Latest / 5–Minute Parenting: Tips to Help You Raise Competent, Godly Kids. / Introducing a New Picture Book Series for Kids w/author Alyssa Wedemeyer

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Introducing a New Picture Book Series for Kids w/author Alyssa Wedemeyer · 5–Minute Parenting: Tips to Help You Raise Competent, Godly Kids.

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to another episode of the Five Minute Parenting Podcast.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_02: I'm your host, Karen Ferguson, wife, mom, grandmom, and children's book author with a background in K-8 education and a passion for equipping parents to raise confident and God-confident kids.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_02: In this podcast, we'll cover parenting practices for both a practical view and a biblical view.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: Our goal is to help you raise kids with a positive, godly self-image so they can become all they were created to be.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_02: I know you're busy, so we'll keep it short.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_02: Let's take just five minutes and dive in.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_02: Hello and welcome back to Five Minute Parenting.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: Today is a very special episode because I have a very special guest here to share about her new picture book series.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_02: I'll be interviewing my oldest daughter, Alyssa Wiedemeier.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_02: Alyssa is a homeschooling mom of multiple littles and a growing family.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: She has a Bachelor of Science degree in religion with a focus on apologetics from Liberty University and has completed advanced coursework in American history at Liberty University Online.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: Alyssa has extensive experience writing teaching curriculum for elementary to middle school age children and has been published in Brio magazine and was a finalist in the 2026 Cascade Awards for Speculative Fiction.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_02: Alyssa, welcome to the show.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: Hello, thank you.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_02: It is so good to have you here.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_02: This is fun.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: So proud of you for stepping out and excited to see all you've done with this book launch and writing this new picture book series, among many other things.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_02: And congratulations on the finalist award for speculative fiction.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_02: That is exciting.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, as you know, it's a short podcast.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: So let's just jump right in so listeners can get to know a little bit about you and your book.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: So tell us about yourself, Alyssa, and what inspires your writing?
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, well, uh, like said, my name is Alyssa Wiedemeyer.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: I have been married to my husband for eight years this year.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: We've been together for 11.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I have three children, uh, a five-year-old son and then a two and a half-year-old daughter and an eight-month-old daughter.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: And they're like the biggest blessings in my life.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, truly failed my calling when I became a mother.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I have a dog that's currently at your house.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we're full of that.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, she needs a little bit of RR.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: My children get a little bit rowdy.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: So um and and um, yeah, I just I I love to read.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: I've been an avid reader since I mean I learned how to read.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: I remember in fifth grade taking the um reading placement test, and I tested at college level.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: So books have been a huge part of my life um since I was very little.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um and from that love of reading stemmed a love of writing.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: And at first I started with more like poetry, um, but the Lord really placed on my heart uh the book that you actually recommended I send to the Cascade Awards.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for that shout out.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and uh and about a couple of years ago, and since then I've started working on it.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so, yeah, reading, writing, my family, um, that's kind of the season I'm in.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: I love to walk and explore new places, love traveling uh to the beach specifically.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: We've found yeah, we found 30A.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: We love it.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's been a yearly tradition since we moved here to Tennessee.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, I and I love the Lord.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, He is, you know, the He's my savior.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so um without Him, uh truly I'm nothing.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm so thankful for where He's placed me in my life and all the blessings he's given me.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I love chocolate and I will never turn down a dessert.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I will always I always have a scrunchie on my wrist and a water bottle in my hand.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: And um I love to wear dresses and birks.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: I don't really wear shoes, I just wear Birkin stocks, slide on sandals in the snow.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's fine with me.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: And that's about me.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_02: Well, before we touch on your your new book, tell us uh where your love for history started.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know, but tell listeners.
