In today’s fast-paced digital world, a child's attention is increasingly fragmented—often before they even realize it. As adults, we can see the effects of constant distraction, but for many children, this is simply the norm. In this conversation, author/educator Susan Verde and author/editor Emma Walton Hamilton explore how curiosity can be the antidote to distraction—and a key to sustaining a lifelong love of reading.

We’ll discuss:

• Why the love of reading often fades after age 9 or 10
• How digital dopamine hits compete with books for a child's attention
• Why traditional models of reading instruction may discourage independent reading
• How small, engaging doses of information can spark curiosity—and a desire for more
• How the Enlightened Generation approach connects curiosity, learning, and joy

Join us as we unpack the challenges—and opportunities—of raising readers in a scrolling world, and share strategies for helping children rediscover the magic of story and wonder.

Emma Walton Hamilton is a best-selling and award-winning author, editor, producer and writing coach.

Together with her mother, Julie Andrews, she has co-authored over thirty-five books for children and adults, nine of which have been on the New York Times best-seller list, including The Very Fairy Princess series (#1 NY Times Bestseller) and Andrews' second memoir, Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years. A Bridport Prize-winning poet, Emma's poetry collection, Door to Door, was published by Andrews McMeel, and her book for parents and caregivers, Raising Bookworms: Getting Kids Reading for Pleasure and Empowerment, premiered as a #1 best-seller on Amazon.com in the literacy category and won a Parent's Choice Gold Medal.

Emma was a two-time Emmy Award nominee for her role as Executive Producer and Writer for Julie's Greenroom, a children's television program about the performing arts created for Netflix, starring Julie Andrews and co-produced by the Jim Henson Company. Emma is also a Grammy Award-winning voice-over artist, having provided voicing for numerous audiobooks, including Julie Andrews’ Collection of Poems, Songs and Lullabies (2010 Grammy Award, Best Spoken Word Album for Children), as well as numerous radio, television, theater and industrial spots. Currently, she and her mother co-host and co-produce Julie's Library, a story-time podcast for family audiences produced by American Public Media.

A faculty member for Stony Brook University’s MFA in Creative Writing and Literature, Emma teaches all forms of children’s book writing at the graduate and undergraduate level and serves as Director of their annual Children’s Literature Conference, as well as Executive Director of the Young Artists and Writers Project (YAWP), an interdisciplinary writing program for middle and high school students. A former actress and theatre director, Emma was a co-founder of Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, where she served as co-Artistic Director and Director of Education and Programming for Young Audiences for 17 years.

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Susan Verde is a #1 New York Times bestselling and award-winning author and yoga-mindfulness expert. Susan has written over 20 books for children and adults, including all nine books in the New York Times bestselling I Am series illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds. Her picture book The Water Princess was an ALA Notable Children’s Book, Amazon Best Book of the Month, and New York Public Library Best Book. Her nonfiction book for adults, Say One Kind Thing, is an original essay collection about the power of positive self-talk and her reflections on motherhood.

In addition to her writing career, Susan co-founded Enlightened Generation, a groundbreaking children’s clothing brand with an impact-driven mission. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and a Master’s degree in reading remediation and was an elementary school teacher for many years. She is now certified in yoga and mindfulness and teaches workshops for kids of all ages. Susan currently lives in East Hampton, New York with her rescue dogs, 2 cats, and three children.

Webinar Transcript:

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): Okay, we are going to go ahead and get started. We do have a Q&A box as you're listening this evening if you want to.

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): submit your questions in the Q&A. We will have time to take those at the end. So, hello, everyone, and welcome. We're so glad you could join us for our Every Family Counts series. Today, our webinar title is Curiosity Over Clicks, Rekindling a Love of Reading in a Digital Age. We all know that in today's fast-paced digital world, children's attention is pulled in a thousand

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): directions. And this happens before they even fully realize that it's happening.

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): As adults, we can see how the constant distraction affects focus and learning, but for many children, this is simply their everyday reality. Tonight, we're thrilled to have amazing guest facilitators here to explore how curiosity can be a powerful antidote to distraction and a way to nurture a lifelong love of reading and learning. We'll also explore why reading often fades as children get older.

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): how digital distractions compete with books, and how curiosity fueled by small, engaging experiences can reignite a love of reading. We'll also look at the Enlightened Generation approach and how it connects learning

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): curiosity and joy. Whether you are an educator, family member, this conversation is going to be packed with insightful and practical strategies to help children rediscover the magic of story, wonder, and curiosity, even in today's scrolling world.

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): So, who are we? I am Dr. Erin Bailey, the Vice President of Literacy Programs, and Research at Reading is Fundamental. I'm a former educator, and I am also joining as a parent, which is

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): the central point of my identity, so I have a lot to learn from this evening's webinar as well. I'm very excited. A little bit about RIF.

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): Reading is Fundamental, or RIF for short, is the nation's largest children's literacy nonprofit and the oldest. Our mission is to inspire joy of reading and ensure that every child has the opportunities and resources they need to become a lifelong reader and, by extension, learner. So these webinars that we're going through this evening is part of our Every Family Counts webinar. We also have an educator-facing webinar.

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): And a book-centric webinar if you are interested in joining those as well. All are welcome.

