Rooted In Reading: Raising Curious and Connected Kids

Today’s episode is such a good one — especially if reading is something you want to do more of with your kids… or if you’re already a book lover and want fresh ideas.

I’m chatting with Ashley Furness, a mom of four who has built the sweetest, most down-to-earth reading culture in her home. She makes reading feel doable, fun, and not at all overwhelming — which is honestly what we all need, right?

We talk about:

• Making reading fun and low-pressure
• What books to pick (without spiraling into overwhelm)
• Kids who stick to “easy” books
• Audiobooks
• How to introduce reading to kids
• How to bring books back into your life too
• and more...

All of the books and resources mentioned in this episode are here in this one PDF for you: TWML:E10 Resources

Grab your earbuds and join us — you’re going to love this one.

Transcript

Welcome back to the Whole Motherload. It's been a little quiet around here the last couple of months. Life threw a few things my way, but I am really grateful to be back with you today. And honestly, this episode feels like the perfect one to return with because it's just so good. Today, we're talking about something that is near and dear to my heart: reading. I sit down with Ashley Furnace, a mom of four, who has created the most warm inviting and beautiful reading culture in her home. What I love about Ashley is how real and doable she makes reading feel. No pressure, no perfection, just simple, joyful ways to bring books into your life. And whether you already love reading or you're someone who wants to read more but struggles to fit it in, there is truly something here for you. Through conversations and stories with moms just like you, the whole Motherload helps to build the mindset, skillset, toolset, and the heartset of motherhood to support you in raising happy, healthy, whole, resilient kids.

I am happy to welcome in this episode Ashley Furnace. Ashley is a wife, a mother of four, a woman of faith, an educator, a reader, and a lifelong learner. She grew up on a farm in rural Idaho, and after living in Utah, Michigan, and Kentucky with her husband and family, she returned to her hometown to raise their kids in the country. She loves to travel and meet new people and talk about reading, and that is her favorite hobby. We are going to talk about that today. Welcome, Ashley.

Thank you so much, Jackie. That's fun to hear. My favorite is when you mention Michigan, and I'm That's how you come into my life.

I reached out to you for this podcast because I just love your love of books, of reading, of learning. I see you on social media talking about that and how you've integrated this into your family's culture and what that means for your children, for you, and your life. And so let's dig in and talk about this. Why do you read? And why does it matter to read in your life for you?

I mean, you could go all the way back to when I was little and I was staying up super late reading. There are books and book series that just define my life, that I just connect to different times in my life. And so I think for me, it's a very emotional experience. But I studied English. Well, I studied history, and then my minor was English and literature. I went to London as part of my BYU education, and I studied literary history. Everything Everything that I do and who I am is tied up in literature and reading. That doesn't always mean fine literature. It's just so much a part of who I am. It's really easy for me to make it a part of my life now. It grounds me. When my kids went back to school this year, this fall, I noticed I'm missing our reading time. And so reading has become just something that binds us together, but it's also a way that we supplement what they're learning. I've seen how it helps them Excel. And their teachers are always like, wow, they make comments that are so great. I'm like, it's just because they read.

For my kids and in our family, reading is just a gift. It's something we all enjoy. And truly, there are times when I'm like, no more screens. We're not watching anything. I'll tell them that, and they'll be like, Well, then can we listen to a book? Because it's like, that's just as appealing to them.

That's awesome. It's such a valuable gift that you're giving them and that it comes from your heart and your passion. It seems like that's now becoming a part of who they are as well. What would you say is the number one reason for you and your kids that you read?

We read together because it's really bonding. My husband and I read together, and it strengthens our relationship. It's so helpful for us, whether it's scripture or we one time read a book about the CEO of Ford that helped Ford overcome the 2008 economy crash and things. Anything we read, he reads Pride and Prejudice with me. It's bonding for our relationship. When we read anything, Ramona, The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Harry Potter, the Wild Robot, any of those things, it becomes this bonding memory with my kids, and it's beautiful.

