← The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast
The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast
1KHO 666: Ginny's Most Meaningful Books of 2025 | Ginny Yurich, 1000 Hours Outside
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Oh, it's a beautiful world Ain't nothing on screen that's ever gonna be this view oh, it's a beautiful world and I just wanna share with I just wanna share with you this beautiful world Such a beautiful world welcome the 1000 Hours Outside podcast. My name is Jenny Eric. I'm the founder of 1000 Hours Outside, and it's just me today. So here's what happened. First of all, this makes me feel really uncomfortable because I have not done this, I guess, since 2019. In 2019, in January, I started a podcast. And I. I didn't even really listen to podcasts at the time. I just did it because that's kind of like what everybody else was doing. It's kind of like when everybody had a blog. So you're like, oh, I should probably start a podcast. And I didn't know what do. So I watched this video online on YouTube by this man named Pat Flynn. Basically, like, how to start a podcast. And I followed the steps. And incredibly, this past year, I actually got to interview Pat Flynn. I read one of his books. It just came out. It's called Lean Learning. And I got to interview him and tell him the story that I only have a podcast because of his YouTube video. So I watched his YouTube video. It was heading into 2019, and I was trying to figure out how to get this podcast thing up, and I'm pretty sure I'd probably never listen to one. So I got this microphone, which I still use. I still use it to record ads. And I would sit in our basement. This is at the last house we were at. I would sit in the basement and I would record. I would just, like, hold it up to my mouth and I would record. And I. I don't even remember what I talked about. I think I talked about, like, where 1,000 hours outside came from. Like, probably an episode on the Vestibular Sense. But this was at a time when our kids were still. At least the youngest one, like, wasn't sleeping through the night. So everyone would go to bed. I'd go down into the basement, I try and record, but by the time I was done recording, like, someone was up crying. So it just. I don't know. I just, like, let it go. I recorded six episodes, I think, and I just kind of was done, but I didn't take it down. So it's like, all of 2019, no podcasts. All of 2020, no podcasts. And then in August of 2021, this is a couple years later, this man named Dr. Chris Winter and I've told this story before, but he reached out and he, like, sent an email. I didn't know him, you know, I'd never heard of him, but he sent an email and was like, I have this new book coming out. It's called the Rested Child, and I'm trying to promote it through podcasts and could I come on yours? And so, I mean, I hadn't done one since 2019 in January, and that was when I just held up the microphone that was attached to my ph phone and just yapped on about whatever. So I'd never done an interview before, ever. And, yeah, I mean, I didn't know anything. I didn't know how to do the technology, you know, how to edit. But I said yes because it felt kind of like a cool thing and I was going to get a free book. And then it turned out to be a really cool interview, even though I was incredibly nervous about it, because he said that some of the questions I asked the editor, like, I had asked about light and sleep and, like, the amount of light a child is exposed to in the morning and the melatonin, serotonin thing. And he had said that the editor was on the fence about including that part in the book. And the fact that I was interested in it sort of justified to him and. And he was glad that he had left it in. So it was a good interview. He had no idea. I actually talked to him recently. He came on for a milestone episode of ours, like the 500th or something like that, and. And I told him. I was like, I'd never done it before. I didn't even really have a podcast when you reached out, and he was like, oh, I had no idea. So that sort of kicked it off. And I reached out to a couple people that, you know, back then, I. I just did not ever expect that they would say yes to come on because, like I said, I didn't really have a podcast and, you know, I'd read their books and I thought I would love to talk to these people. So it's like Dr. Peter Gray, who wrote Free to Learn, Lenore Skinny who wrote Free Range Kids, and Angela Hanscom who wrote Balanced and Barefoot. And they all said yes. So it sort of kicked off. And I had a ton of sound issues at the beginning. Like, all my reviews at the beginning were like, fix your sound, fix your sound. Something's wrong, something isn't right. So it was pretty frustrating. But all that to say, I have not sat at a. I've never sat at a microphone in like a little podcast studio ever. And, but certainly have not yapped on with myself since 2019. Oh my goodness. And we're heading into 2026, so it's been seven years and you kind of get used to what you're used to. And so this is a little out of sorts