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): So, let me introduce our guest presenters this evening. Susan Verde is New York Times best-selling children's book author and former elementary educator. On top of writing, she's also a teacher of yoga and mindfulness for children. She's part of the founding Enlightened Generation team, and is their resident author. She wrote the books for Enlightened Generation.

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): And she contributes to it, in many facets, including her Give Back program.

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): She believes in the power of wonder, curiosity, and paying attention to the world in which we live, as this is what makes us healthier, happier, and more connected people.

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): And then next, we have Emma Walton Hamilton, who is a best-selling and award-winning author, editor, stage, television, and podcast writer and producer, performer, and arts educator. Together with her mother, you may recognize Julie Andrews, she has co-authored over 30 books for children and adults, 9 of which have been New York Times bestsellers. She's also a faculty member at Stony Brook

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): University's MFA in Creative Writing and Literature program. She teaches all forms of children's book writing to graduate and undergraduate students, as well as leads as their director of the annual Children's Literature Conference.

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): Welcome, Susan and Emma. I'm gonna turn the screen over to you now.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Thank you.

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): And I will be moderating our discussion at the end.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Wonderful, thank you. I'm just gonna share my screen.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: There we go. Can everybody see that?

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Susan Verde: I can see that.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Great, all right. It's very much an honor to be here, and I'm gonna let Susan start the conversation with our first slide.

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Susan Verde: Well, I'm very happy to be here, and oh my gosh, you can't hear that?

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Susan Verde: That's so interesting. My dog is barking, so I'm just gonna let you know that's what happens at home. So I'm very happy to be here, especially with Emma, who I've known forever and a day, and, any chance we could do something together that… about reading and literacy?

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Susan Verde: It's an amazing experience.

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Susan Verde: So… Let's get right to it. Why is it so important to raise kids to computers?

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Susan Verde: There is… Quantifiable evidence.

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Susan Verde: Obviously, there's studies that show children who read well do better in other subjects, and in school, and beyond school.

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Susan Verde: They're able to communicate better, they have more confidence and better concentration skills.

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Susan Verde: And they know how to solve problems, and are more likely to seek out and develop new ideas, which is…

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Susan Verde: Really what we want for our children, right?

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Susan Verde: They are better at utilizing technology, which seems counterintuitive, since we're trying to get off the technology.

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Susan Verde: But it's actually… so these are the quantifiable things.

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Susan Verde: But also, you know.

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Susan Verde: It's important that kids become readers because they get to see themselves in different situations and different experiences, and that's really important to find, people who validate how you're feeling or what you're experiencing.

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Susan Verde: So, Emma can go.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Oh, okay, I thought you were going to continue with this one.

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Susan Verde: I can continue.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Yeah, go ahead, I'm on the next one.

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Susan Verde: Sorry?

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Perfect.

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Susan Verde: I was a little thrown by the barking, which now has stopped, so that's very nice.

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Susan Verde: So, with all of these skills that they gain, they're at an advantage. They're more likely to get ahead in their career, and earn a higher salary.

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Susan Verde: to get a promotion or a raise, and they are twice as likely to attend performing arts, visit museums, sporting, do volunteer work. So they're really… it opens them up to this whole world of the arts and culture and…

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Susan Verde: Gets them to experience things outside of themselves, which really lends itself to…

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Susan Verde: understanding what kind of career they're interested in, and then being able to learn and exceed and excel in that career, which leads to the salary and the promotion. And so, it really has a lot of…

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Susan Verde: Important outcomes to life success, but also

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Susan Verde: broadening your mind, wanting to, absorb the art and the experiences around you. So it keeps us from being so insular and kind of opens up the world.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Yeah, and I think, you know, critical thinking is a phrase we often hear bandied about in this realm, but that's really what we're talking about here, is the ability to really use our critical thinking skills and,

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Emma Walton Hamilton: That makes us a more well-rounded human being in the world.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Before we talk about strategies for getting and keeping kids reading, we thought we would just take a moment to talk about, why reading… the value of reading versus, the value or lack thereof of…

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Emma Walton Hamilton: screen time, and I want to be very clear and say that when we talk about screen time, we're not talking about reading ebooks or reading online, we're specifically talking about passive screen time. So, you know, staring at screens, receiving

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Emma Walton Hamilton: watching videos, receiving information from screens, doom scrolling, that kind of thing. But the interesting data tells us that we actually use different parts of our brain when we read than when we look at screens, and screens

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Typically trigger something called the orienting response in our brain, which is a very primal instinct to be on alert for sudden movements in our peripheral vision in case it's a predator in the bushes.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Right? This is the… triggering the fight-or-flight mode, essentially. So what screens are doing are they're feeding that orienting response, and that's a very instinctive response, and it doesn't have…

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Very much to do with logic, or reason, or reflective thought.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Whereas the parts of the brain that are central to reasoning are actually activated by reading printed words. Reading printed words

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Emma Walton Hamilton: which engages our reasoning, is all about decoding, right? So we're looking at letters, and we're looking at words, and we're making letters and, you know, strange shapes into letters, and letters into words, and words into sentences, and sentences into meaning and context.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: And all of this is engaging our reasoning ability, our ability to make choices, and to assess whether those choices are wise or not, and how those choices connect to our value system.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: So if we really think about it in those terms, in terms of, like, activating our central reasoning process versus our fight-or-flight mode.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: It becomes pretty apparent that our collective health as a society and our future, and our planet's future really depends on us being readers and continuing to use that

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Emma Walton Hamilton: That part of our brain.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: So with that, and I'm pretty sure we're preaching to the converted here tonight, so, we'll move from… from those statistics, in fact, into some strategies on how to get and keep kids reading, and Susan, over to you for this next slide. We've got 5 points that we're gonna share.