So did your kids ever reject reading?

That's a good question. I would say no, that hasn't ever really been an issue. I mean, do your kids reject watching TV? No. They don't reject movie night because who does that? That's fun. And so when you make reading time fun and enjoyable and a privilege, they treat it like it's a reward. It's fun.

How did you make it fun for them?

I Really been reflecting on this. I started realizing what makes it fun for me. Staying up late to read makes it fun. I have gotten my kids little reading laps. They have little lights so they can read at night and stay up, and that makes it fun. Sometimes it's also a I'm like, We've swung to the other side of the pendulum where I have to take that away sometimes. But when they were little, I would institute a quiet time. I learned from one of my friends, sometimes they just needed their own space. They could choose a couch or a rug or a bed that they wanted to sit on, and I'd make them a little nest, and I'd make them really cozy in it, and they could have their pile of books. One thing that I have done is sometimes I will even say we're going to have a read-athon, and it's not all day or anything. I'll say, Go get your snacks, and you can go read. I always speak of it like It is just so fun. I'll ask them about what they're reading. I never want it to feel like an assignment or something that they have to do.

But if they want to tell me about their books, sometimes they'll even tell me about dog man or bad guys, which I have a low tolerance for those stories, but I still see the value in them. I try to listen and I'll ask questions, and I'm familiar with who the characters are so that we can talk about it and it's fun. I let them take books outside. They go in their little tree house or on the trampoline. I've been thinking, are there any other little things that I do? I think that they've been also read aloud, too, enough that they know what it is to be in that imaginary world, and they like that. That's fun to them. We live 30 minutes to an hour from anywhere. We live in a very, very rural place. So even to get to one of our really good friends' houses, it's like 45 minutes. So everywhere we go, we're listening to books, and it just helps that car time. I will say that there are big age gaps between my kids. And so as we've dived more into listening to audiobooks together as a family, there have been times where I choose something to read and my kids all just don't really want to read it.

For example, part of our library reading challenge this summer was to read a classic book, and so we chose Winnie the Pooh. It was a little slow for some of them. There are times when we're listening to Harry Potter. It's a little bit much for my first grader. He was in kindergarten and earlier when he'd really just be like, No, I don't want to listen to that book. But it's never like, No, turn it off. I hate reading. I hate listening to books. There's always something else. He'll always ask, Can we listen to this one instead? We went to Yellowstone this summer, and we listened to Chickens in the Headlights, which is a hilarious, really silly book. The whole time, we were stuck in lines. We didn't realize that there was still fourth of July traffic at Yellowstone. It took us forever to get into the park, and it took us forever to get through all these traffic jams. But we don't remember the terrible waiting in line because we were listening to Chickens in the Headlights, and we were laughing out loud because it's hilarious, and everyone in our whole family enjoys it. It just helps these memories.

Of course, we remember all the cool things we saw at Yellowstone, but it helps it to be this happy time where my kids are like, Yeah, I'm ready to get back in the car. Let's turn on our book. When I'm being a really stressed out mom at dinner and my husband's not home and I just need to have everything be calm, I turn on a book, and then we talk about it, and it's just fun. It changes the mood, and it just becomes something that we all enjoy together.

Do audiobooks actually count as reading, especially with kids? I'm curious what your thoughts are on that.

This is a topic I get fired up about. I think absolutely. I recently came across something on social media where a mom said that at parent-teacher conference or something, they told the teacher that they'd been listening to these books, and the teacher pulled out all the reading logs of the students and crossed them off and said, These don't count anymore because you listened and you didn't read. I just thought, You just killed it. You killed any desire that they have to read now. I was a teacher when I was 21 years old. That's when I started teaching, and I'm sure I made these mistakes. I wish I could go back and correct those kinds of things. Here's what I will say. There's some research that says audiobooks don't actually work your brain the exact same way that a book does. Obviously, you're using different skills, right? You're using a different sense, actually. So it is a different experience. I can tell I remember things differently when I listen versus when I read. And we all have different strengths and different learning styles, so it's going to affect all of us a little bit differently. But I will say because it's a different experience, you're just learning a new skill.