for me. However it was necessary and here's why. So obviously heading into the new year, it's great to have exciting guests and I, and I try and plan ahead for that. But what I realized a few weeks ago was that the New Year's Day episode was gonna be episode 666. So then I was in a conundrum like, what do you do with that? Like, you know, do you put some really amazing guest in their episode 666 or do you skip it? But then. And I don't really have ocd, but I was like, well, my thing is always going to show that I have put up one less episode than the actual number that it's on. So I was like, could I do 667A, 667B? I don't know. So I figured I'll. I'll be the one who falls on the sword and takes this episode that is coming out on January 1st. So here's what we're going to talk about. A couple things we're going to talk about. One, in case you don't know, just a quick overview of the origin story and a little hyped up message to join in in 2026 on a journey of taking back your time. And that's really what this is. And I'll talk about a little bit of the changes that have happened over the past decade. Plus, we really started prioritizing time outside in the fall of 2011, so it's been a long time for our family and screens have only gotten more ubiquitous since then. Should talk a little bit about that. Talk a little bit about some of my favorite books from the year I read 210. I kept track on Goodreads, which I think is super fun. And then a couple quotes that have been sort of keeping me upright. And also I want to read the wording on Replica AI, which is an AI chatbot website, because I just think it's horrendous and I want to find someone to come on and talk to me about it. But since I haven't found anyone yet, I'm just going to read it to you so that you can be mortified with me. All right, so we're going to kick it off with this where the heck did this even come from? And you may know the story. I always talk about it on other people's podcasts. And if you've ever gone back to the beginning of ours, which I never have, it, it feels cringe, cringey to me. And I actually met this woman once who was like, I started from the beginning and I thought she was gonna be like, they're all great. And she was like, they've gotten a lot better. So I was like, I don't ever really wanna go back and listen to what's at the beginning. Maybe you have, maybe you haven't. But the story here is just that I struggle, struggled, I struggled as a young mom. I struggled with the transition out of career. We had our first kid at age I was 27, my husband was 28. In some ways I feel like that was pretty late and it was just a hard adjustment for me, a hard adjustment going from full time work to full time home and just thinking that we would be able to schedule life like how you kind of would for like for a job. And I had friends who scheduled their kids lives and they, they lived in different time blocks and they, you know, there's a whole like program about it and it just didn't work at all for our kid. And he, he nursed all the time, he didn't sleep. And so I just felt like I was sort of thrown in the deep end from the very beginning and was really shocked at how all consuming early childhood was. Now I think if I had done it differently, it may not have been so all consuming or if I would have had different expectations. But my expectation was, was basically that I was going to be able to revolve this child around my life to a degree where it's like, yeah, of course you're taking care of them, but also you still have time to like run and grab groceries and you still have time to exercise and shower and you know, do some stuff. And it just was so unbelievably all consuming. So it kind of started there. We had three kids really right in a row. The oldest was two when the third one was born. So they're pretty close in age. And I just went through this several year period of time where I kind of loathed the mom job. You know, obviously I really loved our kids and I thought they were wonderful. But like the everyday no sleep, you're exhausted, can hardly function, you know, trying to fill 10 hours of time with a spouse at work was just, it was so overwhelming for me. And I think it would have continued to be that way. I felt like I was like a box checker and, you know, trying to do all the different classes and things, and we hardly had any money, so I was just, like, really running myself ragged. And, you know, like, staying home for 10 hours with three little kids that are crying is also not super great either. So. So anyway, so one of the things that I had signed up to do in those years was MOPS, which is now called MomCo. And I had a friend at MomCo who was starting to research for homeschooling, and she had a kid that was a year older than our oldest. We were going to homeschool, too. She was doing the research because she was like one year closer to starting. And she came to MOPS one day and she said, charlotte Mason says that kid should be outside for four to six hours whenever the weather is tolerable. And, you know, my gut reaction, my instant reaction was that