• 4:09
  unknown: Yeah.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it really was fifth grade.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: I mentioned the fifth grade reading placement.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: I remember my teacher, Miss Land, at York Elementary back in Vancouver, Washington, and we had a whole like the entire year basically was learning about Revolutionary War history, continental America, and American era.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I just fell in love with history, specifically American history.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, really, I have a photographic memory.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: So all throughout school, like I would test A's in all my tests.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I don't really retain anything from school except for history.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: So that shows that I love it because I retained all of it.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: Well, tell us about this book then, ABCs of Civil War History.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so that excuse me, that's my current my first book in my series.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: The series is called ABCs of America for Kids.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: And um it's meant to be a few book series.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: The first one is ABCs of America's Civil War.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: And it actually stemmed from um that speculative fiction that you know you talked about earlier.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: I submitted that to Cascade Awards.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: And the Lord, I I had been feeling like the Lord was had a story for me to write, but I didn't want to just write anything.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: I really wanted it to be from him.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: And so a few few years ago, he downloaded it.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like one day, all of a sudden, like the entire story came into my spirit.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so I wrote down the outline and it has to do with the Civil War, which is perfect.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: That's where we live.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um in Tennessee, there's like 40 minutes from us, a 40-minute drive is Franklin, Tennessee.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: And they have the Battle of Franklin, which for anybody who knows anything about Civil War history, um, that was kind of the turning point of the war.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: And we've done many tours, historical tours there and everything.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: And and I just fell in love with that, because originally the Revolutionary War was my favorite era in American history, but I just fell in love with the Civil War era.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so that main book, that novel that I'm writing, out of that stemmed like, wait, I want little kids to be able, like not little, little, but like kids, ages like five to ten, to be able to fall in love with American history like I have, but I want it to be fun because a lot of people are like, uh, history is just not my thing.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: And it's because it's not taught in an engaging way, it's just all of these facts spouted out that people are expected to uh like retain.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: True.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: But they there's nothing like uh engaging behind it, if that makes sense.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: Miss Land in fifth grade made American history so engaging.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we literally had to pretend to be uh some people were patriots, some people were loyalists, we had to dress up, we had to make little craft dolls.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like it was so engaging.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's what really brought that history to life for me.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so I wanted to do that with each one of my books that I have planned out for my big series.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: So Civil War is first, and um, I I wanted it to be with having experience writing for kids, uh, you know, educational stuff for kids.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: I know that singing, song, rhyme, that is how people memorize things really well.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, look at how in our culture everybody's able to, you know, sing they know all the lyrics to their favorite song.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I I remember in fifth grade, again, I learned uh a lot of decimals of pie to a song, and I'm able to retain it to this day.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I wanted to do it like lyrical, and I wanted it to be an ABC book because there's that's 26 facts right there of like special, unique facts that not a lot of people know about the Civil War and about each subsequent time in American history.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then provide like a little section in the back facts for future historians that expound on a few key facts in the in the book from the A to Z facts.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I just wanted to make it like a fun little primer kind of thing for kids, homeschool families, librarians, teachers, anyone really, honestly, adults.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: Adults have even read this book and been like, wow, I didn't know that about it.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_02: I learned a lot reading it.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: That's true.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and then the illustrations are just beautiful.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: I have to shout out my Illustrator Creativia studio.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: Just they're in Indonesia, actually, but phenomenal to work with.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm just so pleased with how it turned out.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_02: So it is, it is just a such a fun book.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_02: Well, do you have a favorite part of the book?
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_02: And or did you discover anything surprising as you wrote it?
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's funny because I, you know, I've even taken master's level courses in American history.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but specifically, when I was writing this book, actually, I found out a few key things that I didn't even learn in my master's level education.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that would have been a fun fact to include in the beginning.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: But yes, I did take master's level courses.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I do have some education behind this book.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but uh Wilmer McLan is the name of a man who the war started in his front yard basically and ended in his parlor.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so that sounds very bizarre.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: This poor man was trying to avoid the war, but you can't make his up.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's true.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, so he lived, yeah, he lived where the um the Battle of Bull Run was, and he his home was just like that.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: It was the first official battle.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: That was after Fort Sumter when the Confederates attacked the Union soldiers who had overtaken their fort in South Carolina.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that's when Abraham Lincoln was like, okay, we want, we're declaring war, basically.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: Well, after that, the first official battle was the Battle of Bull Run, um, or the Battle of Manassas.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's but depending on if you grew up in the South or in the North, you'll learn those uh different terms.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: So the Battle of Bull Run is how the North teaches it, and then the Battle of Manassas is how the South teaches it.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so his home was like desecrated from this first battle, and he's like, I'm getting out of here.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: I want to go somewhere peaceful with my family and just like live off the grid.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: So then he moves to where to the town of Appomattox, and literally that's where uh General Ulysses S.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: Grant and uh Robert E.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: Lee, where they met in his parlor to basically Lee surrendered and was like, okay, the war's over.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I just find that hilarious because he's probably but maybe it was redemption for him.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: Who knows?
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe he's like, finally, the war's over and it's in my parlor.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: That's good.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: Oh wow, that's great.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: Well, how can parents, grandparents, teachers, and librarians use this book with young readers?
