Parent Spotlight: When Nothing Else Explained It- Finding the Real Reason Reading Was Hard (Episode 2)

Helping Kids Overcome Reading Struggles Through the Vision Reading Academy Program & Consistency
 Featuring homeschool mom Jessie Midgley 

Episode Summary

In this heartfelt and honest conversation, homeschool mom Jessie Midgley shares her family’s journey through reading struggles, vision challenges, and the emotional ups and downs of helping her two sons succeed.

After years of searching for answers—and being told nothing was “wrong”—Jessie discovered Vision Reading Academy through a chance encounter at a homeschool event. What followed was a transformational journey filled with resistance, breakthrough moments, consistency battles, tough love, encouragement, and incredible progress.

This episode dives deep into:

• Why some children struggle with reading despite “normal” test results 
• The emotional side of reading difficulties 
• How vision-based challenges can affect confidence and learning 
• The importance of parent-child teamwork 
• Practical motivation strategies for consistency 
• What real progress actually looks like 

Whether you’re homeschooling, parenting a struggling reader, or searching for answers, this episode offers encouragement, validation, and actionable insight.

In This Episode

• Jessie’s search for answers after traditional testing came back “normal” 
• Discovering Vision Reading Academy at a homeschool convention 
• The hidden physical barriers behind reading struggles 
• Why her sons initially resisted the program 
• The emotional impact of reading difficulties on children 
• How benchmark videos helped motivate progress 
• Why consistency matters more than speed 
• The role of tough love and parental support 
• Using incentives and routines to build habits 
• How reading improvements changed schoolwork and confidence 
• Why reading ability matters—even if your child never loves books 
• The connection between learning and parent-child relationships 
• Encouragement for parents just beginning the journey 

Key Takeaways

“It’s not about forcing kids to love reading.”

Jessie shares an important perspective: the goal isn’t creating lifelong book lovers—it’s removing barriers so children can function confidently in life.

Consistency creates results.

The breakthrough happened when the boys consistently completed their daily eye exercises and fully engaged in the process.

Emotional resistance is normal.

Children may not immediately understand the long-term benefits of therapy or exercises, especially when progress takes months to notice.

Parent support is everything.

The biggest transformations happened when encouragement, coaching, patience, and accountability worked together as a team.

Progress can be subtle at first.

One major sign of improvement? Jessie’s younger son stopped feeling intimidated by full pages of text.

Looking to learn more? Head to VisionReadingAcademy.com to learn more, sign up for a free assessment, or get your questions answered. 

Transcript

Krystle 0:59

Hello guys, welcome back to another episode with us. We have a fantastic episode for you today. We have one of Coach Leah's students' parents here with us. She actually has two sons in the program with us, and they have had an amazing journey. So without further ado, I want to introduce you to Jesse. Jesse, will you talk to us a little bit about your journey? Talk to us about what brought you here, your journey as a homeschooling mom. Jesse is a homeschooling mom. She's fantastic. So just talk to us how you've found us, everything else like that.

Jessie 1:36

I have been homeschooling forever. My kids have never been into the public school program. And I'm very adamant that they learn at their own pace. And at some point, you realize that something else is not quite right. Something beyond just someone's attitude or their learning pace. It's something beyond that. And I had a feeling it was something physical. I had my younger son tested. I had him go to an eye doctor and they tested for things like dyslexia and colorblindness and astigmatism and all those things. And all of those things came back perfectly fine. And I was a little bit perplexed about that. And I just thought that there must be something else. But, and it was about a year later that I went, I learned about an event that we have near where I live called StoryCon. And I was just looking about the event, and I have another child that likes to write stories. And so I was going to take her. And then I saw that somewhere on one of the flyers it said there were free reading assessments done there. And I didn't know what that meant or who was doing it. It probably said the name of your company on it, but I was like, oh, cool. And so that was why I was like gonna go, because I was like, maybe they know something. And I actually, when I got to the event, I forgot all about it because they had a lot going on. And I walked past and I saw your booth and I walked past. And then I turned around and talked to you, and it ended up being perfect because I feel like the story that you told about your own child was so similar to what I was experiencing. I was like, none of the professionals are telling me that there's anything wrong with his eyes, and he doesn't have mental disabilities. The disorders that the people were suggesting were not fitting, they weren't adding up. And so when you explained what Vision Reading Academy does, it seemed to be a next thing to try. And I'm so glad that we did. Ended up having two kids that need probably me too, honestly. So that's how I found you, and I'm so grateful.