that was dumb. I mean, I was like, I never even. I never heard of it. So this 1000 hours outside thing does not come from, like, trying to create a challenge for the Internet. It really comes from me struggling to. To figure out how to figure out life with little kids. And so she brings up this Charlotte Mason, and I think, well, that's a ridiculous idea. Four to six hours. I mean, anything that you do with kids that's geared for kids that you sign up for is just, you know, an hour or less often 30 minutes. And it's a lot of work, right? It's a lot of work to pack kids up and to get them to an event that takes up a small part of the day and. And then you go home. So this four to six hours was. Was a rather shocking to me. You know, that's like a good portion of the day. And I just. It was ridiculous, basically. And so this friend asked, though, if I would be interested in doing it. And. And that was the only bit of Charlotte Mason I heard about. I didn't know that Charlotte Mason, you know, was from the 1800s. I didn't know that Charlotte Mason had written all these volumes of work on child. On children and child development. So my friend had. So I'm sure that she'd read a lot more about, like, why getting outside is good for kids, but I only heard this four to six hour bit. So when she asked me if I. If I would be interested in trying it with her, I just thought, well, I, like, I don't really want to do that. And I just thought, you know, our kids can only be occupied for such a short period of time. What are they going to do for four to six hours? And so part of the premise. This is my friend Angela. She lives in Texas now and we've actually been really cool. We've gotten to go see her. But you know, she said you're not really supposed to bring anything with you. Like you're just basically supposed to let nature take center stage. And I was so not in line with any of this philosophy or worldview that I was wildly confused. Like, what are the kids gonna do for four to six hours? Like, don't I have to bring a ton of things to occupy them? And she said, no, you're really not supposed to bring anything. So we met in 2011, September 2011, we met at this park, it was in Farmington Hills, Michigan. It was beautiful because September in Michigan is beautiful. And we brought a picnic blanket and food and we met at nine in the morning, which is great. You know, you got little kids, they're up at like 6:30, you know, or earlier. So you know, to meet at 9 was no problem. I think I had packed up the night before and that's what I did all throughout the early years. I would always pack up the food the night before and extra clothes or whatever we would need, pack it up the night before so that in the morning you nurse kids, you feed kids, get everybody loaded in the car and we show up at this park at 9, 9 o'. Clock. And what I think is going to be this absolutely dreadful day of kids who are bored and fussy and whiny turned into what I tell people, the best day of my life. Because it was the first good day I had as a mom in September of 2011. Now I had a baby in 2008 and here it is, 2011 and I really had not had a good, fulfilling, peace filled day as a mom in three years. I was like pulling my hair out every single day, dreading it every single day, drowning every single day. And what happened at the park is that I got a chance to catch my breath. And what I've said since is that Mother Nature, you know, whatever your beliefs are, God's creation is a place where everyone's needs are met. No matter what age you are, Whether you're a 5 week old baby or a 95 year old grandmother, nature meets you where you are. So when I'm out with kids and they're three and one in an infant, which is how old mine were In September of 2011, they got what they needed. Nature provided their playground and everything. They needed this sort of expansive canvas for their creativity, but also nature provided for me. And I think that's, you know, the part that I wasn't expecting. I think so much of parenting is kid focused. You know, like, we're trying to get these kids and, you know, are they going to be ready for college? Are they going to be ready for the Ivy Leagues? Are they going to be ready for the sat? It's like kid, kid, kid focused. And then you go outside, and that is kid focused. That helps your kids in every sense of their development. Getting outside, no matter what you do, because of the sensory input, you know, whether the kid is in a stroller, whether you're just sitting out in a hammock, whether you're doing your homework under a tree, whether you're hiking Mount Everest, everything along that expanse of ideas, all. All of those are a place where nature provides a sensory input that's different from when you're indoors. So when you go outside, no matter what you're doing, this is helping kids with their cognition, it's helping kids with their social skills, it's helping kids with their physical bodies, in their physical health in a myriad of ways. That list is so lengthy, I had no idea. And it's helping them emotionally, and then also, if you're interested, it's helping