Latest / The Christy-Faith Show / Ep. 63 - How to Raise Strong Readers with Spencer Russell

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Ep. 63 - How to Raise Strong Readers with Spencer Russell · The Christy-Faith Show

• 0:00
  Christy-Faith: Hello, everybody. Welcome to today's show of the Christy Faith Show podcast. I am excited about our guest today. If you've been with me for one hot minute, you know literacy matters to me. And I invited a special guest here today.
• 0:16
  His name is Spencer Russell. He's an award winning educator and the head of literacy strategy at Lovevery. He's the founder of the groundbreaking early literacy program, Toddlers Can Read, which helps thousands of parents across the world teach their kiddos to read. His work empowers parents and caregivers by making the science of reading more accessible and easier to implement at home so they are better equipped to support their children's reading journey. Thank you so much for joining me on the show today, Spencer.
• 0:59
  Spencer Russell: Thank you. Thank you. I'm ready to go.
• 1:01
  Christy-Faith: Alright. Let's get after it. Alright. First, I really wanna hear your background, how you became interested in literacy.
• 1:08
  Spencer Russell: It's a great question. I started as a kindergarten teacher. I taught kindergarten, then I taught first grade. And when I was teaching, I wasn't super interested in literacy. Like, I I cared about my kids' social and emotional well-being.
• 1:21
  I loved them. I I cared about who they were as people and how they behaved and all this sort of stuff. It's not like I woke up every day excited about reading, but I realized really early the connection between reading and literacy and all these other aspects of a kid's experience. I think when a kid enters kindergarten, knowing how to read or at least having some basic skills, it lowers so much of the cognitive load and stress and all this other part of being in school. It is the single most important academic skill a child is gonna learn.
• 1:49
  So in the process of teaching really little kids in kindergarten and first grade, I began to realize and understand how important it was to be a great reader. Ultimately, I left my school when my wife got pregnant to be able to spend more time with my son at home and kinda be a more hands on daddy. During that time, I spent some time coaching teachers in literacy curriculum and helping them better understand what they're teaching and why. But once my son was old enough to start school himself, I started toddlers can read because I think I I I really missed having that like direct impact on on kids and families, and I knew the impact it made when parents were able to get involved with their own kids early. And I wanted millions and millions of people to be able to have access to that information.
• 2:33
  Christy-Faith: Fantastic. Now when you say toddlers can read, what do you mean? Like, how young? This has always fascinated me. Toddler?
• 2:39
  Spencer Russell: Yeah. I love this name. Like, I came up with this name sitting outside under this tree in, like, a stroke of genius. I was, like, meditating and all at once it was like toddlers can read and the can was capital. Because I feel like the message up to that point was like either toddlers can't read or toddlers shouldn't read and I wanted to make a really clear statement that toddlers can read.
• 3:03
  It is actually possible. Like as early as 18 depending on the kid, you can start teaching your kid basic letter sounds. At two, you can have kids reading reading. We had in the studio yesterday kind of making content for social media, a kid, he's two and a half, he can read up to four sound words that are completely random. I can put any four sounds together, he can blend it, he can stretch it and it's from his mom following the Instagram page the last three years, starting early and teaching him.
• 3:33
  So my message isn't isn't toddlers need to read, it's not toddlers should read. I love when parents get to choose this stuff on their own. It's simply, if you have a little kid whether two or three or four or five or six and you wanna teach them how to read, you can do it and it's probably gonna be a lot simpler and a lot more fun than you think.
• 3:52
  Christy-Faith: Oh, I love that messaging. Yeah. And and I love, you know, especially with homeschooling because moms, we're taking on the burden of our kids' education. We're we also take on a lot of shoulds. You should do this.
• 4:05
  You have to do it this way. You have to use this program. So I love that message that they can. Like, if you want to do this, they can. Now have you found that across the board all toddlers can read or is it just like, you more of an advocate if they express interest?
• 4:19
  This is something that you can do. What's your take on that?
• 4:21
  Spencer Russell: My take is all toddlers can read. I don't see any utility in saying some can and some can't. Even if it's true. To me, it's pointless. Like, as a teacher in school, you would always hear about these kids who can do this, can't do this, can't do this, can't do this.
• 4:37
  My class was full of kids who can't. I always got the toughest kids, the toughest behavior, the toughest academics, these kids at six years old who their whole life have been told you can't do this. And to me, it's ludicrous. Like, why would we as adults place on children who are two or three Yeah. Or four?
• 4:55
  So if you start with the assumption that a kid can do it and then they struggle, the onus is on you to say how can I change? How can I adjust? Can I make this more fun? Can I make it more hands on? Maybe I teach less letter sounds at a time so it's easier for them.
