh that's cool oh that's so neat um so anyways we're reading that but what we're doing for it for this one I always have one book that we're listening to as a family and so we listen to it and then we play games so like that's when we play you know like Sky it has to be a silent game so we'll play Sky Joe we'll play quicks or whatever like some kind of silent normally it's like a mathy game so I turn it on we listen during family school and then we play a game quietly nice it's part of my family school rotation um so I mean we listen to it 15 20 minutes at a time so it takes forever that's why we're so well I think we have an hour and a half left we're almost done with this one.

SPEAKER_03 23:02

With my little so my two youngest kids they're the ones that I drive around the most because they have you know activities and things like that. And so um we have been listening to the Story Thieves series. Have you heard of that one? We're on the third one.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

It's um I can read it I think my daughter Mia read it yeah it's super fun.

SPEAKER_03 23:22

Yeah it's kind of a sci-fi fantasy type book which isn't really normally my gym but my kids really like it. Right it's been fun it's about a little girl that whose dad was from the fiction world and her mom is from you know normal world and so she can go into books like she can go into the fiction world and it's all these little like is it a series it's a series yeah we're on book three what did you know the first book is called I think it's called Story Thieves is the first one okay it's called yeah story thieves is the first one the stolen chapters is the second and secret origins is the third oh and apparently there's a fourth I didn't know that who read there's a lot of them father James Riley okay oh I don't think that's the one I was thinking of but yes I we do have that one um one of those and my kids are my daughter Mia has read it so it's super fun um so that I think is all we're actually reading together as a family right now.

SPEAKER_01 24:19

Nice um so we are reading two books as a family right now um and mostly it's actually it's my older it's certainly my older son he's so busy right now and we yeah we can't see him nearly enough um but with my little girls we're reading two books uh the first one is the story of the world classic well that's what we're doing for history right now yeah okay yeah so we're reading that um and it's so interesting because we're such a history buff family like we are all things history like that is the subject my kids excel in the most because that's what mom and dad love and we spend a lot of time in history and so they're finding all these contradictions and so that's really fun. So then we find contradictions and then we go look them up and then we find out are they actually contradictions or is it two slightly different takes on the same thing and so it's been really really good. We just started it um recently so we're still like an ancient history um we're the first book we're on the first book yep and we've I listened to them with my older kids my same thing you know we have the older set and then the younger set so we did them but I had never I've never done it with my little girls yet so we're doing that one and then the other book that we're reading together is The Midwife's apprentice. Oh okay I haven't read that is that good really really good yep my kids have one of my girls has already read it and we're just reading it again she she's reading it again um but she just recently read it and this is my she's not really a reluctant reader anymore but she can be a picky reader um and she she's 13 and um this is definitely like a very easy read for a 13 year old I mean she read it like in you know a couple hours but she really enjoyed it and she's a hard one to please and so um this is really fun she thinks she might want to be a midwife um so that's really neat. Oh that's cool. We just so we have a like a um mother-daughter homemakers group that comes that we meet together um two times a month and so we actually just had um we were supposed to have a midwife come to the house and and do a midwife like QA with her but she had three mamas in labor so we did it by Zoom but it was still really really good and it was kind of fun since we're we're kind of reading this and and then had that opportunity talk with her but those are the two books that we're reading together. That's so fun.

SPEAKER_03 26:33

I know it's I was just kind of rethinking so we're doing Story of the world the shape of history too last year or the last couple years we've done Beautiful Feet which is my favorite. So it's like the literature base like so we're reading like really good and so I was kind of thinking my kids have been kind of dragging like they're not super excited about the story of the world this time we've done it numerous times but like this time around and so I was kind of like well you know in the story of the world I'm I don't do you have like the activity book and all the things yeah so in the activity book there's novels that go with each kind of section and so I was kind of thinking maybe I should pull out like a novel from there because we're on the green book. We did medieval history last year so whatever I don't know new world history maybe or what section I can't remember where how they what they what they're called.