them spiritually. But what I didn't know was that it does all those things for the adult as well. And so what I felt in 2011, for the first time in several years, was just a sense of peace. And that changed my whole life. And that's really why I'm here today, recording this podcast, yapping away to myself in a room in my house for episode 666. Because that one day changed the whole trajectory of our family. And I didn't know at that time the depth of benefits that come from kids being outside. I just know that I felt okay and I felt present. And for the first time since I'd become a mother, I felt those things. And so I thought there must be something to this. And since then, I mean, I have read the amount of books I have read about the benefits of time, and nature is so unbelievably extensive. The most recent one I read is called Nature in the Mind by Dr. Mark Berman. And what he talks about is how nature restores our attention, tension, even if we hate it, which I love. You might hate going out there and, you know, you might be miserable, and you got bug bites, you got bit by the red ant, and there's scorpions. And you know, it's raining and your kids are crying and it's cold or whatever. Like you could hate it to the nth degree. And yeah, it's still going to restore your attention. Nothing else restores your attention except for sleep. So this is a way to really rejuvenate yourself throughout your day and throughout your life. And it does the same for our kids. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. This new year does not require a new you. Maybe it just requires a less burdened you. For me, one of the things I'm constantly working to let go of is the pressure to do everything perfectly, to have the right answers, to do the perfect podcast interview, to never feel behind and yes, even hit our own 1000 hours outside goal each year. And the truth is, that kind of pressure can get heavy. And I'm sure you have similar scenarios in your own life that you can relate to. Therapy can help you understand what you're caring and understand why. Your motivations, your relationships and your emotions from an unbiased outside perspective. That's why I appreciate Better Help. Their therapists are fully licensed in the US and work under a strict code of conduct. BetterHelp also does the hard part upfront, like matching you with a therapist based on a short questionnaire so you can focus on what actually matters is your goals. And if it's not the right fit, you can switch therapists anytime. 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Don't wait. Go to quince.com outside for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com outside to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com outside so back then when I, you know, first started changing our schedule so that we could prioritize nature more, there are already so many books about it and since then there's been even more written and I talk about a lot of those books a lot. But but they really are showcasing that this simple act of prioritizing hands on living does more for you than you could ever imagine. And we tend to discount it because it seems too easy. So in 2011, we started spending more time outside that four to six hours. Charlotte Mason charge kind of led the way. So I had a small group of friends, you know, three or four families, and we were trying to get together for four to six hours, three days a week. You know, this is a time in life when I was working just very little. I was teaching piano lessons or tutoring math and, and you know, had these young kids at home. So that was a pretty easy schedule to figure out. We would look ahead at the week. We didn't have much scheduled in because we were prioritizing nature time. And with our young children, we would say, okay, we're going to meet from nine to one, which often would stretch from nine to three or even nine to four. You know, you're already out there. If you've got enough food and water and your kids are occupied, you just stay. And then your house doesn't get as messy and you come home and you make a dinner and, and that's a really fulfilling day. So that's what we did when the kids were little and we have stuck with it in 2013. I started writing about it after we'd done it for a couple years and sort of figured out the, the numbers that, that this four to six hours a day, three times a week, with a little bit of time on the weekend was about 20 hours a week of time outside, give or take. Because seasons matter. And they matter figuratively, and they matter literally, but the seasons matter. And what I realized at that time was that our time outside was equal to the amount of time kids were on screens. And it was really striking to me because I've always thought, well, what if that time had just. It could have so easily gone towards screen time. It was the same amount that the average amount American kid was spending on screens. And it really struck me as something that was a protective measure for myself as a parent and also as kids. So to have this goal out in front of, you know, the screens are