Your brain is learning another way, so I absolutely count it. Usually, I don't even differentiate between I listened to this or I read this. To me, it's all reading. It is a different experience, and that's okay. That's good. I've noticed that my kids are developing a lot of really valuable skills when they're listening, just as they are when they're reading. The one that has been most impressive to me lately is my little boy is a first grader now. We are thick into Harry Potter right now. We're in book 5. At the beginning, there's a lot of things happening, and he was like, Mom, Mom, stop the book. I think I know what's going to happen in the end. For a first grader to be making predictions on his own is huge. That's something that junior high students are still trying to be encouraged to do. I just think the more exposure that we get to books, the better. Because my kids listen, they also want to read more. I don't think that they're two separate things. I don't think that one is worse than the other. I think that they go hand in hand. If you want to be a reader, you should embrace both.

I love that so much because we homeschooled, and we listened to a lot of books, and we had some very rich family experiences in audiobooks with our kids. How do you really tell what is good for them to read and help them to be well-read, especially if you have more than one kid?

Yeah, absolutely. There's a lot of things I want to talk about in that question. First of all, one of my favorite, favorite books that I've ever read is by Sarah McKenzie, and it's called The Read Aloud Family. Sarah McKenzie is Catholic homeschooling moms. She's incredible. She's such a great resource for reading and teaching your kids at home. I've learned some of these things from her. She addresses the issue that, of course, we want our kids to be well-read, and we want them to read all kinds of things. A lot of people are really caught up in the idea that they have to read everything. But even if you forced them, and even if they accepted you forcing them to read everything that you think is on this list of being well-read, they still would have a million things that they haven't read. I think I'm well-read, but I could give you so many books that I haven't read. People are always shocked all the time. People will be like, You haven't read that? I'm like, I haven't read everything. I read like 100, 120 books a year, usually, and I'm still missing a lot of books that I haven't read.

Sometimes I'm like, Why didn't my high school English teacher have me read that? So I need to go back and fill in the gaps. But no matter how well-read you are, there's always more to read. So that is going to be true for our kids. We need to accept that their reading life, just like the rest of their life, is theirs. I can encourage, and I can invite, and I can buy the books, and I can put them on their night stand, and it's up to them what they actually read. There could be something inappropriate or that doesn't fit in with their family standards, and that's going to happen. There was once a book that my girls and I read. It was an award-winning book. Everyone was talking about how wonderful was. It was a sister relationship. It was so good. At the very end, as the story was wrapping up, there was something in it that really just wasn't the thing I wanted my kids to be reading. I was like, Oh, man, we went this far. I decided in that moment, I'm never going to be able to just go through every single thing that they read.

I never will. Just like, I'm never going to be able to go with them every single place and monitor every conversation and every word that they hear and every bad thing that they're exposed close to. So what can I do with this experience? What I did was we just talked about it. I used it as a learning experience, and I was like, I am so disappointed that this is in this book, and they put it in at the very end. That makes me really sad. My girls were like, Yeah, why would they do that? We talked about it and we talked about, did it matter to the story? Did it affect the story? We just use it as a learning experience. I was like, There are a few pages left. Do you want to continue or do you want to stop? So They decided that we would continue. There was 5 or 10 pages. We continued and everything else was great. When we were done, I was like, Here's the thing. When you are reading, sometimes you're going to come across a word or a scene or all never-ending list of things that happen in a book, you get to decide if you're going to keep reading it or if you're not.

You can always come and talk to me. That's part of why I'm like, Hey, which book are you reading? What did you get at the library? I haven't read that yet. I've seen that it's on this list, and I've been wanting to. Tell me about it. They open up because we've had those conversations. I think it's great because I'm really of the mentality that I want them to talk to me and I want to talk openly. There have even been times where I'm listening to a book and it comes up on the car and it'll say a bad word or whatever. I'm like, No, this book has some bad words, and I'm trying to decide if I want to keep going or not. We just talk about it because we live in a world where we're exposed to all kinds of things. I would rather they learn how to navigate it safely here with these books.