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: That's a good, good question.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: I think honestly, just reading it alone, um, I think is huge.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: I I'm doing kind of like a civil war, I homeschool my son, and I'm doing like a little civil war unit with him right now.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: And so we have a few different fictional books about Civil War era, and then we also have this.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: And as we were, because we've read through my book, ABCs of America Civil War, quite often.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: And he at five is able to actually rehearse by memory, like recite it, all of what A through Z stands for.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: And that's just incredible as a five-year-old.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: So it's very people are able to retain it.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: But as we're reading these different like Civil War era um fictional books and and also non-fiction books, he's like, hey, uh, he'll be like Wilmor McLean, or he'll be like uh the North or um Fort Sumter.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: Like he recognizes those things.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: And so just reading the book is huge.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but also I would say like small unit studies.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: You can also, someone even said to me, which I thought was a good idea, you can do like individual unit studies on each letter.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: Because honestly, it it says some information in the back of the book, it expounds on like I think 10 or 11 of the letters.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: But um, with that information alone in the between the writing and the illustration, you can actually glean a lot of knowledge from from these facts.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: And then you can go on and find other resources as well to be able to teach.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: So you can really use it as like a supplemental resource if you're teaching or just want to learn about Civil War era because it's huge, you know, it's what eradicated slavery in this nation, which um praise the Lord, that happened.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: So uh so yeah, so I I would recommend a few key of those ways to use it.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I would say it is great for adults too.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_02: It's fun.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_02: And like I say, I learned a lot.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_02: I've talked to other people who have as well.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_02: So that's that's great.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: Well, give us a sneak peek, Alyssa, into your other books in the series.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: So fun fact for each one of these books, I actually include the cover of the following book and when it's being released.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: So if you get the book, you'll also be able to see book three uh when book two comes out, what book three will be, but um, like the cover and everything.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: But so the next book that we have slated for release, which I'm not sure when this podcast is coming out, it might already be out by the time it this podcast comes out, but in July of this year, it will be ABCs of America's Freedom.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: And in the back of the ABCs of America's Civil War book, uh, there it actually has the front cover.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so that'll be all about the Revolutionary War.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, really excited about that one.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: And then I will, as a sneak peek for your um for your listeners, book three will be ABCs of America's Origins, uh, which is slated to come out, I believe, November of this year.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: And that's all about like the Mayflower time, um, the the pilgrims discovering America and and the origination kind of of people moving here and and inhabiting the land.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: So yes, can't wait to see those come out.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Alyssa, before we close, tell listeners the best place to find you online and grab a copy of your book.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: So you it for Instagram, you can follow me on at kidsbooks by Alyssa, A-L-Y-S-S-A.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I have a website as well, alyssawiedemeyer.com.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure if you'll add the spelling in the notes or at all or not of this episode, but it I'll just go ahead and spell it.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's A-L-Y-S-S-A-W-E-D E-M, as in Matt E-Y-E-R dot com.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then uh yeah, on Amazon you can purchase my book um and all basically all major book retailers.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm really excited about that.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we will link to all of that in the show notes.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_02: So thanks so much for being here.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_02: It's a treat to have you on.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, thank you, mom.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_02: Just to be able to support your book.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it really is such a great book and and series, just seeing where you're going with this.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: I know it's really gonna fill a need and and just spark an interest and love for history, just like what sparked your interest when you were a young child.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_02: So very proud of you for stepping out in faith and doing this.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: And you are my inspiration.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: So I wouldn't have had the courage to do it if I didn't see you forerunning that.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then it's cool with your books because my son, he was just at my daughter's ballet class with my mom.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: They were sitting in the waiting room the other day, and he brings out his little fake laptop.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: And my mom's like, Oh, what are you doing?
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: He goes, I have 12 books I'm writing.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: And then she's like, Really?
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: And he goes, Yeah, the ABCs of America's tallest trees is one of them.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: But it's cool because it's like how you've been an inspiration to me.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: Now I'm able to show my kids how they can follow their dreams too.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, our kids really learn by example in so many ways.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, well, again, thanks for being here, Alyssa.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_02: And listeners, thank you for joining us.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_02: That is it for today.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: Be sure to check the show notes to connect with Alyssa online and to grab a copy of her book for your special young reader.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_02: You won't regret it.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_02: Please like and subscribe to this podcast so you never miss an episode.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_02: And then come back next week.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_02: New episodes release every Thursday.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_02: Have a blessed week.