Krystle 4:01

So I love it. I love it. That's fantastic. Yes, I do. I remember that conversation with you. We were asked StoryPond, we don't do a lot of marketing, and so there's not a lot of things that I go to. This was probably, I think, one of the second ever marketing events that I had ever been to. And so I was just kind of like, okay, I'm here. Let's have any. This is great. And I remember you walking up to me, and I was like, okay, I'm just gonna tell my story. That's how this program started. Is through my own desperation for my own daughter, just being able to be open with you and be authentic and just be like, this is what it is, this is what I was able to figure out. And if this is something that we can help you with, with your son, then let's do it. Let's talk about as you have gone throughout the program with both of your sons, what has your experience been? Like, how have they taken to it? Let's just kind of dive deep into that's been.

Jessie 5:01

That is a whole roller coaster. I'm sure that this is very common. We started in the beginning, and it was, I feel like it's tough for us to get sometimes routines solidified. So I feel like it was slow going in the beginning as far as doing the eye exercises. We had a struggle for the first few months, I'll be honest with you. And it was tough. And even at one point, I was thinking, I don't know if it was wise for me to do two kids at once. I had this thought, I think maybe we should have done one kid and focused on that, and then done another kid. And then after, now at this point, I thought it's actually good that we did both together. I have two boys there. Their attitudes about reading are not great. However, their attitudes weren't great, not necessarily because of how I homeschooled, because I always was gentle and was always encouraging, and they didn't have any real bad associations with trying to learn to read. They just seemed like they didn't like it and they didn't enjoy it. And so I signed them up for this program, and I said, We're gonna do this, and you're gonna be able to read better. And they were like, but I don't want to read better. They're young enough that they're like, I don't really want to. I don't like to do that. I don't want to. And so it took a lot of explaining. And I said, when you play a board game and when you do whatever, sometimes I read the cards for you because you can't, but I'm not gonna always be able to do that for you. And I eventually, when you're getting big and you need to take a driving test or something, I can't come in and read the questions for you. So you're gonna need to be able to do this. And so that logic does help sometimes, but they really got to a point pretty quick. We started doing the exercise. It was a real struggle because it did not take very many days before they were like, I don't really want to do this anymore. And they became very resentful and they said things like, I did not sign up for this. I didn't choose to sign up for this. You just signed me up for this, and now I have to do all this stuff. And I don't want to, and I am fine with how my eyes see things. And I feel like I don't have any issues with how my eyes work. My eyes work just fine. As far as they are concerned, they were like, I'm fine. And so one thing that really helped was their assessments with you, and so coach Leah is so good. Whenever she saw them getting kind of really, really frustrated, she was so good. She really came up and just showed up for them and really encouraged them. And the coaching lessons with Leah were fantastic. She really was so skillful in handling them and their emotions, and then even another boost was their obsessions with you and your encouragement was so good for them. And they reached a point where they started to see the difference, where they started to be able to tell. And it really helped when Coach Lee could show them the previous recording of them and how they read something a month ago. And that really, really helped. And even then, there still was a point where my son said, Mom, I don't want to do this. It's been too long. I don't want to do this anymore. And you can't stop me from quitting. And I said, Here's where the tough love can comes in. I said, Well, I will let you quit if you want to. But here are the conditions. I said, you can quit. But just know that this is going to have to be done again. And the coaches tell us that if you quit now, your eyes are gonna go back to what the way they were in their most weak state, so you'll have to start over. If that is your choice, it is fine. But I just want you to know that I will pay for this one time. So if you want to quit now, that is fine. I'm only gonna pay for it once with a successful outcome. So if you want to quit, that's fine, but you have to reimburse me. And they said, Well, how much is it? And I added it up, and it was not at all something that they were willing to do. And he was like, Well, I'm not gonna pay all that money for my eyes to just go back to the way they were, and I was like, You and me both, pal. Like that the clip flows out. Here we are, and now we are in a place where I have one that's a little bit less motivated and one that's more motivated. And he's starting to tell me, Hey, what if I do six exercises a day? What if I do seven exercises a day? But here we are, and it's been nine months, so it's finally like they're finally recognizing that they're they're not getting out of it. We're sticking through this, and I can't do their eye exercises for them. Absolutely.