That's so beautiful because you're using books as a means to establish that connection and that ability to communicate That's awesome. Okay, so now you've gotten them reading. Have you ever had this situation where now they're reading too much?

Yeah. My husband says all the time they'll be all reading in the car and he's like, Look at what you've done. That's amazing. Then we get home and it's 10: 00 at night, and he's like, Why is everyone just wanting to read? I'm like, Because they just love reading, and it's so good. It's this really fun line that we have to walk. My eighth grader is very introverted. For her, she loves reading fantasy, and she loves things that are just light and lovely and playful and fun. She's entering this world where all of her friends are into makeup and boys, and they all play sports, and she does, too, but she's just not quite like that. For her, her fantasy world is just peaceful and calm and relaxing, and she wants to read at the end of the day, but it definitely gets out of hand. Sometimes they'll be like, Okay, we're going to bed. But then they get out those nightlights that I bought them, and they're up at 11: 00 at night reading. I can't be too mad because I do the same thing. But I also am like, Okay, if you can't control yourself, then your books can't belong in the bedroom.

They have to go somewhere else. But ultimately, at the end of the day, this is a problem that I am happy to have.

That's awesome. I love it. How do you actually find books that you want to read for yourself, for your kids, or for your family?

Reese Witherspoon has a book club, and Jenna Bush-Hegar. Hegar? Is that her name? She has a book club. But I found that there are lots of people like me who have a smaller following who are sharing and rating. I belong to three book clubs, and so I'll talk to people about it. My aunt belongs to a book club, and when it's time for them to discuss what books they're going to read, she calls me for ideas, and then I ask her what they've been reading. It's just a huge part of my life of what I read. I look at the Newbury Awards list, and I look at the Caldeca Awards list, and I'm always just looking. I still like to go to bookstores. It just feels so fun and fresh. Then I'll just go find the book at the library. Our library is so small that sometimes they'll have the books that I'm looking for that are But a lot of times I will tell them, these are some good ones. I also have just learned that there are certain authors that I watch for. For example, Christine Asun-Tornbot. She is an incredible author. She has a novel.

She has a historical account of the soccer team that was trapped in the cave. Her book about that is incredible. I think it's called Thirteen Days or something. Then she also has this graphic novel called The Tryout, three completely different genres, and she just masters every single one of them. If she comes out with something else, I'm for sure going to read that because she's incredible. That's what we do, but I'm just always looking.

That makes a lot of sense. Just keep your eyes open for what is out there, and then you'll come across something. And if it's appealing, try it. I had a mom ask me once how I got my kids to eat vegetables, and I said, I eat vegetables. And she was like, No. What advice would you have for moms who maybe are less less inclined to read themselves or enjoy it themselves, but they want their kids to read.

Okay. Jk Rowling said, Everybody is a reader. I think she said, Every child is a reader. But I would say that it applies to everyone, all adults. If you don't think that you are, you just haven't found the right book. Sometimes it's as easy as shifting like, I should be reading these parenting books, and sometimes I enjoy them, but sometimes that's not what I want to read. Whenever I start feeling like, I have to read this, that to me is a red flag that I need to find something else. So one trick that I have, I learned after I studied history and English in college. So as you can imagine, my reading load was absolutely insane. So insane that I was constantly reading and I was never caught up. And I left college just thinking, I cannot read anything. I started to realize when I feel like that, I need to have a go-to category. So sometimes for me, that is a proper romance, just light and breezy. And sometimes that is Harry Potter. Right now, I'm really into some really light murder mystery things. I had a friend who taught me the term palate cleanser.

Sometimes when you read too much or you're just overwhelmed with all the options or all the things you should be doing, go to your palate cleanser. It doesn't matter what it is. If it's something you feel like you shouldn't be reading because you're an adult or whatever. If that's the thing that will motivate you to read, that's what you should be reading. If that's true for me, that's true for my kids.