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Susan Verde: That's always the tricky part. I think that's the part that many, parents and caregivers and even teachers have difficulty with, is, you know, getting kids reading and then

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Susan Verde: fostering that love of reading. I mean, teachers are…

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Susan Verde: the pros. But even then, with the world as it is today, it's pretty challenging. And I did just want to reflect back about, reading versus screen time.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: area.

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Susan Verde: And when you talked about the collective health, and it's also, you know, a big part of our collective… our mental health, because you cannot…

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Susan Verde: function well if you're constantly in that orienting response, in that fight-or-flight mode. And so the fact that, reading kind of shuts that off.

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Susan Verde: and gives your nervous system a break, a pause, is really… has a strong effect on your own mental well-being, so…

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Susan Verde: Just thought I'd throw that in there.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Good point, good point. All right.

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Susan Verde: Alright.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Just key.

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Susan Verde: start reading to kids as early and as often as possible. I think… I know when I… I was always a reader, and my parents read to me a lot, and they had… my brother read to me, and they had books all around the house, and so I was very fortunate in that way. And I know, as a parent, I wanted to have that same kind of…

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Susan Verde: atmosphere and connection to reading for my own kids, but there's always that piece of you

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Susan Verde: I think, as a parent, that is, like.

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Susan Verde: Am I doing this the right way? Am I talking to myself? Am I… is my kid gonna even care? Like, what…

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Susan Verde: Take all of that self-judgment away, there's no wrong way, just start reading. Read to your kids, read with your kids, and reading is…

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Susan Verde: not just, you know, picking up and getting through an entire book. Reading is…

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Susan Verde: I mean, I'm aging myself, but, you know, I used to sit at the breakfast table and read the back of the cereal box, and that is reading. We could, you know, I could read it with my parents, but that was reading. So…

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Susan Verde: Starting in utero, of course, your kids can…

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Susan Verde: there are all kinds of studies about your kids being able to hear your voice, and music and all of these things when they're still growing. And so…

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Susan Verde: Starting to read to them when they're in utero also helps you practice kind of feeling comfortable with that. And then reading can be a fun thing to do,

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Susan Verde: when they first wake up, right? And again, it can be…

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Susan Verde: Reading the cereal box, or reading,

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Susan Verde: directions on a recipe, or whatever engages them and makes them… it's almost like sneaking it in there. During mealtime is a great, great way to, get them engaged.

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Susan Verde: And while waiting for an appointment.

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Susan Verde: So, while traveling, right, I remember schlepping all kinds of books for my kids, and then,

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Susan Verde: I felt like, though, they just really… it really gave them something very physical and mental to do while we were traveling or waiting for appointments. At nap time or bedtime, you can make it kind of a ritual, which is sort of setting that tone of comfort and connection.

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Susan Verde: while in the bath. I mean, they're really just sort of endless… endless pauses in your life, or places where you can sneak in some reading. Oh yeah, and keep reading together after the kids have learned. My kids…

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Susan Verde: loved being read to, and when I visit schools, and I work with middle schoolers who are… think they're way past picture books, or even high schoolers, they love being read to. They really do, and people stop doing that. They don't have that opportunity. Even adults like being read to, so…

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Emma Walton Hamilton: I think that's so true. I think so often parents think, oh, I'm not supposed to keep reading to them after they can… after they're learning to read for themselves, because I, you know, I'm supposed to cultivate their own independent reading skills, but it's actually so, so important to continue to

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Preserve those connections between reading and joy, reading and love, reading and pleasure, reading in together time.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Right? I think that's just such an important piece.

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Susan Verde: Agreed.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Yeah.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Setting a good example. So, this is about us letting kids see, see us reading. It, just to go to… back to another statistic, parents who regularly read for pleasure are actually 6 times more likely to have kids

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Emma Walton Hamilton: who do the same. So, we really want to let kids see us reading.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: And it doesn't have to be novels, it can be newspapers, it can be magazines, it can be cereal boxes, it can be recipes, you know? Just let kids see the value of reading in our own lives.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: And keep books everywhere you can think of around the house. It makes a visual statement in terms of the value or the importance that you place on books.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: In my house, we have books in the bathroom, we have books in the kitchen, we have books in the living room, we have books in our bedrooms, and we literally have books in every room in the house. And so my kids have grown up, you know, completely surrounded by books wherever they are, and they're never more than an arm's reach away from a good read.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Organizing books attractively and making them appealing to kids to want to reach out to. So, this can be, you know, you can… this can be very personal, this can be very organic and specific to you. My daughter loves to organize her books by color.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: She's 22 now, and she still organizes her books by color, and she's got this beautiful rainbow bookshelf, and it really is…