• 5:10
  But if you say the kid can't and that's your mindset, first off, you're not even gonna give your best effort to start. And then when they struggle, you're not gonna make adjustments because you're like, oh, yeah. I knew they couldn't do it. Let's give up on this. So, yes, toddlers can do it.
• 5:25
  Your kid at home, they can do it, it's just a matter of how do we make it interesting and engaging and fun for them. And maybe it takes some kids a little bit longer and that's totally okay because when you start early, you've got lots and lots of time to take this slow to work at your kid's pace and help them learn to rate.
• 5:42
  Christy-Faith: That's such a great message. No. I wanted to ask you next, we hear all about the science of reading and does this program follow the science of reading? It's such a buzzword right now. And I would love as a literacy expert for you to unpack for us what is the science of reading?
• 6:03
  What does this mean when we hear people talking about it?
• 6:06
  Spencer Russell: In simple terms, I think this means that there is research and shared understanding in terms of how our brains learn to read. For decades, many of us have been taught to guess words or to try and memorize words or to read the story and like think about a word that would make sense or look at the picture for support. These things I like to think of as band aids. They're like these like little tricks that help us to read some words but ultimately if that's all we can do, we're gonna struggle to become really really amazing readers. The science of reading says, we learn to read by learning letter sounds or phonics and by learning phonemic awareness skills, the ability to kind of combine or separate those different letter sounds out, stretch them together into words and instead of memorizing or guessing at whole words, we're building the skill to be able to put together lots and lots of different words.
• 7:02
  It does get more technical as it relates to specific skills and and we can get more technical if it's helpful. But I think generally, the science of reading means there's a better way for kids to learn to read and generally, we should be teaching them that way. I think it's worth noting and I think this is what some people miss, is that just like any science, the field is evolving. Mhmm. So as we learn more, as new papers come out, as new studies come out, we need to kind of change and shift our thinking about how the brain learns to read, There's a lot more to learn.
• 7:36
  But for the time being, I think we've got a really good sense of how kids learn to read and the importance of phonics and phonemic awareness in that process.
• 7:43
  Christy-Faith: Yes. Absolutely. In fact, when I there's a lot of mamas who join Thrive Homeschool Community. It's my online coaching community for homeschool moms. And when they DM me about their child and literacy, the first thing I wanna know is what program are they in?
• 7:57
  And if because I know the ones that are following the science of reading. And that's the first conversation that we have because if her kid has been, you know, shown only sight words, that's that's a kid that's memorizing pictures. That's not a kid that is understanding the code and applying the code. So I think that's really encouraging and clarifying. So thank you so much.
• 8:17
  So, dude, you have a massive online presence. Guys, go follow Spencer Russell right now if you are listening to this episode because his content is phenomenal. Tell us the story about how you came to have this massive I mean, it's o just say the number because last I checked, it was, like, millions. Right?
• 8:40
  Spencer Russell: Yeah. Across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook, it's over 5,000,000.
• 8:44
  Christy-Faith: That's incredible. Tell us the story. How did this come about? Because you're just a guy with a big heart who wants to teach kids how to read.
• 8:51
  Spencer Russell: Oh, that's kind. I appreciate that. It is something I never expected, I hoped for, but it's not something I expected. And I think it's deeply ironic because in 02/2019, I left social media entirely. At that point, there wasn't, like, TikTok and stuff.
• 9:09
  I was like, I left Instagram. I left Facebook, LinkedIn even. I I didn't want any footprint online. I didn't want anyone to know who I was. And I just wanted time with my family.
• 9:18
  Like, I was just with my wife, I was with my son, I was working on myself, I was exercising, and it was such a beautiful part of life just like not thinking through the lens of like, how do I look and how do I appear and like let me take this photo of my food. So I am I have I have very mixed feelings about social media. I knew in 2021 when I started toddlers can read that if I wanted to help parents teach their kids to read, I needed to go where parents were. And at that time, where parents were was Instagram. So it was 05/29/2021, I created the Instagram page at toddlers can read.
• 9:53
  It had been so long since I've been on Instagram and it had changed so much. When I left, it was like a photo sharing platform. It was like, here's a picture of my son. When I came back, was videos and reels. Didn't know what a reel was.
• 10:04
  It was it was all this different stuff and people pointing on camera and so it took a long time for me to even understand how to use social media for my business but I knew I had to make it work. And I think that the the secret to my social media success is I needed to reach people in order to feed my family. There there was no two ways about it. I'd quit my job, and toddlers can read was the income, and it wasn't making any money. The first month I quit my job, I lost money.
• 10:31
  And it was just like, this is either gonna work or we're gonna lose the house, we're gonna lose the car, we're gonna lose my son's school. So I really really needed it to work and it led to a lot of nights staying up, making additional content, you know, recording stories a hundred times, trying to get it out in front of people, studying what other people were doing, looking at data, what's working, what's not, and it's it's taken a long time. Even now, it's it's hard to make content that's good. It's hard to make content that hits people. You can have the best idea and know this is gonna really help change someone's life.