What's the difference between buying or borrowing? When do you distinguish between whether you should buy it or just get it from the library?

That is a topic that I have changed how I view that. When I was younger, in college, I loved going to Barnes & Noble and just buying books. I never really even thought twice about how much money they cost. I just would buy the pretty ones that I wanted to just collect them. As a mom, the same thing. I had my second baby We were in Michigan and I had a book shower, a book-themed baby shower, because I was like, I'm having another girl. I don't need that much stuff. But I love books. I love collecting them. I love having them. I love enjoying them. I love that it's mine. I love having my shelves full of books. But it's not sustainable to buy every book that I read. There are books on my shelves that I wish I didn't have anymore. They're not my favorite. They bother me. There are some picture books that when my kids get them, I'm just like, not that one, not that one. I had a friend one time who said, Those are the books that I shove under the bed and I pretend they're not there anymore. I just laughed.

I've undergone this idea change where I don't want to just own all the books just to have them. I only want to own the ones that matter to me. Right now, I'm actually the past two years, I've challenged myself, I'm not spending money on reading, which is hard for someone who reads a lot. I have a couple of exceptions because I do have some accounts where I can listen to a whole bunch. That's an exception because I'm spending less on that subscription than I would be on the books. But for the most part, I like going to the library, and I've realized that the same dopamine hit that I used to get from buying the books, I get that at the library. Sometimes that's the whole reason why I was buying them is just because it feels fun and new and fresh. I've moved across the country a few times, and hauling books is not very fun. I just it to be worthwhile. I have a friend who buys all of her books, and she loves to lend them to people, and she loves to mark them, and that's just her favorite thing. But I've decided if it's one that I'm going to read more than once, and if I want to mark it, then I'll buy it.

When I watch my kids reading, there are times when they just check out the same book over and over and over and over. They're probably one of the only people who ever has read that book because it's always at her house. I pay attention to those things and I'll buy it. That happened with my daughter. There There was this one book. It's called The Try Out by, I mentioned her already, Christina Suntornbot. She's an excellent, excellent, young, middle-grade author. That book was getting worn out from us having it at our house. I bought that book, and then I realized there was the sequel coming out right before my daughter's birthday. I just bought them both, and she loved that. But before that, I would have just gone and found my own book that I thought she should read, and I would have bought that and given that to her, and she would have been like, Oh, thanks. I never read it. We have several of those on a shelf in a cupboard right now. And so I've just decided I want them to be more meaningful. So that's a long answer. But the thing is, books are so personal that that's my answer, but it's not going to be the same for everyone.

You mentioned you read what was it, 120 books a year? How do you keep track of what books you've read and what books your kids have read?

I use an app called Goodreads. This is also a way that I find books. Goodreads is a website where you create an account and you keep track, and they do a book challenge, a reading challenge every year. This year, I had a baby in December, and I have three older kids who I'm chasing to their activities. So I decided I was only going to set a goal for 50. Normally, my goal is around 100 or 120. I've just about exceeded that goal. So that's great. But I love that it keeps track of them. I love that it's a way that I can rate them and I can see what my friends are rating them. One thing I love about Goodreads is I'm particular about who I'm friends with. And so there's a couple of friends who I know they don't tolerate certain language or certain of scenes or whatever in their books. If this certain friend recommends this and if she gives it a five-star rating, then it's something that I'm probably going to like and be okay with as well. That's really helpful. I have tried creating lists on Goodreads from books that my kids have read, and I did that for a while, but I really have just become a huge believer in my kids' reading life is part of their autonomy.

It's not my job to keep track of that anymore. When I was a teacher, all the teachers had a different homeroom, and the kids would choose where they wanted to go. Some were sports, some were different things, and mine was book club. So the kids who came to my homeroom, they could all choose who their teacher was. They were all kids who wanted to read. And one of the girls taught us how to get note cards, a stack of note cards, and put a ring through them and just keep track of all the books and rate them and put a description. And it was so cute. And so I've done that with my girls. They keep track of them that way. But truly, we're probably not keeping track of everything that they read, and that's okay.