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Emma Walton Hamilton: it's just so aesthetically pleasing that I actually ended up organizing my bookshelves in the same way, because I thought it was so soothing and so beautiful to look at. But also, you know,

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Emma Walton Hamilton: I'm sure we have some teachers and librarians with us this evening, you know, the way in which books are sometimes arranged to face out instead of just the spines, so that we can see, you know, the cover. You can see behind Aaron how some of the books that are facing out popped.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: And, you know, makes for an interesting and attractive visual statement.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Taking care of books and valuing them, you know, really making sure that we protect them, that we don't… they don't get torn, or too beaten up, or…

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Emma Walton Hamilton: I mean, it's okay when your kids are really small to let them chew on the corners or, you know, handle the books in whatever way they… it's better to be handling them than not at all. But we also want to preserve, you know, books

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Because they are cherished. And so, to the extent that we can continue to protect them and take care of them and teach kids to do the same, it shows that they… that they have value.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: And then we can also advocate for literacy activities at schools, you know, be on parents' committees that organize book fairs, or volunteer for the book fairs, and

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Advocate for author visits. This is such an important piece, you know, for kids to see people who write books and illustrate books, to come into their classrooms and talk to them about the process of writing, and to read with them, and to show them how books are made.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: This… it's just such a valuable thing, and… and…

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Emma Walton Hamilton: These days, with budget cuts and post-COVID and all of that, not every school is really advocating or doing much in the way of author visits anymore, and I think it sometimes really is incumbent upon parents to fight the good fight and advocate for that in schools.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Back to you, Susan.

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Susan Verde: I seem to have lost your… okay, there, Emma Walton's screen, sorry. I don't know what happened. Okay.

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Susan Verde: Here we are at Connect Reading with Joy. I mean, we've sort of been talking about that this whole time, how things can be aesthetically pleasing, how they can… reading can be connected to all the

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Susan Verde: fun things you're doing in your life. When you're… when you're on your way to doing… going to a birthday party, or going somewhere… you know, books…

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Susan Verde: in the car, reading… reading during joyful things, making that connection. Teachers may teach kids how to read, right? But parents can teach a child to love reading, just that they have more opportunity

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Susan Verde: to connect books to joyful experiences, right? So you're looking for ways to kind of subliminally reinforce the connection between reading and pleasure, which, again, comes back to the sort of modeling that you show about how reading makes you feel joyful, and that

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Susan Verde: you know, the kids attuned to that. Snuggle together, so reading is associated with that together time, which is really nice and really important. Visit libraries and bookstores together, which also is super fun.

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Susan Verde: And giving books as gifts, that's showing them

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Susan Verde: That you think books are important enough that they should be shared, that somebody else should have that joy as reading.

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Susan Verde: And then choosing books, this is a big one for me also, choosing books connected to a passion. I think sometimes, as kids get older, they, they lose the ability

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Susan Verde: In certain circumstances, maybe in classrooms, or…

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Susan Verde: Wherever they may be, to choose their books, to sort of…

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Susan Verde: decide that they're passionate about something, and then find a book about it, because they have a book that they, you know, have to read for homework, or something else that gets in the way. But really making sure that you take that time to let them choose books and have some autonomy, but connected to something that they're interested in.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Just one last bullet there, Susan.

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Susan Verde: Oh, sorry. Connect books to support activities, right. So, anything that your kid may be doing, or something you went and saw, there's always a book about that thing, which is so fantastic about books. I mean…

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Susan Verde: there are books for everything. And so,

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Susan Verde: connecting that thing to a book. You can find a story about whatever it is. You went to a…

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Susan Verde: well, if you went to a movie, there's usually a book before that. But, you know, you went and saw a baseball game, or you went for a walk in the woods. There are books about those things and those feelings that you get participating in or watching those things, and it's a really wonderful way to

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Susan Verde: Continue and, the activity and the joy and bring it into a book experience.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: I like to think of this one as, like, using stealth mode to, to reinforce the connection between reading and pleasure, and conversely, we want to avoid…

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Emma Walton Hamilton: withholding books for any reason, right? Because just as we want to reinforce the connection between reading and joy, we don't want to say, you know, if you do that, you can't stay up and read before bedtime tonight, or something like that, because then you're reinforcing the connection between books and punishment, right?

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Emma Walton Hamilton: So the whole idea is to ask, always be asking, is this something that is going to underscore the relationship between books and joy for my child, or for my…

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Students, or whomever it may be.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Connecting reading to life skills. So, again, this is demonstrating, setting an example, demonstrating how, important reading is in adulthood, and in terms of coping and functioning in the world.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Things like reading recipes out loud while you cook together, or reading instructions together when you're building equipment, or when you're assembling a game or a toy, reading shopping lists or package ingredients together.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: offering books as problem solvers, we call this bibliotherapy, right? If they need to find a way to solve a problem, there's got to be a book about that that we can turn to for the solution.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: promoting journaling and scrapbooking. So, this can be, you know, during a family trip or a vacation, but it actually can be sort of any time at all. It just, you know, showing again how reading and writing are ways to document and ways to capture memories.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: And maybe creating a year-end family newsletter together.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: taking children with us when we vote. I did… I started doing this when my kids were really small. You know, they could barely see over the voting table, but it was just such an important thing to demonstrate how being able to read, you know, a ballot

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Emma Walton Hamilton: is such an important life skill. So, making sure that kids see how important reading is when it comes to just the daily

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Functioning elements of life.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: And over to you, Susan, for our last point.

