Krista Conway, MSEd
Literacy Expert | Home educator | Curriculum Developer
It is never too late to be who you might have been.
George Elliot
Wife, Mama, Entrepreneur
For the first 23 years of my life after high school I did the typical things. I graduated with dual BS degrees in Marketing Communications and Business Administration, started multiple successful businesses, raised four children, traveled the country in an RV, created a homestead and wrote 14 children’s books.
But I wasn’t there yet. Something was missing.
We didn’t Read Enough
In 2015, our son was about to enter kindergarten and I went to speak with the teacher before school began. I told her that my son had never been interested in letters, letter sounds, etc. We’d bought just about every program we could find and nothing helped. After about two weeks of classes, she called to tell me she knew exactly why my son couldn’t read. In her expert opinion, I hadn’t read to him enough.
An Advocate is Born
After the first year of waiting for the school to magically help our son read, and let’s be honest, a year of getting over it was “our” fault he couldn’t read, I asked for an IEP meeting. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I knew something wasn’t happening for him. Another year went by and he still couldn’t read CVC words. We decided to pull him and take him to a private school. We spent an absorbant amount of money on a program that was suppose to help “balance his brain.”
1, 2, 3…
He received little to no help. The school was excited when he copied a sentence from the board and called me in just to show me – “LOOK! He copied a SENTENCE!” They were proud of themselves, but I was devastated. He cried at home while trying to read. I watched our happy, energetic, loving boy retreat into himself. He cried before school, he cried after school. For two years we tried to homeschool, looked for resources and tried to figure out why he wasn’t learning to read. The years went by like 1, 2, 3….
The Letter
After two years of homeschooling our three boys decided they wanted to try public school again. This was the fall of 2019 – and we all know how that school year ended. Two weeks after the boys were sent home, in March of 2020, I received a letter in the mail. The letter wasn’t signed, it didn’t have a return address. The letter said that they believed my son is dyslexic and that they wouldn’t assess him for that at the school because it would’ve required they provide appropriate intervention.
Orton-Gillingham
With school officially closed for an uncertain amount of time and an 11-year-old that still couldn’t read, I was glad I at least had something to work with, a word to research – dyslexia. We hired a tutor and watched our son come to live.
Children’s Books
We decided not to enroll our children back in public school when they reopened, and instead opted to create a homestead and homeschool. I started writing children’s books in the fall of 2022 and up until that point, I figured that would be my path from here on out – homeschool and write books.
The question
A customer asked me what age group my books were best suited for, and I didn’t have an answer. I realized I didn’t know how to categorize them properly. Determined to learn more, I grabbed a copy of Understanding the Logic of English, hoping it would provide clarity. In a moment of frustration at a KOA in Texas, I threw the book into the pool. I fished it out and tried to dry it off. What was the nonsense they were talking about in this book…. I had never heard of spelling rules, vowel teams, or even the difference between short and long vowels. That moment marked the beginning of my deep dive into literacy.
Almost an Aggie
The Sold A Story podcast left me crying in the Hobby Lobby parking lot. I had just applied for an MEd program at a prestigious university, and I realized it was wrong for me. I was hoping to learn a little about curriculum and instruction and also hoped it could answer the question – how old does a child have to be to read my books. After taking an OG intensive, I withdrew from the university I was planning to attend and applied and an International Dyslexia Association accredited University. This was the moment I realized it wasn’t to late to become who I should have been – a homeschool mom with an MSEd that helps children all over the country become readers.
krista Conway, MSEd
While attending Bay Path University – an extremely rigourous Science of Reading, Evidence-Based University, I also completed a 10-month intentive Orton-Gillingham practicum. In December of 2024, I completely my MSEd Reading and Literacy Instruction program. In the last two years I have witnessed so many children become readers. It’s my hope that the resources on this website, including our curriculum, workbooks, tips, classes, workshops, podcast, blog posts and courses, will help parents who are navigating literacy for their children. Literacy is a right. Literacy is everything.