Yeah, that's good. How do you really introduce reading to kids? What age do you start reading? How does that work for you?

Okay, so it is never too early to introduce books to babies. I have a nine-month-old baby, and she loves books, and she She even starts to... She'll say, Buh, Buh, because she knows their books. I will read them to her, but she mostly just wants to play with them. For her, I specifically try to find some that are the board books that a little bit more indestructible, that have textures and fun things. One thing that I learned when my first daughter went to kindergarten was that some kids don't even realize that the text should be read going from left to right. They don't realize how the words flow from page to page. Even the most basic skills that we all take for granted, those are things that we teach babies and infants and toddlers. It's important to point out to the words when you're reading them. Even things like at church when we're singing hymns, I point to the words just to show the flow of how that book works. It's important to point out, here's the title, here's the author, here's the illustrator. Just without even thinking about it, you just let them experience that book.

My number one tip is let them take the lead. They might need help. One thing that I've learned from Jansen Bradshaw, she is a really, really awesome blogger and writer about reading. She was a library and she just has a great site. She says, do things like read the first couple of chapters aloud to get them into it, make sure that they know who the characters are, what the setting is, what's happening, because sometimes it's hard to transition from whatever world you're coming from, like your day at school, into your book. Get them past that. Then once they're hooked in the story, let them take off. I found that that's so helpful. Sometimes we'll even listen to an audiobook, and my daughter will be like, I just want to read this on my own. I'm like, Fine, take it from here. We'll go find it at the library and you check it out. I think there are lots of things we can do to assist them, but don't take over your child's reading because that's one of the few things that they can control and just really love. Trust them. They know what they want to read.

I have that baby, and I'm reading with her. Then I have a first grader who he is becoming pretty self-sufficient in reading, and he's ready to move on to whatever books he chooses now. I didn't know what his take would be. My girls, they love to sit still and read, and he's very active, and he plays all kinds of sports, and he roughhouses. I just didn't know what to expect from him reading-wise, but he was always asking me, Mom, can you sit down and show me how to read? I would go through a how to teach your child how to read book. I didn't force that too much. I just waited for him to ask. But most of what we did was I would take just him He had half day preschool and half day kindergarten, and I would take him by himself to the library, and we'd pick out whatever he wanted. The library is my favorite place, so I'd chat with the librarians. He would go sit in the chair and just flip through all his books. Then we'd come home and it was exciting. I'd Hey, I'm going to get you a snack, and we're going to look through all your books.

It was exciting and we looked through them, and I never told him like, No, you can't get that book, or, Here's one that you have to get. I would just let him choose his, and then I always check out picture books because they're so fun. Then we just read them. There are different lengths and there's all kinds. I just would try to experience those books with him. Now that he's getting to the point where he can't completely read everything. He can read everything, but he gets discouraged by the length of some books. We're getting to where we're almost ready for chapter books. This is the age where I find a lot of parents freak out. How do I get him to actually read? If you sat with him, my little boy is completely capable of reading. He could read every single word on the page, but sometimes it's really intimidating and it's a lot. He just wants to look through the pictures. I'll say, Hey, do you want to read that with me? I'll have him read some of it, and then I can tell he's done. I'm like, Do you want me to read it with you or do you want to just look at the pictures?

Sometimes I'll sit down and read the whole Dog Man book. Sometimes he'll say, No, I just want to look at it. I notice as he's looking through, if there's a page that's really interesting, he'll read every word on that spread. But I'm letting him lead, and that helps him be engaged more. I'll tell you this story. I was in the hospital having my baby. She was born. She had just gone to the NICU. I was really emotional. I think it was at the point where my husband was with the baby in the NICU. One of my friends texted, and she was like, My daughter is at the point where She is totally so smart. She's so capable. She can be reading at this higher grade level, but she only wants to read. There's these really great books that Scolastic does. They're called Branches Books, and they have lots of pictures. They're pictures-heavy, and then they have cute little stories. A lot of parents have a hard time getting over the fact that these are so easy. Why does my child want to stay in these easy, easy books? We went back and forth and I was like, You know what?