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Susan Verde: Oh, well, number 5,

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Susan Verde: So connect reading to curiosity and wonder, right? Like, that's how we… we learn, we extend what we're reading, we extend our activities, we become curious about the world or about anything. That's why we were talking about, sort of.

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Susan Verde: reading things, help… letting a child choose something they're passionate about to… to read about. And that…

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Susan Verde: That asking, that wondering, that curiosity.

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Susan Verde: It really leads to a desire for more learning, for more books, more learning, finding out what your passion is, right? Finding out what you don't like, finding out what you do like. So, you can do this in a multitude of ways, but you can pair reading with discovery activities, so if you're

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Susan Verde: reading something about the natural… natural wonders in the world, right? You have a book, and you also have,

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Susan Verde: a real-life experience, or you see photographs, or things like that, so you're connecting the reading with discovering. You can explore other cultures through reading. It really opens you up to the world, and to…

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Susan Verde: The idea that there's so much out there for you to explore and learn about and get to know.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: And with that, we're going to introduce, I think… I think…

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Besides the opportunity to do all three, right?

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Susan Verde: Right, so we've been very fortunate, to connect with Reading as Fundamental.

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Susan Verde: Enlightened Generation is a brand that, I have

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Susan Verde: been a part of since its inception. And, I've written these books, but really, this is a way to connect reading to joy, connect reading to curiosity, and sort of reinforce the learning experience that you've had in a kind of stealth and wonderful way. So, Enlightened Generation is a new clothing brand for kids.

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Susan Verde: But it's…

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Susan Verde: really clothing with a purpose. So, we have 6 collections of clothing, and each collection is a world wonder, or an amazing animal, or learning about language, right? Things like that. And so we have a beautiful book.

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Susan Verde: That's written about that particular wonder and topic, and it's filled with

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Susan Verde: Facts, but it's also filled with questions to inspire curiosity and activities

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Susan Verde: to kind of continue the learning and activate the book and the reading. And then, the clothes are all a reflection of whatever you learned about in that book. So, if you were reading about the Moai.

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Susan Verde: Of Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, as some people know it. Then you have this amazing t-shirt that has…

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Susan Verde: Rapa Nui, I mean, Moai statues on it.

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Susan Verde: And so you kind of… if someone comes up to you and says, what is that? What are you wearing? It activates your brain to remember some of the things you've learned while reading, right? And so it's a way of reinforcing in a sort of cool, fun design way. And also, this whole experience gives you a chance to…

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Susan Verde: learn something together. So, as a family, you read, you unbox, you talk, you, ask each other questions. There are some questions in the backs of all of these books that kids can ask their grown-up.

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Susan Verde: So, you're really getting the full experience of connecting reading to joy, curiosity, doing things together, right? Having that moment together, activating that part of your brain, giving your…

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Susan Verde: Nervous system arrest, and also feeling connected, not only to the person who you are reading with and experiencing this with, but also

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Susan Verde: To what's out there in the world.

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Susan Verde: And that's really key to reading, literacy, connection, all of those things. And, I'm just gonna say,

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Susan Verde: One really wonderful thing about this whole brand is that each collection is connected to a nonprofit organization that is doing their part in that community, in that culture, in that area of learning to reinforce literacy, to help

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Susan Verde: with kids and education, to help our environment, to do all kinds of wonderful things. So every time you

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Susan Verde: buy one of these beautiful pieces of clothing and this book and have this experience. You're giving back to one of these places that's…

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Susan Verde: helping everybody grow and keep the culture alive and helping each other, so you're making a big difference. And one of our partners is, of course, RIF, Reading is Fundamentals, so they are also

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Susan Verde: A big part of one of our collections on language and communication.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Alright.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: So I'm gonna stop sharing now, so that we can chat amongst ourselves and our… and with our attendees.

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): Thank you both so much, Emma and Susan, that was wonderful, and…

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): also tangible. Like, as I was following along as a parent, there was nothing in your presentation that felt…

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): outside of something that I could do and adopt into my everyday practices. So I really appreciate how accessible you made everything for the families that are joining us. And you might have seen that I was giggling a little bit, and I shared in the chat about, reading in the bath. It's not something we do often, but actually, last night, my daughter asked, will you… we got a magazine with stories in it in the mail, and she said, will you read it to

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): me, in the bath. So there we were last night, reading The Prince and the Pauper, in the bath, and because she has great negotiation skills, that meant that she had more than her typical two books, before, before bed, because the bath book, didn't count.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: I love that. And, you know, I remember my kids had, you know, books that were specifically made for the bath, books that were made of plastic.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: whatever they were, you know, that were waterproof and you could read in the bath, but also we, you know, I… so many hours sitting by the bath reading to both my kids while they were in the bath, such a lovely thing to do, you know, and you can get one of those lovely little trays that goes across the bath with a… with a…

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Emma Walton Hamilton: A stand to lean the book up again.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: a whole sensory experience, you know, what a great Connect reading with pleasure.