Krystle 10:44

And that's great. Your journey is similar to a lot of kids, it really is. And that's what you said at the very beginning, where you were like, I feel like that this is probably common. It is. And the part that I love about what is happening with your journey is you've seen this success, and your boys have seen this success. And so they're like, Okay, this isn't this isn't so bad. All right, let's stick around for this, let's see this all the way through. I remember we just barely talked. We just barely had an assessment on Wednesday, right? Within. And they were like, Well, how much longer? And I had to explain to them that I was like, okay, your time as far as when the clock started for you, essentially, was when you buckled down and you really started doing the eye exercises. And so we kind of can't really count all of that time that you were working with Coach Leah before, and then you were fighting mom on doing eye exercises and everything else like that, because there wasn't the growth there. There wasn't the releasing of that tension that was happening. So you were basically going through the motions of working with Coach Leah, but physically and atomically, there wasn't the changes that were happening yet. And they both were kind of like, okay. So we have kids that they will be like, Well, I've been doing this, I've been in the program. The parents have been like, my child has been in the program for six months. I'm not seeing what you guys said that I should be seeing. And it's because there isn't the exercises that are being accomplished. And that's really a key factor in what we do here. Yes, we have the sessions where we're doing a lot of the different exercises also within the sessions, but those are different exercises that are on top of what the exercises are supposed to be outside of the sessions with the regular everyday life doing the five exercises a day, like you were saying. And then your son's like, well, maybe if I do six, well, maybe if I do seven. That's the bread and butter of it. It's that's where it has to happen. And that's why I've talked about this before on podcasts where we're the coach. It's the mom and child team that makes a difference. And I love that you came to talk to us today because you you are a fantastic example of you supporting your children, right? And you being there for your boys and going, no, you know what, let's do this, and you supporting them through this journey, which is allowing them to have enough of that confidence to say, okay, yeah, let's keep doing this. But even if that included a little bit of some tough love, right? A little bit tough love, yeah. But it works out. Well, that's fantastic. So, with all of this, let's talk about now that they're seeing progress, now that they're seeing things, let's talk about that experience of where their journey is now taking them with school and with reading and everything else.

Jessie 13:51

Like, what changes are you seeing with them? The changes that I'm seeing are that my younger son in particular, he is not intimidated by a full page of text. Sometimes when we used to get out a book, a chapter book, and they still have like young reader books and they have big words and picture on one side and words on the other. Sometimes he would just like sit back in his chair, like when he'd see a full page of words. He doesn't do that anymore. You know, if I asked him to read a list of words in the past, it might have seemed overwhelming, but they're this there's this emotional weight that has been removed. And that is huge. Do they read for pleasure? No. Sometimes if they ask me to read stuff, I'm I kind of get out of the habit of reading stuff for them. They say, Mom, what does this say? And I would just do it because that's what I did when they were babies. But I had trained myself finally to say, well, give it a try. And they do now without asking. We've got a long way to go still in the program, but they're not intimidated by text. There are some old scripture texts that we read regularly, and some of those words are crazy, and they read them. Word guessing doesn't that help in those old scripture texts very much. Since I don't think that they even recognize how far they've come. So I think that's why those videos are so helpful from Coach Leah for her to show them what they used to read back in the beginning, because our progress is so incremental. And I think another thing, I was gonna say this earlier. I think another thing that was really challenging for my boys to do this program is here I am saying, I'm gonna help and make sure that there are no physical barriers for you to be able to read. And I think that the one of them was worried that I was trying to force him to love reading and that I was gonna force him to be obsessed with reading giant novels. And I said, I just had to clear that up with him and say, if you never read another book again, if you never read for pleasure in the rest of your life, that doesn't matter. But you have to be able to read when you need to. And in this world, we're gonna have to be able to read. Reading is the way that we're gonna be able to gather information. You can you can gather any information you need to with reading, and you're gonna have to be able to take a block of text that's informational, even if it's not a narrative story, and uh understand that with your brain. That is what this is. And and he's like, but isn't this kind of expensive? And I was like, Well, it's worth a million dollars to me that you don't have a physical barrier stopping you from reading. I was like, I can't stop you from reading if that's what you want, but I will do everything I can to remove this physical barrier for you. And I think that spoke to him a lot. And they really are doing so much better. And they try stuff, they stop and sound out words. I think that my older son, when he would word guess, I think for him it was like he wanted to do things correctly. He was worried about doing it wrong, so he would word guess, and he didn't understand that was I think it was like an anxiety thing at that point. But he slows down now. He just does it at his pace the way he can, and he's improved so much. And the challenges I feel like that he has are more social about it, about reading in front of others.