• 11:04
  It's gonna help their kids so much, but okay, what's the hook? How long is it? How fast is it? What's the setting? How do I say this better?
• 11:11
  It may never hit the person who needs it. So I feel like I'm constantly kind of battling with how to deliver content that's really valuable and really helpful, but how to also make it like entertaining and fun to watch. And those two things don't always go together. It's this kind of unique challenge to try and make it work. And so I feel very, very fortunate, very blessed, very excited to be able to be in a place now where we're reaching millions of people with reading content.
• 11:39
  But I I don't I don't take it for granted and I know that just because someone follows you doesn't mean they're seeing your content. Right. So we're working really really hard to try to produce better content and better content and better content so people can get the best advice for their kids.
• 11:52
  Christy-Faith: Yeah. Oh, that's phenomenal. And I think that what keeps us going, at least what keeps me going, you know, I'm in a much smaller niche than you with homeschooling is that heart. I think that if we were I mean, just from the minutes before that we filmed this to now, I think that if we were in this for, like, vanity, we would be giving up because it's too hard because you can make something that follows all the rules and has the hook and the this and the that, and it flops. Right?
• 12:20
  Because of whatever reason, but you have to have the heart, and you have to have the why, the purpose. Otherwise, you quit because it is it is hard, man, and to constantly be pushing out content. And, anyway, can I ask you the next question here? And it has to do with homeschooling. Yep.
• 12:38
  Homeschooling mamas, we are constantly asking ourselves, am I doing enough? We often feel like we're not doing enough, and it's not because we're not. We're we're we have world class curriculum at our fingertips, but we're just always questioning. And part of it is because what we're doing is we're kinda saying no to the system. We wanna do this a different way, but this new way is kinda like a custom built house, and we don't have anything to compare it to.
• 13:03
  And it's not that it's bad, but it does foster a lot of self doubt. It's one of the reasons why I coach homeschool moms. But especially when it comes to reading, what would you say to a mom with a little kiddo kind of emergent reader in that, you know, toddler to seven years old age range who's trying to teach her little one to read right now. Do you have any words of encouragement for that, mama?
• 13:25
  Spencer Russell: For sure. First thing I'd say is it's totally normal.
• 13:27
  Christy-Faith: As a homeschool mom who values a family together approach and leans towards the classical and Charlotte Mason styles, I often struggle to bring my educational vision to life with my kids' diverse ages and learning needs. With all our interests and super packed schedule, bridging that gap between the dreamy homeschool I want and reality, I gotta be honest. It's a challenge. Now, yes, I know perfection isn't the goal. But if you're listening and you could use a little easing of your mental load in your day to day, I found a resource that has become the quiet hero of our routine, and it could be a really great option for you too.
• 13:59
  BJU Press homeschool curriculum. Now many think that BJU Press homeschool is solely an all in one option, and though it does excel in that role, did you know you can also opt for specific courses and tailor them to fit your family's needs just as I have? BJU Press homeschool provides the perfect balance of structure and flexibility and easily complements my family's mixed age family together on the couch learning style. They are second to none in integrating a biblical worldview, stimulating critical thinking, and offering tons of hands on activities in the lessons. To find out how BJU Press Homeschool can come alongside you in your homeschooling goals too, visit bjupresshomeschool.com or click the link in the show notes.
• 14:40
  Spencer Russell: At Lovevery, we partnered with YouGov to do a survey. We surveyed a thousand parents of kids aged four to eight, and we found that one in four feels negatively and overwhelmed at the prospect of supporting their kids with their reading. What we we found talk with people is reading was the number one academic skill parents wanted to work on with their kids. It was what they were most likely to try and get extra support outside of school from, but many of them still feel negatively, they feel overwhelmed, they feel anxious about teaching their kid, and I get these messages every day as I'm sure you do as well. I mean, so many people are struggling with this.
• 15:18
  I think it is it's helpful to know you're not alone. It's it's not like some people are just like knocking it out of the park and you're way behind it, it's like we're all just trying to do our best to support our kids. That's the first piece. The second piece I think is the good news which is teaching a child to read isn't super super complicated. It's not like you need to know every rule, every sound, like every single little thing in the English language because that's where I think it gets overwhelming for a lot of folks.
• 15:44
  Their their kid is kind of learning the basic letter sounds, but then they're like, but what about when c makes two sounds? What about how e a can say e like in read or e like in read? And you start getting in into these technical pieces. And if you think about math, I think most of us have a better sense when we think about math that it's slow small steps. When we're teaching a child addition, we're not worried about the fact that they need to know algebra someday.