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Susan Verde: I went to visit my, daughter at college a couple of weeks ago, and,

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Susan Verde: she's in Providence, and, I had a…

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Susan Verde: a book with me, but we found this really cool independent bookstore, and we went there together, and she got a book, and I got another book. And then we kind of put them aside, and then when we were

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Susan Verde: getting into bed, getting ready to sleep, she pulled out her book, and I pulled out my book, and we didn't say anything to each other, we just were… and I just… that feeling of looking over and seeing her reading, and I'm reading, and it was just such a nice…

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Susan Verde: experience, you know, I'm like, wow, she's reading. This is great. It worked!

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): Yes, and I appreciate the way you connected it to

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): the greater world, too. That reading isn't just important for our individual sense of self and sense of joy, but it actually contributes to our ecosystem. I thought that was great, and I will probably use that in the future, too. We do have some questions here. So, in general, what role does curiosity play in a child's reading development? You know.

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): We hear so much about the specific skills that children need and the chronology of them, so just wondering, where does curiosity fit into that reading development? And then, are there actions educators and families can take to spark this curiosity for children?

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Susan Verde: I mean, I'll just say that, you know, curiosity,

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Susan Verde: Is it, is, plays a key role in… in…

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Susan Verde: reading development and all those steps and things you need to learn. It's not… it takes away the idea that this is just memorization and something, you know, wrote, and that you have to… it's something you have to do. It gives you a chance to wonder why and where it came from, and it just makes it more…

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Susan Verde: You feel more connected to the process of reading when you're curious.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Yeah, and I think that, you know, going back to this notion of connecting reading to books to passions, you know, connecting books to curiosity is key as well, in terms of if a child asks a question, like, you know.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: where does… how do bees make honey? Or, you know, whatever the curious, curious question might be, you know.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: to try to say, well, I wonder if we can find a book about that, you know? Let's see if we can find a book about that and do it, and really learn something about that.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: So easy, right, in this day and age to just say, I don't know, let's Google it, right? But there are some absolutely gorgeous books out there. You know, I'm just thinking about Bees and Honey. I mean, there are some beautiful picture books.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: That are, you know, deep dives into the life cycle of a bee, and how bees pollinate, and their importance in our ecosystem, and…

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Emma Walton Hamilton: I'm thinking about… there's even one book about the bees who live at the top of Notre Dame, you know? Like, you can… one little question can lead you down a road through books that lead to other questions and other curiosities in a way that I think just

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Googling the answer, you know, doesn't necessarily always do.

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Susan Verde: And then it gives, you know, it gives… a child…

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Susan Verde: permission to ask questions, to be curious, right? Because… and if you don't know the answer, that's even better, because then it's something you can learn together.

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Susan Verde: And so they learn to say, I'm not sure, let's do this, let's go get a book, and it becomes an experience that they then remember, and they have that sort of confidence to ask questions, and also

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Susan Verde: Understand that finding out the answer can actually be a really joyful experience, versus just

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Susan Verde: Typing it in and getting something.

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): I love that, using books to ask questions, and then further questions, really. I remember once, I taught preschool, so 3- and 4-year-old students, and a little girl asked me, do whales have ears?

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): And to your point, Susan, about you might not know the answer, I actually had no clue. I knew nothing about the anatomy of whales. But I was able to find a book about whales.

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Susan Verde: And we read, the book as a class together, and that inspired so many more questions, we were able to actually do a full unit, on ocean animals and whales as a result of that. So you can really follow those paths of curiosity, in different directions.

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Susan Verde: use.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: new wheels have ears?

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Susan Verde: Oh, do they have ears?

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): They do… they have exceptional hearing. They have, basically hidden ear… not ears that we would think of, but they have hidden ears, underneath their layer of skin. So you can't see them, that was… that's the… the challenge part.

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): So my next question for you all is, why do more traditional models of reading discourage independent reading? We know we see less independent reading as children get older. Why is that?

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Emma Walton Hamilton: I think that so often,

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Reading… we touched on this earlier in terms of when kids start to read independently, we back off as parents from reading with them, or from continuing to connect reading with pleasure, because we think we're doing the right thing.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: By, you know, empowering our kids to read independently, but sometimes it's challenging to learn how to read. You know, it takes time, and not every kid… it doesn't necessarily come easy to every kid, and…

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Emma Walton Hamilton: If it's associated with homework or

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Emma Walton Hamilton: you know, some obligatory lesson or chore, then all of a sudden it becomes, you know, something you have to do rather than something you're choosing to do, and that whole kind of connecting reading with pleasure thing suddenly isn't… is destabilized a little bit.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: it's also, you know, the type of books sometimes that in curricula, you know, kids have to read for… I remember when my son was in seventh grade, the school that… Susan and I, our kids went to the same school, and

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Emma Walton Hamilton: there was a very specific curriculum that tracked through the evolution of the planet, basically, and history, cultural history. And by the time we got to seventh grade, it was Greeks and Romans, and there was a lot of war.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: And the book that was assigned to my son's class was a book called My Brother Sam is Dead.