SPEAKER_01 27:20

Did you ever use the Good in the beautiful's book list have you seen that history I mean I've seen it yeah but it's that huge manual of like reading levels and like genres and they give it a rating and then it's huge. It's free too if anybody wants it. It's a good in the beautiful reading list. So sometimes I go on there but um we've done we've we haven't done a lot with the activity books yet with or really much at all with the two or with a couple little girls. We did with the older kids but yeah just this time.

SPEAKER_03 27:57

Yeah we did it we did it um did it like as a rotation like as part of our history with a group of people and so this like last year we did it with co-op the last two years we've done history with co-op but this year we do a different co-op so we're not doing history with it and so we've just been doing it on our own and I haven't been doing the activities like I should which is probably why they're not as into it as they would be so it's totally my fault.

SPEAKER_01 28:19

No it's good.

SPEAKER_03 28:21

All right okay what are your kiddos reading? Yeah so wait hold on one more question with it is are your kiddos like big readers or are they not big readers? Because all of mine are different.

SPEAKER_01 28:32

Yeah every single one of my kids are massive readers um almost to a problem um and I won't get super into it we should do a podcast on this later about how our kids learn to read but um I'm sure I'm gonna get a ton of hate about this especially since we work for an educational company too but I'm a big personal believer believer that kids are not ready most kids right most kids not there are exceptions I have an exception but that most kids aren't ready to read until they're eight and so we push it really hard when they're like four and five and then they got reading before they're in kindergarten and I just think it's completely off the wall um I am much more interested if my interested in my if my child is reading at 30 versus if they're reading at five. And so for me that's a slow evolution of learning to read so that they develop a passion. They don't feel um you know pushed or you know pressured and things like that. So anyways um I had my 17 year old son and my 13 year old daughter both were not ready to to learn until a reading until after eight. So they were nine and 11 when they learned to read and now they both test out into way high college level reading and they're 13 and 17. My my 17 year old he was my latest reader he was 11 um actually he was in a um like a reading camp that was through the college and we helped to um to kind of help grow that program too and they wanted to label him really quickly as dyslexic and I'm just like no he's just is he's just not ready. But then as the time went right like nine passed then 10 passed and I was really concerned and um but I still didn't push and then it was like just an awakening like okay one day he was ready and he read but one of the things that we do and I'm gonna show you a book um I don't like comic books and so when I when I was a young mom and I think this is probably true when I was a young mom most of the graphic novels were comic book they were just comics but now you have all these classics that are in graphic novel format. So if I have a reluctant reader um and even sometimes when I don't I start them on graphic novels and then when they're ready they kind of just naturally say okay I want a short chapter book and and um and then they transfer over uh and so that's what we did and um but yes all my kids are big readers to a fault right like where I'm saying okay you have to it's time for bed you cannot read anymore um or you know you got to go do something do your chore finish your schoolwork you've got to stop reading and so huge readers what about you um I similar and I think so my la my youngest daughter had like a little bit of a learning disability and so she was my latest reader and she just now I think the graphic novel thing you must have gone because I was super anti-graphic novel like absolutely not and but I think it's you had to have been the person that told me because maybe that was I've done with her and she is like oh I'm she's like oh I totally can read like I can read just great like and it was graphic novels that she was reading but but it made her give her the confidence and it wasn't overwhelming.

SPEAKER_03 31:41

But it's so funny my son who was a little bit of a reluctant reader and he's still a reluctant reader like he reads but it's not his his favorite but he loves to listen like he will listen to 12 books a week like that's just his like because he doesn't listen to music he listens to book he loves it. He'll be out mowing the lawn with his headphones on and he's totally listening to a book that's not normal for a 13 year old boy but that's what his jam is but he hates graphic novels they're too they're too busy too distracting that too much going on hates them. Yeah isn't that funny? Yeah so he's reading and so what I found with him the best way for him to like be more successful reading is he'll have listened to the book so he really liked the percy jackson series and so now he's reading the pertsy Jackson series.