• 16:08
  We look at them and say, oh, you need to learn how to add. Let's put these two numbers together. For me reading is very very similar. If you're overwhelmed, you've got in in your example, let's say you've got a four year old at home, they have no reading skills, no reading knowledge at all, but you just know it's your job to help them read, you can teach your child three letter sounds like s, a, and then you can practice stretching them together. The word at, the word as, the word sat, and slowly start stretching.
• 16:36
  Once they master those three, you can teach them three more and then you can keep stretching and teach three more and then stretch. And in a very very short period of time, especially compared to traditional school where a kid is one out of 24, one out of 26, that one on one time doing a couple letter sounds a day, a little bit of stretching, your kid is gonna have the basics of learning to read. And then it's just a matter of teaching some of those advanced skills one at a time. So we do it bite by bite, we don't take off too much, we work right where our kid is at in the moment. There's amazing programs to support whether it's Love Every, the reading skill set, whether it's, you know, the homeschool curriculum that you have that follows the science of reading, there's free accounts that toddlers can read online, there's lots of free reading accounts to give you support and advice, you've got your community, you know, there's so many resources that people can tap into here for support.
• 17:27
  If you get your mind out of this area of worrying about every single little thing, you just try to teach one step in front of where your kid is at now.
• 17:36
  Christy-Faith: Okay. Spencer, I gotta tell you, that's kind of like when you I feel like sometimes it's helpful to take analogies out of what we're talking about to help us understand. That made so much sense to me where, yeah, when you're teaching a kid how to add, you just start with the very, very basics and you realize we're gonna build on this later. Yep. I I do feel like and I think even curriculum is written in such a way where it's almost like drinking from a fire hose.
• 18:02
  And developmentally and cognitively, these kids can't they can't memorize, yeah, like, all those different sounds of the e a right away. And I think that's a really powerful message where, you know, start simple, you just build. I wanna talk about struggling readers for a minute here. In your experience, what are some signs that a child might need some more support, and what can parents actually do at home to help?
• 18:24
  Spencer Russell: I think this is a tricky question because I don't really believe in leveling for kids. I don't really believe in any standards. It's like your kid needs to be able to do this by this age. I think a lot of it is parent preference of when you want your child doing a certain skill. Some people want their kids reading fluently by four.
• 18:41
  Some people want them reading fluently by 10. And if you're homeschooling your kid, you've kind of got where you want them to be. So it's tough for me to say, you know, if your kid's not hitting this metric by this age, it's time for a stronger intervention. But I think I can answer it, which is to say often when kids are struggling with reading, and this is my experience as someone who struggle with reading, you've got some kind of impact to the kid's confidence and to their self esteem whether they're homeschooled or whether they go to traditional school. You see a kid who is starting to recognize and see that they're behind where most of their peers are and there is, like, an inherent frustration with this.
• 19:18
  Sometimes the frustration is I just wanna be able to do what my friends can do. And sometimes the frustration is the curriculum is moving ahead of where I currently am. There's this delta between where I am and where I should be, and I feel it. And I get more DMs from parents on Instagram that are about the kids' self expression of frustration than I do that are about, like, a parent teacher conference. Every fall, get parents up.
• 19:44
  I I I just have my parent teacher conference, my kids behind, I wanna help them. That happens. More often, I get my kid came home from school and shut down. Mhmm. They were frustrated.
• 19:53
  My kid asked me, can I learn how to read? I hear that all the time. So if you're looking at a kid and they're expressing frustration or disappointment or anxiety or they're asking you to learn to read and to read better, that to me would be the number one sign that this kid is struggling and let's get them a little bit more support. Then I would go to the kind of traditional grade level standards. I'm personally not gonna take them as bible because I think kids learn to read when they're taught.
• 20:19
  I don't believe it's based on a certain age Mhmm. But if you're taught how to read really well, they're gonna learn how to read. And I would look at those standards and say, okay, by the end of kindergarten, when you're six years old, generally you should be able to read three sound words, CVC words, cat can sit. If you're nowhere near approaching that, it might be time to level the reading up a little bit so your kid can learn to read. By the end of third grade, hopefully we're at the point where we switched from learning to read to reading to learn.
• 20:48
  We can read pretty well and it's really about comprehension and fluency and being smooth. If you're in third grade and the reading is still so choppy and so slow that you can't understand what you're reading, it might be time for some additional support. But again, I think it's gonna vary parent to parent and use some kind of balance of the grade level standards along with how the child themself feels about their reading ability.
• 21:10
  Christy-Faith: You know, and that is so important. I do a talk when I go to conferences on I call it the special needs blueprint. I'm I'm gonna throw you a curveball, and I'm so excited because in that talk, I discuss how this concept of special needs is a social construct. You would know what this talk is on because this is our language that we have. What is your take?
• 21:31
  What's your hot take on reading disabilities or dyslexia? Do you have an opinion? I'm putting you on the spot.