Krystle 17:45

Hopefully, he'll get there. We have many students where they're terrified. Even Coach's daughter or her daughter was that way, and then she eventually got up and was able to read in front of her entire homeschool co-op, and it was incredible. That's amazing. So that may be something. I'm not gonna say this is a thing that you can look forward to, that he'll be doing this now. I can't say that, right? Because he's on his own journey, he's going to do what he wants to do, and that's totally fine. But I love how you were telling him that it's not about the love of reading, right? You don't have to love reading, but you have to survive and thrive in life from everything from reading a recipe to cook you dinner to reading the ingredients at the store on which product you're buying or whatever else, or contracts, or exactly yeah, anything. You have to be able to know how to read and understand the context of what you're reading and even the there's a lot of reader programs and apps out there and devices out there that are there for you, but at the same time, they are still a machine and they cannot read to you fully like your brain can understand the context of what it is. Yeah. And that's what makes a huge difference in you yourself reading and being able to have somebody else do it for you all of the time. That's fantastic. I love that. I love that for both of your sons and where they are going. If your one son doesn't want to ever read a book ever again, that's fine. That's totally fine. It's not a big deal. Like I have in my child that I did do started this program with, she devours books. She loves them and she's constantly saying, Mom, I need this new book, and she's constantly going to library. And then I have a son that he taught himself how to read. And he can read. He's great at reading. He doesn't enjoy reading books. He would much rather sit there listening to music or playing on his drums or stuff like that. And that's just him, and that is totally fine. This program isn't one where we're going to try and brainwash all of the children to be like, Yo, I want to love reading. Reading is going to be your favorite thing. Read all of these books. You're going to read 200 books in a year. That's not what it's about. It's about changing their futures in order for them to be able to thrive in life.

Jessie 20:36

Yeah. And I, as a child, did not like reading at all. And I love reading now, but I was 20 before I ever read for pleasure. So I feel like it's your whole life is ahead of you. And if you don't want to read right now, and maybe if you never want to read again, it's fine. But I'm just not too worried. He might find books, he might find pleasure in books eventually, but I want him to have the ability.

Krystle 21:00

Exactly. How would they say it's been for his schoolwork? Like, do you feel like there's less frustration with schoolwork overall with both of the boys? Like they're able to actually get through their schoolwork faster.

Jessie 21:10

Yes. Yep. They're able to get through their schoolwork faster. I still I have not pushed writing very much. Oh my goodness, their handwriting is trash. But one step at a time, I'm asking a lot of them right now. We've got a long way to go. But both of them, we do get through. And the emotional stress is so much less. And they definitely, and the older one can read some instructions to himself now. And I'll encourage him to do that. And he's it's a different world. It would be nice if they appreciated it more, but I think that they will someday.

Krystle 21:51

Awesome. I love it. Yeah, it will make a huge difference in their entire lives. It really will. Last couple things before we wrap up. Do you have any advice for other parents out there that are listening that they've come across this information and they're hesitant or they're just brand new to this and they're going, what is this? What could you say to them about what is this program is about, how it's helped you?