SPEAKER_01 32:23

Cool okay he doesn't get bored with the fact that he already knows nope nope and he's more familiar with the names so it's easier it's less discouraging like if he's having a hard time he's like oh yeah I can remember because he can follow along I actually and this is where we differ so much I cannot imagine reading the same book twice with few exceptions especially a fiction um I can well I guess I reread that's not true I reread nonfiction but I can't imagine rereading a fiction book but we'll see I'm kind of new on my adult fiction journey there are some classics out there like Little Men is like my all-time favorite book of all time and that one I read every few years.

SPEAKER_03 33:03

I mean I I should probably read that again I haven't read it a few years but you know there's there are some classics but like that the Emma M Lion series is probably the most I've ever reread of fiction other than like House and Prairie Harry Potter like those are classics to me that I would reread often.

SPEAKER_01 33:19

I could see a series rereading more just because there's so many details you would forget but um we've reread uh Little House and Fray before so um but okay oh go ahead I was just gonna say there's very few just like fiction books that I'm gonna pick up and read again. Yeah that makes sense. Okay so for what are our kids reading um my oldest daughter who's 22 is on this kick of so she Pride and Prejudice is her favorite book uh ever and um so she is reading I can't remember what she calls it but like basically spin-offs so she's been thrifting during the sort what's that yeah and so she's got like selection of um these Pride and Prejudice spinoff books that she's reading right now she reads a ton she's like you I mean she reads a ton um but that's what I know she's reading and then um my uh well my one 19 year old son does not like to read but he also has a lot of special needs so he reads um probably like at an an eight year old level uh and nine year old level and so he's maturing so those books feel too immature for him so just he doesn't read a lot at all um but my other no not really nope he doesn't have the it's like a tactile thing for him yeah but then my other 19 year old son he is on a mission for our church so he is only reading scriptures um and then a couple other church approved books um but he is loving every second of it and he's always you know on my case about where I'm at in the scriptures and my reading um as any good missionary would be um and then uh so down from there my daughter Mia and my daughter Corey both are reading um this year they're reading the um the hiding place phantom toll booth um where the red fern grows um and then Mia consumes books like crazy so she's always reading different she likes the Emily Winsnap books so she's always reading those yeah and then Corey she is my one that gets in trouble for reading the most because she will stay up till midnight reading and then she's so tired in the morning. So I just went in next to her bed and looked at the pile of books that's next to her bed. And this is the one that was on top. So it's got a hair twister in here marking her spot. So she's reading the graphic novel A Wrinkle in time. So um she had this a while ago and it got it got ruined because it got brought out to the van andor out to the SUV and wet feet and snow and it got trashed um like last winter. And so I just ordered her new copy and she um so it's all excited about that. My youngest daughter is read I went up to her room quick before this to see what she was reading and she is reading apparently the call of the wild um and it's just it's just a short um just a short little read. I mean it's a short read but the text is it's a heavy read though.

SPEAKER_03 36:22

I mean it's not a light read.

SPEAKER_01 36:25

And then my son Chase my 17 year old who's super busy with school and he's got a lead in a play right now and doing all kinds of stuff he is reading his book on his book list for this year. He um is or should be I guess I need to check in reading Atomic Habits. Oh I just finished that that was my January read. Yeah so good um and he's got a fiction book that he's reading right now and I know because his sister took it out of his room when he was reading it um I can think of what it was um but he's he likes to read as well but he is um just short for time so I think that's covering and then oh I'll share Kinsley her favorite book is um how to babysit a grandma that is her favorite book and so we read it she's a huge reader actually we were just um I was just talking about this with somebody else for our airplane ride and what she's gonna be doing but she will just I mean she reads she just likes text it's so bizarre. So like here I'm not kidding you she spent probably 15 minutes going through a book that has it there's no pictures just like playing with it. But I think she sees all of us reading all the time so it just feels natural but she um I'm going to get her when our oldest be so this is my aside from my oldest Alexis Kinsley is the most interested in books at this age than any other kiddo. So I think she's gonna be a lot like Lexi and she looks just like Lexi so um I think she's gonna be a lot like that and Lexi really liked the um oh the Guinness book World of Records books. Have you ever these huge books and they're like I'll always remember the lady that has like the world's longest nails. So it's got like this really colorful picture. Yeah but these books are really really colorful and very interesting very unique pictures and so I'm gonna go buy one for her for the airplane because I think she will probably spend at least an hour paging through and looking at all of the um all of the book all the books um I can't remember what Lexi called it but she called it something funny like the Icky book or something like that. And it's just it's just so and they're just such like thought provoking pictures that if a little baby's looking at it and like trying to make sense of like why they have like all these weird nails and um but yeah how to babysit a grandma is her favorite favorite book if you don't have it for West you have to get it at your house.