• 21:38
  Spencer Russell: They're gonna try and get me in trouble.
• 21:40
  Christy-Faith: I'll put myself in trouble.
• 21:41
  Spencer Russell: I think that kids learn to read when they're taught how to read. Like, we diagnose so many kids with so many issues who have never been properly taught how to
• 21:50
  Christy-Faith: read.
• 21:50
  Spencer Russell: Yeah. You know, like, my son, for example, I'm teaching him how to play baseball. There is no point in his life where if I didn't teach him, he would know how to play. Like hitting a ball out of the air is is not natural. You can't just like jump in at 20 years old on a pitching machine and say, I can hit because I'm 20.
• 22:08
  If you've never done it, you can't hit. But if you've got a three year old who's been hitting since they're two, the three year old can hit the machine. Does the 20 year old have a hitting disability? No. They've never been taught how to hit.
• 22:18
  And so some people, Dyslexia is a real thing, some people have real reading disabilities. But we have so many kids who've never been taught how to read and it is more convenient to slap a label on them and say this is the kid's issue than it is to say this is a system issue or this is a parent issue or this is a teacher issue. It's different in every single situation. But if you don't give a kid a fair shake at learning how to read, how can you then turn around and say this kid has a problem? My kid's 10, they can't read, they must have dyslexia.
• 22:46
  It's like maybe, or maybe you taught them how to guess words. They've been guessing for the last five years and they never learned the building blocks of phonics to be able to decode those words. Is that hot enough?
• 22:55
  Christy-Faith: That's hot. And I I I couldn't agree more. I mean, I think that the the problem with diagnoses, and I go over this when I do my talks on this, is that it really labels the kid as the problem where we're and it doesn't force us to evaluate the system in which we're teaching kids and why are these kids not learning. Would you at least say this that there are kids where they do need more repetitions, more explicit instructions than others? It seems to be if you're using the baseball analogy that, yeah, it might take some kids a little bit longer, a little bit more coaching to learn it, but they eventually do learn it.
• 23:32
  Spencer Russell: %. And I've I've worked with enough kids to know this is true. It's just we don't wanna say this kid can do it, this kid can't do it, or this kid is is troubled or this kid isn't. Mhmm. It's much more accurate to say exactly what you said.
• 23:47
  Everyone can do it. For some kids, it takes more time. It takes more repetition. For some kids, it might take more one on one time. I think this is where homeschooling families have a bit of an advantage because you can look at your kid and say, my kid needs more time learning how to read.
• 24:01
  They need more repetitions. They need to see the sound twice or three times as often to remember it from day to day. So that's what I'm gonna give them. When I was a teacher, it was really hard to give my kids that level of support because I had a classroom. Some kids who teach it once they've got it, some kids they need it again and again and again.
• 24:19
  All of them can do it, but there's very different needs. And so as the teacher, you try your best to manage that. But to the baseball analogy, my son's the perfect example, it takes him a lot more practice to learn baseball skills than it takes other kids. So as a result, I spend more time teaching him those skills. Mhmm.
• 24:37
  So he can be just as successful. And I think the same goes for reading.
• 24:40
  Christy-Faith: I think that's a powerful message especially for the homeschool moms to hear because sometimes we get shiny object syndrome where we gotta get our kid reading and there's stress and we go through a program that's a solid program and if it doesn't work right off the bat, they wanna throw out the program. And sometimes I recommend, no. Do another pass. You have the time. You're homeschooling.
• 25:00
  Your kid may just need another pass. I think that one thing I that probably both of us are passionate on is that they're just there are best practices. There are best practices in teaching anyone to read. When we ran our center, I don't know if you know my history, but we ran a center. We taught the kids of a listers and billionaires in Los Angeles, and we did reading intervention, lots of different interventions and test prep and tutoring and and all of that.
• 25:22
  And, you know, it's just a powerful message to say, it may not be that your the program itself, you need to throw that and buy something new and then hope that works. Sometimes that causes disruption and frustration and then you're having to learn something new again. And that can really take a toll on the kids too. If you're in a really solid program, which I do wanna talk about Love Every because I have been so impressed. Because Love Every is game based, the kids it's like those repetitions are really built in.
• 25:52
  So what is Love Every? It's the company that you represent. Before we continue, I wanna share with you a program that's been a game changer for our homeschool. At our center, we instructed and helped kids through pretty much every math program on the market and know firsthand just how important a solid math foundation is for our kids' futures. As a career educator with high standards, finding the right program that checked all the boxes felt like too tall of an order.
• 26:16
  Until one day, I tried CTC Math. CTC Math is an online math curriculum for k to 12 students with motivating interactive lessons that allow kids to learn at their own pace. It does all the teaching and grading so you don't have to, and their adaptive lessons adjust so your child is progressing confidently. With CTC Math, your child is getting a top notch education, and you just made your homeschool life easier. Visit CTCMath.com to start your free trial today, or click the link in the show notes.