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Susan Verde: Oh, God.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: It's a famous book, it's a classic, you know, middle grade novel, but it's set in wartime. It's very sad, and my son's name is Sam, and he… at the time, he was a new brother. He had a little… my daughter had just been born, and…

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Emma Walton Hamilton: It really was like a gut punch for him, having to read this book, and I remember his, his teacher

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Emma Walton Hamilton: said to the class, you know, okay, everybody, what did you think of the book this week? Who has feedback? Is there anything you can share about what we're reading? And he… he said, to his credit, he said.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: I thought it was… Beautifully bound.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: And, you know, nicely printed and illustrated,

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Emma Walton Hamilton: But, ever the diplomat, my son, he said, but but I have to say, I had… I found it really, really hard to read, and it's… these books that we've been reading recently in class are kind of turning me off reading altogether, because they're all so sad.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: And his teacher, thank goodness, heard it, and caught it in the moment, and said.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: okay, your next read, Sam, is a free read. You get to pick the book for the next read. And that was… that was just such a precious moment, right?

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Emma Walton Hamilton: And of course, then it was then the pressure was on, okay, what book is it going to be that recaptivates his interest in reading? And so he said to him, you know, what do you want to… what kind of book do you want to read, Sam? And he said, something…

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Emma Walton Hamilton: realistic, Something funny, And about animals.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: So then it would be, you know, the onus was on us to find something that fit that bill and recaptivated his imagination. We… I took him to the library, we went to the, to our local library and to the librarian, and we were like, okay, Sam needs a book that is realistic, funny, and about animals.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: And she gave him Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals, and that did the trick. He loved it, he laughed out loud, and he was right back into loving reading again, so…

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Susan Verde: Thank goodness she heard him, and also.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Yes.

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Susan Verde: advocate for himself, because I think one of my kids who has dyslexia, had a lot of difficulty reading, and in 11th grade, he was given

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Susan Verde: The classics that are not written the way kids

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Susan Verde: speak and communicate, and it was very, very hard for him, and it just really turned him off from reading altogether. He's just now beginning to see that there are things that he can choose and read for joy, but it definitely…

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Emma Walton Hamilton: It's tough, and you know, I think sometimes, like, there are different ways to read, right? It's not just holding a book in your hands and looking at words on the page. I remember when my son was a certain age, my son had strabismus, which is a lazy eye.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: And what it meant was that his eyes didn't team. He eventually had surgery, and now they do team, but for most of his childhood, he was always looking through either one eye or the other, not both at the same time, which was extremely fatiguing.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: for his brain, and reading was really challenging, and I remember after we discovered this.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: I remember the school psychologist saying to us,

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Emma Walton Hamilton: He's… he's more of an auditory learner than a visual learner, so…

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Emma Walton Hamilton: give him audiobooks, because that's gonna be a great way for him to engage with reading, and it really, really helped, you know? He would… he would listen to the book at the same time as looking at the book, but mostly absorbing it through the narration that he was hearing, and that's reading!

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Right? That's no less reading than actually scanning the page with your eyes.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Read comic books. That's reading, too, you know? As long as you're… you're…

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Reading with joy something that speaks to you, that sparks a passion, and, in a way that feels…

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Comfortable and, you know, speaks to you.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: it's reading, and it's gonna have all the benefits and all the positive effects. Of course we have to, you know, kids have to go to school, and sometimes they have to read boring stuff, and they do have to learn how to read and to decode, and they have to learn fluency, and all of the, you know, those reading terms.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: But I think it's really important to balance that with the joy, you know, to keep the joy of reading alive through…

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Giving them opportunities to find stories in ways that speak to them.

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Susan Verde: Right, for every book they have to read, give them a… let them choose a book that they want to read.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Yes, perfect.

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Susan Verde: Epic novels, whatever it is.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Love that.

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Susan Verde: Audiobooks, yeah.

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): Yeah, it's a balance. And if I can just pull on a thread of something you said, Emma, there's…

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): not… there's more than one way to read a book, and so you have designed a book, a series of books, Susan, you're the author, and Emma, you're the editor, so I want to ask you, I've looked at the books, I have my, own answer that I could give for this, but how were you able to write a book that is

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): captivating curio- and inspiring curiosity for ages 3 through 12, because I'm sure many parents, when they hear that, are thinking, there's no way my 3-year-old, my 9-year-old, and my 12-year-old can read the same book.

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Susan Verde: I, you know, it was, it's a very good question, and, we thought long and hard about that, because, you know, we were deciding for Enlightened Generation whether to make these books

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Susan Verde: One for each… Grade level, or growth period, or period of development, or…

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Susan Verde: just one that could be for everyone, and how would we do that? And I… and so we, obviously, we chose the one, but the way that these books are written are…

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Susan Verde: they're… They give you a lot of opportunity as the adult to share

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Susan Verde: what connects, and then leave out what doesn't. And then the books, you can kind of revisit and grow with these books. They're meant to keep, they're meant to go back to, learn more about. And things are written in sort of chunks, you know, in the way that kids really take in information these days. So very…

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Susan Verde: very short and beautiful chunks that are supported by photographs, that are, you know, pictures. So there are a lot of ways you can engage all the different ages, and this is, again, a place where the grown-up

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Susan Verde: needs to know that there's no wrong or right way. Like, you know your kid better than anyone else, so if you're sitting down with this book and you get through.