Honestly, here's the thing. My eighth grader is reading Pride and Prejudice. She reads abridged Shakespeare stories. She loves reading Greek myths. She loves reading big fantasy books, but she loves those branches books. Those are her palate cleanser that she goes back to because they are a fun, fond memory of reading. They're just sweet and innocent, and they're cute, and everybody loves them. Kids read them at a time when they're starting to read, and it's memorable for them. I think it's really the sentimental memory of first learning to read those books is what really brings kids to them. So I like to say, don't panic. If your child is capable of reading better and higher things, they're probably being pushed to do a lot of that at school. What they're reading at school is content, information-heavy, and It is nice. I will read a lot of non-conviction that is very statistics-heavy or it's a parenting book that's very information overload. And it's nice for me to return to that cheesy, proper romance. I know exactly what's going to happen. It's the same that happened in every other book. But I enjoy the nice, refreshing palate cleanser, and it is fine for our kids to do the same.

What I've noticed is that what you've done is you've created this beautiful family culture of reading. Why do you think that's been so valuable for your family? What has been the blessing and the gift in that?

I love that because it is. It is a gift, and it's something that's not super tangible. It's sometimes hard to place. But whenever a teacher says, Gosh, your kids always have something to add to the discussion in our history class, or they just know how to read this and then learn for themselves, those are really rewarding experiences, or they love to read non-conviction, and they can tell you facts about all kinds of things. Sometimes I'm like, Where did you learn that? Did your teacher tell you? No, I read that myself. I just think that is so critical because even if you have several degrees, you still need to learn how to learn for yourself. Even if you have an amazing teacher, it's still so important to know how to find the information and learn it and remember it yourself. And that need never goes away. I'm learning to can. And how do I learn to can? Sometimes YouTube videos, but it's reading instructions. And it's so important. There's a lot of things that could go wrong, but my need to read has never left. I'm constantly needing to read and learn things. I love watching my kids just learn how to be successful in teaching themselves.

When I was raising my kids, I felt like if they could learn to read, they could learn to do anything.

Yeah, absolutely. One of my favorite characters that my girls love is Hermione Granger. She absolutely is such a good example of learning everything she knows from books. My kids talk about her all the time, and they're like, She knows how to do everything, and it's because she reads all the time. I'm like, That is exactly what is happening.

That's awesome. Is there any last wisdom or advice that you would like to share with the moms out there?

Reading is such a privilege. We are so lucky that we get to have time in our day when we can read and learn. I'm teaching that to my kids. Even just me reading by myself is really teaching them. I think when we look at it like a privilege, then it becomes a joy, and it's something that our kids are seeking to do. I have a small Instagram following where I talk about books. Sometimes people will reach out to me and be like, This is what I like, or, This is what my kid likes. They'll be like, What do you suggest? And I actually think that's so fun. So anyone who listens is welcome to message me and ask if you are having a hard time finding your next read.

Thank you. That's awesome. Your Instagram will be in the show notes. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom. It's been so great to talk to you.

You too, Jackie. It's so fun to talk to you.

Thanks for joining me for this episode. I hope that you're leaving with something that you're excited to try right away. I want to let you know that because we covered so many books and resources in this episode, I put together for your convenience a PDF with links to all of those things. The link to that PDF is in the show notes, so make sure that you check that out. Also, be sure to follow Ashley on Instagram. Her Instagram is Cultivate_Reading, so that's where you can find her. Please connect with her. She loves talking about books and reading, as you now know. If you love this episode, please share it with a friend and make sure that you hit subscribe so you don't miss any future conversations. Thank you again for spending time with me and the whole Motherload.