Author, curriculum developer, literacy expert, home educator, wanderer, homesteader, mama of four.
When I'm not doing those things, I am advocating for literacy, podcasting, hiking, foraging or creating courses.
Passion with A Purpose
I created Kiss Your Brain because I know what it feels like to want to help your child read and not know where to start. I’ve been the parent searching, hoping, and second-guessing. This is the resource I needed, and now I’m sharing it with you because every child deserves to be seen, supported, and taught in a way that works for their beautiful brain.
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.
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 completed 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.
Credentials
MSED Reading and Literacy Instruction
BS Business Administration
BS Marketing & Communications with PR Minor