SPEAKER_03 39:05

That's so funny. I love it. I um I don't know that one I'm gonna have to go look it up I don't remember that one of these does she like pull the pages out like her chew on the books though like I think at one my kids would always like stick it right in their mouth right that's the first thing they do.

SPEAKER_01 39:21

She is like I said it's like Lexi she is abnormally interested and good with books. I like at first we bought all the hardcover books right she can look at any book and not ruin it the lift and flaps she loves just regular like I could just give her this book to look through and she'll turn the so she's got this down really good she'll do this.

SPEAKER_04 39:43

So that's pages really well.

SPEAKER_01 39:46

She does do some grabbing of the pages but if it's a paper book a lot of it she'll and it's a small book like this she'll just flip through um I'm really impressed I don't know I I don't know interesting to see if she when she wants to read Lexi who like I was saying is also loved books at this age she still didn't read until after at well she until she was eight um and then I've only had one kid and that was Hannah my used to be my youngest who's 11 now she is self-taught I never had a single reading lesson with her she just was one of those kids that picked it up really young and I didn't and it was before eight so I mean of course those kids are out there and they're an exception but um she's the only one out of eight kids that has ever taught herself to read.

SPEAKER_03 40:32

Yeah it's so funny it's my last two that were the hardest which was so funny because I'm like I've done this a million times like I taught 40 kids in a kindergarten class how to read how come I can't teach these two how to read they were a struggle they had me questioning myself a lot um okay so I didn't even think to ask my older kids what they were reading so who knows but Sydney reads like my kids we all have Kindles and we all really like reading on our Kindles not like not the Kindle like the what do you call those things? Like um they are kind of like iPads but like actual like a Kindle e-reader like it's only for me.

SPEAKER_01 41:09

Yes not a Kindle fire yeah yeah yeah those are um just a reader like it just looks like a book but it's small enough that I can like stick it in my purse I carry it it actually fits in my back pocket if you really want to know it's crazy does it not have like the light that bothers you or I mean I haven't looked at a Kindle for 15 like I feel like when they first came they were awful no now it's literally it looks like a book page I'm gonna yeah I'm going to visit Courtney in three days. So oh really three days today's Friday I will be there on Sunday two days.

SPEAKER_03 41:42

Okay there you go so um we have a lot of um all of my big kids have Kindles and so that's pretty much what they like to read on because it's really nice especially at night because you can read in bed if you share a room with somebody and you don't have to have a light on. So um I know I know that Cindy has a Kindle she reads and she's reading she has like a book club at her work. So they were reading she was telling me about it the other day but I can't for like me remember it's like a fiction book.

SPEAKER_00 42:04

That would be fun for venture to have a staff book club. Sorry I just thought about that. That'd be great.

SPEAKER_03 42:10

Okay sorry keep going um Kennedy is the one in nursing school she absolutely loves to read but this is not her season for reading her season for reading you know like science books and school work so she um yeah so she's always excited when she gets like a two week break she's like what am I gonna read?

SPEAKER_01 42:27

So she'll read something okay remind me how old she is 21. Okay so in Arizona can you do the nursing program in high school like through those tech schools or not?

SPEAKER_03 42:39

So she got her CNA okay but the nursing school is something you have to do after like I mean in Arizona she actually ended up kind of cheating the system she went to a private nursing school because in Arizona there's like a three year wait to get into a nursing school at any of the nursing school. So like you have to get prereqs done and then you apply and then you have like a a year or whatever while you just yeah so she didn't want to wait shocking related to me. And so she she went to a private so she'll be done in May she's almost done.