Jessie 22:18

Next steps that you took and you were glad. I'm really glad that I got the assessment for sure. And I'm really glad that we were able to start when we did. Maybe advice I would say if you had something huge coming up, maybe start after. If you're like, oh, we're gonna be gone for a month, I don't know. Just timing because once you start, it would be more valuable to be consistent. So if you're thinking, I can't really be consistent about this for another month or so, I would wait to start until you are ready to be consistent. And consistency can be really important.

Krystle 23:00

What helped get you into that consistent routine? What are some things that you did that you've done with your voice? To give incentives, stuff like that.

Jessie 23:08

Oh, yeah, we've got all the incentives. I have like charts and I have we tried like giving them money at the end of the week if they didn't miss a day. I actually have one here that I do. I can show you. So we have these jars, and in the bottom is candy. These are pom poms. There are five of them, and they can't get to the candy until they pull out all five pom poms. And you and so I have these like tongs that they'll reach in and grab out the pom poms. So they do an eye exercise, they pull a pom pom out, and then they can get the candy. Now, there are four candies down there because I have four children, and everyone gets Candy when the child in question has done all five exercises. So everybody celebrates. And it's really nice because then the other kids are like, hey, they can see there's only one pom-pom left in a jar. Hey, you should do that last one. And they're like, Oh yeah, so they do. And so everyone is encouraging and helping. And so that is one that is still working. We actually listened to Atomic Habits as a family, as a family audiobook. And we discussed after applicable chapters, like, how would that help us with some of the goals that we have? Oh, eye exercises. Okay. Yeah. So I haven't made them listen to or do any like self-help type nonfiction books before. But I chose to, we just listened to that one in the car and just discussed it. We didn't write down anything, but this was inspired by a story from that book. That actually really helped a lot to read that book together as a family or to listen to it as a family. I don't know how to get into the routine faster. I think I don't know how to give advice about this necessarily, but if I could go back and talk to myself in the beginning and just say to myself about my kids specifically, because every kid is different and you know your kid, they're not going to be excited about doing this. This is work that we've asked them to do that they're going to be doing for months before they see results. And that is hard for adults to do. That's hard for even the most well-adjusted, responsible adult to work hard at something and not see results for months. How challenging that can be. And I guess if I could say to myself back in the beginning, I would say just that they're gonna struggle with the consistency of this, and to be patient and to know that for me, the first couple of months were probably not that productive. And just to be aware that there was gonna be a time space before anything really productive happened where it was basically conditioning for the kids to realize that they weren't getting out of this until it's done. Like being pregnant. Like you can't not you have to have a baby to be done. So it's like in month two, like you have this long way to go, and it's not over till it's over. I feel like the mental if I could go back and say to them and do something that was gonna help to maybe accelerate that mentality that this isn't over till it's over. And I don't know what that looks like. I don't know how long, but I do know the instructions we've been given. I know how to get there, I don't know how fast, but we do know what to do and what not to do. And just the more powerful we can be, the better this is gonna go. And our attitudes is everything, as far as to stick with something that's not fun for a long time, is a pretty big character building thing, and it's a really big ask for a kid. And I would also say this was not my experience specifically, but I would also say that maybe if you are having relationship problems with your kid, if you are in the middle of a power struggle and you're having relationship struggles in general, I would maybe wait and do some repair on your relationship before. Luckily, we were in a good place, but I've learned as a homeschool mom that you can't teach someone something if they're mad at you. So if there's any strife in your relationship with your kid, I would just focus on repairing that and then get started. But luckily, that wasn't necessarily our struggle, but maybe making sure that expectations are explained and explored with your kid, maybe asking them, what are your expectations for this? Because my older son got pretty mad later on in the program because he said, Well, I thought it was just gonna be something that I could do as I was riding my bike or doing whatever. And I don't know where he got that expectation, but that persisted for a few weeks where he said, Well, I thought it was gonna be different. And we had to say, I don't know where that came from. You had an expectation. That expectation has not been met. That's not a reality, and so we're gonna have to let go of that one and let go of the bitterness that you're feeling because of that expectation. So maybe having like real actual discussion about what they might think it might look like. And if it looks different, that can be very upsetting for them. Speaking to them like you would an adult, right? Yeah. Because even though their brains aren't fully they haven't grown to that capacity of the adult thinking, right? You can still communicate to them on that same level of going, I understand your frustration, I understand where you're coming from. I see that would be frustrating. And you now have to, rather than while you're riding your bike, you can't do these exercises. You actually have to stop doing something fun to come in and do these exercises and do these massages. And then you have to go back to it. Yeah, that would be kind of a bummer. But at the same time, if you think about what that little minute amount of time, five, maybe ten minutes that you're taking out of playing and what it's doing for your future is huge. They'll sometimes catch on and that's why I did implement the benchmark recordings with because I knew it's so helpful. It's seriously the best. I guess to that, I guess I would just say like if you went for a job interview and your boss ex didn't explain the job very well, and you get into it and you're like, holy crap, this is not what I signed up for. Just kind of like that disorienting like feeling of maybe even like a little bit of betrayal at that point. So those emotions can be very real, even though the kids aren't really seeing the benefit or the big picture of it all.