• 26:43
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• 27:14
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• 27:27
  Spencer Russell: So we make different playthings for kids and families focused on developmentally appropriate play. We have some incredible books. We have amazing play kits that parents can get on a subscription where it comes every couple of months. My son, who's three and a half months, just got his next one and had a mirror in it. So it has, like, all these things that are kind of, like, right at the cusp of their developmental ability.
• 27:52
  And it's just stuff kids love. Like, so good. And it's like a fine line between, like, the playthings and, like, toys, but, like, I've done toys with kids. I've done this with kids, and like kids like this more. It is really really cool program and we've started with reading.
• 28:06
  So we have the reading soul set. There's three parts, part one, part two, part three, and it goes from learning letter sounds and kind of basic oral language skills to blending sounds into words to then being able to read those words in books, getting all the way up to like fluent reading in chapter books. And just like the play things, just like the other activities, it's a way to learn the skill of reading which often feels kind of complicated or overwhelming in a way that's just play based where you're playing an activity with the child or depending on the skill, the child might be playing the activity by themselves. It might be completely independent, but they're learning the skill in the process. And as someone who taught kids to read in school, then taught my son to read at home, then taught other people's kids to read at home, I've never seen a program or an approach keep kids interested in reading for as long as it does.
• 28:58
  So when we talk about like whether something's effective or not, part of it is how it's actually built and structured. Is is it based on the science of reading? Does it follow best practices?
• 29:06
  Christy-Faith: Mhmm.
• 29:06
  Spencer Russell: Right? This checks all those boxes. There's another part of it that people don't often think about, which is how engaged is the kid in that activity. It's a big difference if you practice for two minutes versus ten minutes. It's a big difference if you're pulling teeth to try and get them to focus or if the kid is asking you to keep playing.
• 29:21
  And what I see time and time again why I'm so excited to be part of this product, I don't say this because I work at Lovevery. I I work at Lovevery because this is true. Kids love doing the activities and they wanna do it for longer and longer and longer. So as a result, they're learning faster and faster and faster without it ever really feeling like work. Right?
• 29:41
  Because they're they're doing it through these games. So I could talk for a long time about it. I could talk about specific games, but as the high level overview, an awesome way for kids to learn to read the play.
• 29:50
  Christy-Faith: So for the home homeschool mom, this is gonna be a really important question for her to know that I think needs to be clarifying because these are games. When a homeschool mom is looking at the reading skill set by Love Every, she might not think this looks like a full curriculum. Is it a full curriculum?
• 30:06
  Spencer Russell: I think this is a really interesting question because many of us think of a curriculum as you do this day one, this day two, this day three, or you you have to say this exact thing in this order. And people are looking for almost like a script. If you're a teacher, you're very familiar with, like, being given a script. Say this. This is like the approach of teach your child to read in a hundred easy lessons.
• 30:29
  Like, you, like, buy this book, you say the exact same script, the exact same way, the exact same day, and hopefully your kid kind of follows at that pace. When I think of a complete program, my number one criteria is, is this gonna teach a child how to read? And with the reading skill set, I think it's a fantastic way to teach a child to read from start to finish. And then what I really like and what I think is helpful for homeschool families is can this sort of flex to my day to day situation or to my child? And I think that's where this flexes really well.
• 30:58
  And this might be uncomfortable for people who are used to that kind of like regimented approach. You can definitely like make it regimented but this is much more flexible to say, okay, we're gonna do these couple activities first and they're gonna work on our ability to hear and kind of manipulate the different sounds and words. Then we're gonna start to see some letter sounds. Then we're gonna start to stretch those sounds together into words. Then we're gonna read longer and longer words.
• 31:22
  So for me, it is complete in the sense of it is gonna be super super helpful and comprehensive for teaching a child how to read. But I think it is different than what people are used to because it gives a little bit more freedom and flexibility about when and how you're gonna cover each of those skills.
• 31:40
  Christy-Faith: Absolutely. And I feel the same way. And when I looked at it so the story is, ladies listening, I get sent stuff every ding dong day and to my PO box. It's like insane. And sure enough, Scott comes home one day and there's these three huge boxes and it says love every on the side.
• 31:57
  I'm like, what's love every? I don't even know because my kids are older. So I didn't have the whole I didn't know about the whole love every, like, early age stuff and and all those boxes. And Scott's like, this is a reading curriculum. And I was like, a reading curriculum?
• 32:10
  And I was like, okay. Well, I'll I'll just look at it on Saturday when I have time. Well, anyway, I sat down that very next Saturday and I opened it up, and I opened up that flipbook first.
• 32:20
  Spencer Russell: Yeah.