SPEAKER_01 43:07

Nice.

SPEAKER_03 43:09

Anyway so that's what she's doing Delaney my one she's probably my least reader out of all my kids and she'll go through phases and she'll kind of read um but it's not like her go-to like that's not her her default but she's going and she's how how old is Delaney? She's 20. She's only just got married yeah so she has it she only pretty much reads on her Kindle um and she'll have a book on it but she doesn't like she doesn't read every day kind of thing. It's like she'll when she goes on a beach vacation she's gonna read or if she goes but it's not her default for downtime.

SPEAKER_01 43:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 43:41

Um Audrey my senior she is definitely a reader she reads a lot of books but more seasonally like she'll read a ton over the summer but not so much like during the school year just because she's like she's reading school books but not fun books for her. So right now all of my um my junior high and high school kids are all we do a book club every month that we participated in. And so they're all reading Running for My Life by Lopez Lomong. It's about the um like some he's from Africa and he was an Olympian. But it Oh, I I know the story. I don't know. I haven't read the book. Super interesting. Um so that's what they're all reading right now. As their book club was one of their school books. Um and I didn't ask Audrey what she was reading. I know that I she always tries to have like a fiction book because she goes through phases, right? Like with especially with school. She's like I'm not I'm she's like I'm in a reading slump. That's what she said the other day. So I don't I don't know what she's actually reading right now as far as fiction goes, but she's just kind of doing school books. My freshman Rory so this is also super interesting. I always say that um you're because people say well I don't like reading and I was like I always say you just haven't found the right book yet and quite a few of my kids like Sydney was the same way as Rory and actually Audrey was too they didn't actually like to read it was a chore until they were like 15 or 16. And then all of a sudden it was like click like oh I love to read and like I read all the time and so Rory just decided this year that she liked to read and she just hadn't found the right book to read like she it was always a chore to her and now I cannot get her I was like get off the couch and go do something.

SPEAKER_01 45:12

You cannot just sit there all day long and read your book. Like what kind of what genre is she read like what is she what has she found that she loves right now she's reading the selection series have you read that it's kind of like one of those dystopian novel type things um it's it's actually very inner it's really good. Like um what's the other one uh that that was about the Hunger Games.

SPEAKER_03 45:34

Yeah it's not like there's no brutal killing in it this one's about like a princess or like a basically the king's daughter like has to get married but they pull people from like all over the different things and it's it's kind of like a PG bachelor I guess. You know what I mean? But like but just I don't know it's so she's reading that series and she's really liking it.

SPEAKER_01 45:57

Did you let your kids read the Hunger Games?

SPEAKER_03 46:00

Um after they're 16.

SPEAKER_01 46:02

Yeah that we were older we were I let I'm when they were way older.

SPEAKER_03 46:07

Yeah uh Rory hasn't read Hunger Games yet because she's not she'll be 16 this year. Gotcha. There's just some books that I don't I have a really bad memory about things.

SPEAKER_01 46:18

Like I'll read things and so her sis she'll ask her sisters hey can I read this like they'll be the ones like nope you can't read that one yet or yeah you know what I mean because um also like Lexi too because she's read way more fiction than I have so I will frequently go to her and say have you read this oh yeah no they shouldn't read it or yeah they should yeah so she'll I make her bet all her books to her sisters because she wants to read you know like the romancey ones but I'm like there's some romance you can read and some you cannot.