Krystle 30:20

Okay. And they don't quite know how to understand how to articulate that.

Jessie 30:24

Yeah. They just kind of get angry. Yeah. Yeah. So being able to be open with your child and just communicate with them and talk to them about it. And yeah. And the biggest thing is being that support member there for them. But yes, you I love that. And how much you supported your your boys through this. It's a game changer. I have a feeling in 20 years they'll figure out, but they'll be like, hey, that really was a big deal that mom did for us. So maybe someday they'll recognize that. That's parenting for you, right? Yeah, I know. And you're like, it's like pregnancy, and then I was like, no, it's like parenting. That's a long journey. That's what you're looking at here. That's parenting. You have the baby, oh, they're so cute and security, and they grow up and they're cute when they're two, and they make cute little, and then they continue growing up, and then you get the teenage years, and he was like, Yeah, I gotta get theory those. So yeah, that's great. This is a parenting pass. Honestly, I feel like it forces you to be a better parent. I feel like homeschooling forces you to be a better parent. I don't know if this is gonna be a popular opinion. This might be an unpopular opinion, but I feel like some, like if you're gonna teach your child and you're gonna be in a business like this with your child, if you are gonna do this. It does like doing this doesn't necessarily mean homeschooling, but if you're gonna do this with your kid, you have to have a relationship that is functional. And I have felt like that with homeschooling many times. I can't teach my kid if they're rebellious or if I am being too harsh. You know, we have to fix our relationship before we're gonna get any learning done. I feel like this type of thing, if you're gonna engage in a journey like this with your kid, it forces you to fix your relationship problems along the way.

Krystle 32:23

Oh well, that's you. It's just that's something that I haven't heard.

Jessie 32:26

Oh, well, I feel like it's a very real reality. We can't make these things happen if we are not functional as a team, I guess, is what you you called us a team earlier, and I feel like that's very appropriate. And there is a lot of tension here and there sometimes over the doing the eye exercises and practicing the drills and showing up for sessions with coach. You have to be working together, and you can't work together if you're fighting.

Krystle 33:00

Yeah, that's great. I love that. That's fantastic. That's some amazing advice. I love that you came on. I love that that we we were able to talk and we were able to talk about the journey with your sons and where you're at and where you've come. And you're still on this journey, which is great. I love being able to hear from parents that have their journeys over with that, and then parents that are still in it, because then that gives all the other parents out there as well, like, you know, that motivation of yes, okay, this is still okay. This can happen. I can see the end result, I can see the middle result. So this is great. I really appreciate it. And I'm sure that we'll probably have you on again another time. And other than that, we can definitely look forward to Coach Leo will talk about wins that we have with your voice here on another podcast episode. So excellent. Say again, thank you very much. Thank you very much. And we will probably see you soon. We'll talk to you. Excellent. Thanks. Bye bye.