• 32:20
  Christy-Faith: And, you know, here I am, you know, judgy judy, like, is this gonna follow the science of reading? Right? I get sent stuff all the time. So and I'm looking at it and right away, was like, woah woah woah woah. What?
• 32:33
  And I was flipping through and it was Spencer, it was checking every box. You've done so well as head of literacy strategy for them. Just absolutely incredible. And my kids swarmed in the room, started unpacking all those my kids know how to read. We were like opening box one.
• 32:50
  Right? My youngest is nine. And they were like, mom, mom. And I started reading through that flip book, and I'm like, okay. Is this checking the boxes?
• 32:57
  Is it following science of reading? Is it doing all the things? And by the time I got halfway through the second box, I was like, Scott, get them on the phone. This is what I have been looking for in the homeschool space. And Spencer, I'm not kidding you because we always need okay.
• 33:13
  So here's the deal with homeschooling is that a lot of us are homeschooling because our kids struggled in school, so we're pulling them out because the reading intervention didn't work at school. Right? So I am always looking for resources that can help a mom almost do her own therapy at home. Now I'm not advocating for moms replacing reading specialists. Do not mistake my words here.
• 33:33
  But what I will say is that I've been looking for a program that follows best practices so I can get her as close as possible so that if her kid actually really does need an interventionist, because they're not cheap. Right? Yep. That I can confidently say, okay. Yeah.
• 33:49
  You've tried everything. We need extra help here. I'm always looking for that. And so I was just beyond thrilled when I opened the box and saw what this was. Now you mentioned something earlier off air that I want you to share because there are a lot of online reading programs where kids are, like, looking at phonics and letters and going click click click.
• 34:09
  Something you shared with me is how much you love that this is without screens. Can you elaborate a little bit on that?
• 34:14
  Spencer Russell: For sure. I think just like you, I get approached by brands, companies all the time and meeting. Like, I I can't tell you how much money I've left on the table from not doing, like, sponsored posts on, like, TikTok or whatever else from these random companies who wanna get kids on an app. But for me, it's a matter of being able to be, like, honest and trustworthy and give parents the same advice I'd wanna be given as a parent if I didn't know anything about this. And, like, I don't want my kid on a screen.
• 34:43
  I don't want my kid doing some random app or program that's not gonna make them a better reader. I don't want my kid doing something that's boring or something that's drill and kill. And so many of the reading programs out there suck. And not only suck, I would say, are are detrimental to our kids. The potentially small benefit it might have for, like, the reading ability is offset by the very real negative impact that we know that screens and technology are having to do the dosage needed to get that impact.
• 35:10
  So when Lever reached out to me to potentially help to kind of promote and, like, like work on the reading toolset, I I was skeptical because I get approached a lot. But I took the meeting because I knew the company was hands on, scree free, intentional parenting. And we had had some of the playthings for my oldest son who was younger. He loved them. I was like, I I respect this company at the core.
• 35:36
  Took the meeting, saw some of the product, got on board, joined the team, have been nothing but impressed at the amount of time, attention, research, dedication that's gone into the reading skill set and that's gone into all the other play things. So again, I don't say this because I work for Live Every. I work for Live Every because all these things are true. And at the end of the day, whether a kid learns to read or not, like, that's not my business. It's, you know, like kids can learn whatever they wanna learn, but whether or not parents are intentional in helping to support their kid to be the best possible version of themselves, whether or kids are happy and successful and being poured into and loved and carried on, like I really really really care about that.
• 36:18
  It breaks my heart to see tablets and strollers. Like I I I feel so much more passionately about that than like, is this kid reading at grade level? I know that reading is such a big part of all this. I know that you can't separate the two. So my goal, my mission, my collaboration with Lovevery is about parenting, it's about intentionality, and it's about the role that literacy is gonna play in helping make sure that your kid has chances and opportunities in life to become whoever they wanna be.
• 36:47
  Christy-Faith: Yeah. I mean, a a kid who can't read or an adult who can't read is an adult with very limited options in life. Correct. And it's you said earlier that it is the fundamental piece that academically that kiddos need a %. I couldn't agree more.
• 37:05
  I love to talk about game changing ideas on this show, things that kind of challenge us or make us ponder. If you had one message to give to the world right now, and you may have already said it, what's one thing that you would just shout from the rooftops to homeschooling moms in particular because that's my main audience today? What would you want her to hear?
• 37:25
  Spencer Russell: You can teach your kid to read really, really well. Really, really well.
• 37:29
  Christy-Faith: Oh, why am I getting emotional? I wanna cry. Because I'm all about empowering. Right? And here's a reading specialist.
• 37:36
  Like, we are told I don't know if you know this, Spencer, but we are told every day at the pediatrician's office, every day here, every day here, that we are not qualified. And it's such a lie. It is such a lie. So anyway, I don't mean to interrupt you, but go ahead. I'll just sit here crying.