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Susan Verde: two pages, three facts, whatever it is, that's still something. You can skip right to the curiosity pages, or right to the… you… you can…

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Susan Verde: you… there are no hard and fast rules. You can kind of pick what works.

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Susan Verde: Or, you know, go as far as your child can go in that moment. And then you have all this stuff to come back to, so I think…

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Susan Verde: Don't try to overload them with everything, go with their reactions, responses, questions, and then, you know, someone who's 10 or whatever, if they can

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Susan Verde: read independently, you still are sharing that time together, and maybe they'll read something to you, you read something to them. So there are many ways you can keep them engaged.

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Susan Verde: Regardless of the age.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: There's also the use of questions, which I really, I really resonated with.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Throughout the book, and our… I remember there was a moment when our… the Enlightened Generation's founder, Robin Stodder, who is herself a parent of small children, came up with the idea to include a page in the middle of the book that says, wait!

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Don't stop, you know, let's… what questions do you have right now about what we've just talked about, and are you curious about this, or are you curious about that, or maybe you're wondering this? Well, read on to find out the answers, and it…

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Emma Walton Hamilton: it keeps, I think it keeps the readers, the kids of all ages, kind of engaged in real time, because you're… you're…

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Emma Walton Hamilton: stimulating their curiosity, and inviting them to think about their questions as you continue reading. And the… the photographs in these books are really very, very beautiful and very, evocative and…

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Emma Walton Hamilton: I think so much… the beauty of these books is that the…

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Child, no matter how young they are, can piece together

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Emma Walton Hamilton: enough of the story from a combination of hearing the information, but also absorbing these glorious visuals, which, you know… So really, there's opportunities for older kids

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Emma Walton Hamilton: To get deeper into the weeds with some of the facts and the information, but younger kids to engage with the artwork and the illustrations and the photographs, and kids of all ages.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Curiosities to be sparked by the questions that the… that the book asks from one section to the next.

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Susan Verde: Yeah, I mean, and that's one of the other sort of wonderful pieces, is that, yes, it's a book that

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Susan Verde: Gives you information, tells you things that are facts about whatever it is that you're looking at, but it also…

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Susan Verde: Tells you what we don't know yet, and that every…

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Emma Walton Hamilton: And says, maybe one day you'll be the person who finds out the answer, right?

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Susan Verde: that out, right? So, it's like, not everybody has the answer to everything. There… even these mysteries, or these things, or these wonders that have been studied by scientists, and this, that, and the other. There are still unknowns, and there's still opportunity for you to be the one to figure it out. So it's really sort of… there are many parts of it that are very inviting, you know, that sort of bring

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Susan Verde: Like that fourth wall, or whatever you might say, you know, that kind of talked directly to you.

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Susan Verde: And, let you know that this could be your experience, too, or this could be your discovery, too.

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): I love it. Yes, I thoroughly enjoyed the books, and I'll share, they're great for grown-ups, too. I actually sat down, with my aunt, so two adults…

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Emma Walton Hamilton: -Oh.

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Susan Verde: Oh, Frozen.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Aaron froze.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: I… while we're waiting for her to come back, I'm gonna say that I learned a lot from these books, too. I didn't… I'd never heard of the leaf sheep of the sea. I never knew there was such a creature, and I was thrilled to be able to learn more about the…

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Susan Verde: Nazca lines of Peru, and the Moai, and… I learned a lot. I didn't know any of these things until I started researching and learning about them. And I had to ask a lot of questions to figure that, you know, to get to the answers, the facts, the information.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Yeah, well… We… now we have Carly with us!

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Karly O'Brien (RIF): Hello! Oh! Aaron's back, I think.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Maybe, maybe.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: I think Erin may be having connectivity issues.

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Karly O'Brien (RIF): I used to tell my kids during virtual learning to throw some shine at the Wi-Fi, so maybe that will help. Oh, she's back! Oh my god, it worked!

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): It says it's connecting. This doesn't typically happen to me, so thank you for your patience. I was saying one takeaway for our listeners.

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Karly O'Brien (RIF): Say it one more time, Aaron.

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): If there was one takeaway, you would like for our listeners to have.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: For me, it would be…

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Preserve the connection between reading and joy.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: reading and pleasure. You know, just, just continually ask, is this, is this going to reinforce the connection between reading and pleasure? Every, every activity, every opportunity to read. Just keep looking for ways to underscore the joy in reading.

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Susan Verde: And I would say, well, the same, but also, Don't… don't stress about…

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Susan Verde: how it… how you're reading, or how long your child is sitting still, or what the rules are supposed to… what it's supposed to look like, right? We know that reading can look different in… we talked about that. It can… and… and so…

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Susan Verde: If you can let go of those sort of restraints and judgments and whatever, you can make the experience joyful for both of you, and that is a really important connection.

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Dr. Erin Bailey (RIF): Thank you. Emma and Susan, it was so wonderful to have you, and we will be in touch, and thank you, everyone, for joining us.

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Thank you so much for having us. It was a pleasure to be here.

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Karly O'Brien (RIF): Thank you all!

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Emma Walton Hamilton: Have you ever done it.

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Susan Verde: Hi.