Posts by Betsy
Why Reading Aloud for Character Formation Shapes Moral Imagination
In recent years, many parents—especially thoughtful, attentive ones—have found themselves uneasy with the language of outcomes, benchmarks, and even social-emotional learning. Not because emotions don’t matter, but because something feels off when formation is reduced to skills that can be measured, checked off, or optimized. If you’ve ever thought, I want my children to be good and wise and…
Read MoreReading as Relationship: Simple Practices for Meaningful Conversations Around Books
One of the quiet pressures many parents feel after encountering a thoughtful book list goes something like this: Okay… but now what?I know I’ve felt it. You find good books. Beautiful books. Worthy books. And then you’re left wondering how to hold them well—how to move from choosing stories to actually living with them in a…
Read MoreGrowing Wisdom, Empathy, and Presence Through Story
For years, I practiced social-emotional learning long before I had a name for it. It happened on the couch during read-alouds, in the car after we closed a book and sat quietly with what lingered, and in the subtle ways one child felt deeply seen by a character while another felt unsettled and couldn’t yet…
Read MoreEducating for the Long View: Raising Adults, Not Just Students
Most parents I know are not looking for perfect systems or flawless outcomes. They are trying to be faithful in the middle of real life. And somewhere along the way, many of us begin to realize that education—however it is structured—is not just about getting children through school. It is about raising adults. That shift…
Read MoreCarrying Light Together: What Happens When Young Writers Are Given Space to Create
Over the past year, storytelling has quietly become one of the most life-giving rhythms in our Rooted Minds community. What began as conversations around short stories on the podcast slowly turned into something more. We found ourselves lingering over sentences, returning to images, asking better questions—not just about plot, but about meaning. Stories gave us…
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