• 37:53
  Spencer Russell: Yeah. No. Incredibly frustrating. And to be clear, I don't think everybody should be homeschooling. I think if you decide to homeschool your child, that's such a big important decision, and it's gonna require learning.
• 38:06
  It's gonna require like developing yourself and studying and like thinking and providing what's best for your kid. But if you make that decision, you need to know that you can be an incredible teacher for your kid. Like, we'll shout that from the rooftops. I think parents are better teachers than teachers. Like there are so many structural limitations to being a classroom teacher that you don't have as the parent.
• 38:27
  It's not to say it's easy, it's not to say it's a walk in the park, but it's often easier than you think you get yourself out of the way and you just take it step by step. So parents are incredible. I've worked with so many parents with no teaching experience. All they've done is watch a couple of my videos online and they've taught their kids to read faster, more effectively, easier, and more fun than school. Even parents who are not good readers themselves, you can do this.
• 38:50
  It is easier than you think. You just need the right support, the right guidance to walk your kid through step by step and it is such an incredible experience. I I cried when my son read his first word. It it was I I I have it on camera too. It's it's so special.
• 39:06
  And it's just like, I saw him ride his bike for the first time, it beat that. I saw him walk for the first time, probably equal. Crawl for the first time, better than that. Like, it was it was so incredible. I get these texts all the time.
• 39:17
  And so there there's also just this aspect of, like, you can do it, it can be fun, and once you do it, seeing your kid be successful is just the most amazing experience for both of you.
• 39:28
  Christy-Faith: Yeah. And and thank you for that because homeschooling, it is a sac we are making sacrifices in in many fronts. I mean, a lot of us are giving up careers because we're choosing to homeschool our kiddos. This is what I saw that you recognized is no one knows our kids more than us. No one can love our kids more than us.
• 39:44
  And if you are a resourceful, caring parent, you will excel at this because you'll find the resources that you need. You will. That's what we do when we care about our kids. So thank you for that encouragement and for seeing us a little bit. I feel a little bit more seen.
• 39:57
  It's so fun because I like having non homeschooling people on the podcast that kind of recognize that this is you know, most things worth doing require a sacrifice, and that's what we're doing. And and but what I will say is I feel like Love Every does make it a lot easier for us because it's a program that you can trust, that you can walk through, you can use it as a full curriculum or as a supplement. And I think Love Every has a special deal for our listeners today. Right?
• 40:25
  Spencer Russell: Yes. So you can use the code Christy 10 to get 10% off the reading solicit, which to me, having seen a lot of reading products, is already priced really, really well, but you can get it even cheaper using your code. And I think it is worth giving a shot, especially if you've got a kid, you you've tried some stuff before, they're not super engaged.
• 40:50
  Christy-Faith: Mhmm.
• 40:51
  Spencer Russell: Like, let's get your kid reading through play. Let's let's make this a little more hands on. Let's make it fun. Let's make it engaging. Let's get them active, and then let's see these reading skills grow.
• 41:00
  Christy-Faith: Yeah. It's and also it's time spent with the parent, which, you know, I'm a big believer in, like, the love languages of children and really meeting them how they need to receive their love. And I have one kiddo. It's my son. I don't mind saying this, but, you know, he just wants me to go out and shoot hoops with him.
• 41:16
  I just go, you know, just shoot hoops. It's and so what's also great is that often as homeschooling moms, we're so busy because it's laundry. It's this. We have a baby, a toddler. We're teaching a kid, you know, kindergarten.
• 41:28
  And believe it or not, it is easy to not stop and spend time with your kids. It sounds crazy, but we have a lot of responsibilities. And so this is great because you can just sit down and and play and you're playing games. So I encourage you mamas to consider this as your perusing curriculum for the next school year or making a change right now whenever you're listening to this podcast episode. Any last words, Spencer?
• 41:51
  Spencer Russell: I really appreciate being here. I am not a homeschool daddy, but I feel like I'm also not not a homeschool daddy. You know, like, I've I've been working with my son so much at home. I I believe regardless of where your kid is in school, like, you as the parent are the first teacher. So I I deeply empathize with homeschool families.
• 42:11
  It makes up a huge percentage of the folks who follow me. And and just hope that people feel encouraged by this episode to kind of keep on going, keep on trying to support your kid with their reading. And I'm and I'm so glad that they've got you as a resource.
• 42:26
  Christy-Faith: Oh, well, thank you so much. We'll put all the links in the show notes of your socials of Love Every and everything, and I appreciate very much you taking time out of your day to encourage the homeschool community. Thanks for coming on. Awesome.
• 42:40
  Spencer Russell: Thank you so much.
• 42:41
  Christy-Faith: You have my heart.