SPEAKER_03 46:41

You can't um so anyway so that's what she's reading right now is the selection series. Grady is I cannot keep up with his reading like he listens to so many books. I've had a really hard time with it and the stuff that he likes to hit is not stuff that I've read and so I've had to ask a bunch of friends that have boys like okay what do your kids like to read um and he just devours books but he also is one that will listen to the same thing over again so he's rereading the Heroes of Olympus series which is like one of the um like the Percy Jackson spin-off you know like there's so many of them yeah so he's re-listening to one of those but he loves like Brandon Sanderson like the Missborn series like he's just he loves books that are not my cup of tea so I've had a hard time he's hard for me yeah so I rely on a lot of other people I'm like okay have you read this and I I'll go look it up and be like can you read this and you use common sense media have you ever heard of that I have heard of that no I haven't read it is or use it is it good it's yeah you just type in the like whatever it is and um and you can get some some feedback and things on it. I think I've used it for movies. I didn't know I could put books in it.

SPEAKER_01 47:48

Yeah I um I'm just looking here um so I I'm pretty sure I've used it for books.

SPEAKER_03 48:00

I'm going to um I really pretty much tend to I have a group of friends that have like a bunch of boys and so I just normally like hey what are your boys like at this age or what are they like now because he kind of reads above like we're you know he's 13 but he'll read definitely like higher level books.

SPEAKER_01 48:21

Mm-hmm yeah it says um that they do books but I actually I don't know that I've actually used it for books now that I'm thinking it through I think I've just used it for movies. But they do do books.

SPEAKER_03 48:35

Yeah. Macy is my one that likes the graphic novels so she always she's been like reading the Babysitters club they make graphic novels out of those remember those when we were kids so that's kind of like her free fun read or she's actually reading um the what are they like the Great American classics maybe no we don't do Juni B Jones. I'm anti Juni B Jones. Those are I don't know neither um but no it's like the Great American classic but they're like the hardback books with the big red titles and they're like all the classics but they are you know like abridged do you know I'm talking about the Great American I think that's what they're called yep yep no I know exactly what you're talking about. Yep we have some of those too yep yeah great classics those ones yeah yeah the hardback they have a big red letter and she's reading Little Women right now that's her fun read um because she's my most reluctant leader um what is it not a graphic novel though no no it has some like random pictures and the words are kind of big but it just read big clunky chunky yeah yeah yeah so she's reading that from her book but right now she's doing um a roll doll book club at part of co-op and so she just finished reading Charlie and the chocolate factory and now they're reading Matilda so that's been super fun um she actually read Charlie I think Charlie talked very is the first book that she's ever actually like read on her own like as far as like a normal just because she's my most reluctant she's had the hardest time she struggles with reading the most yeah um I think that book clubs for kids are so good.

SPEAKER_01 50:08

Our Corey is in a book club um as well and they read a a couple series together that's been really really good.

SPEAKER_03 50:17

Yeah she's also reading her book club book this month for our family book club is Trumpet of the Swans. So that's a fun like E B by E B White. Nice. So um she's kind of going through all those classics that all the other kids did a long time ago that it's been fun to like revisit. Because Audrey's like oh I love that book Trumpet of the Swans and she was like telling her all about it and so it's kind of fun we like to bond over books in our family like we we have um we did a road trip not that long ago and I'm sorry there's across the street can you hear it they're doing some yard work. Anyways we listened to like the Pender Wix like that's one of our family series that we really love and so we were re-listening to the Penderwick series from my 17 year old she was like let's listen to that again and I was like okay so it's super fun but I think that's pretty much what we got for right now.

SPEAKER_01 51:02

I love it. I read a quote a couple of years ago about the percentage of households in America that don't have books and it was shock it was shocking like that don't don't have any books in their home or the last time that they had been to read a book outside of college or been to a bookstore and um it's such an awesome culture to bring into your house so I just encourage all of our readers don't feel bad if you don't read a hundred books a year or if your kids don't all have a book that they're reading right now don't be discouraged just just start it's never too late to start to reading you know start reading to your kids and if you don't love to read start with audio books they're so great. And so yeah I guess I'll leave you with that and encourage everybody to try to embrace a culture of reading in your house.

SPEAKER_03 51:46

Yeah and tell us what you're reading we'd love to know what you're reading and if you love what you're listening to we'd love if you would leave us a review on podcasts that's how we get to reach more people so leave us a review if you love us. And we will see everybody next week. Awesome thanks bye