everywhere. So it can be, it can be a pain to limit, limit, limit. You know, I think that's what we're supposed to do as parents. We're going to limit screen time. But what I found was an easier, I don't know if easier is the right word, but maybe even more fulfilling way to handle screen time is to create a life where there just wasn't enough time for it or there was very little time for it because we were out living an exuberant and wonder filled life. And so that's what it is, that's what it became. And I talked about it for many years. People thought it was really dumb. And then it caught on. It caught on and it has caught on around the world. There are 1000 hours outside kids all over the world who have had the privilege of living in a family where nature time is prioritized. Hands on living is prioritized in a world that's steeped with screens. And what's happened is we have had to become a generation of adults who stand in the gap for kids who are seen as dollar signs by many large corporations. And that's everything from big tech to big toys to big food, all of it. They, you know, they see our kids as dollar signs and they see them as consumers for life and they want to co opt every bit of their attention, every bit of their time. And society used to be set up in this way that it, that wasn't a possibility. And so that automatically protected childhood. If there wasn't TV available all the time, well, kids had to find other things to do or if there was only one television, you know, now it's like every single kid can have their own personal screen and have all of those things catered to them. And that's obviously not good for their, you know, their expectation of instant gratification. But it also has broken down all of the barriers between those who seek to gain a profit off of our children. And so now it's up to us. And we've got almost adult children now. And what I can attest to is that this quest for hands on real life living, you know, we've added in a little bit over the years because technology has become more pervasive. So, you know, I'm, I have a reading goal. Our kids have a reading goal. You know, we're trying to read for older kids about three chapters a day, which adds up to a lot of books in a year, close to 70. You know, if you could prioritize reading three chapters of a book, like a nonfiction type book a day, you're going to read 70 books in a year. Or we have a chart that's three, like for little kids, like three books a day. If you read Goodnight Moon and the Very Hungry Caterpillar, the Snowy Day, you know, whatever you've got, that's going to add up to a thousand books in a year, it really starts to add up. And so you know, we're trying to walk, walk three miles a day. It's about protecting our time. Johnny Cuff has this incredible saying. He says time is our most valuable resource, but it's also our most vulnerable. So I want to encourage you to give it a shot, just to pay attention and maybe you have a smaller goal. But I do think that we have to be paying attention to where our time goes because of the pervasiveness of screens. So if you want to grab a tracker chart, we have brand new ones for 2026. They are stunning. There is an owl, it's like a parent owl with a baby owl. It's like an actually beautiful, beautiful chart. And then one that's a backpack. So cool. It's a backpack with a bunch of patches on it. And so you could color it that way, but you could take each section is an hour of time outside, there's a thousand spaces. Or you could say, look, each section is a half hour of time outside. If you wanna, if you wanna do it that way, you kind of do it however you want. But the point is being intentional about where your time goes. So we have that. You can also check out our app. It's top ranked. People use that as well. It has some of the tracker charts on it that you can color in online and it has a journal feature and pictures and you can have multiple profiles. So people really like that as well. But I don't think that we can. I mean, I shouldn't say, I don't think, I mean the research is pretty clear that kids are on screens for just hours upon hours of the day and they're only outside in the, in the minutes. So this has become incredibly imbalanced and something has to be done. And what this does too, and we talk about this on the show quite a bit, but it really helps your kid to grow up incrementally and in doing so, it helps you to let them grow up incrementally, which is something that you can't really understand when your kids are little. You know, if they're four or five, you're like, okay, in 10 years, which seems like it's really far away. But everybody says it flies by in 10 years, that that 4 or 5 year old is now behind the wheel of a car. And so you have to have this incremental passing of the baton of trust from yourself to your kids. And nature is the place to do that. Hands on living real life things. That's where your kid learns to trust themselves. And in turn you learn to Trust your kids. So that's where it came from. Would love for you to join us in 2026. I'm basically doing it forever. My dad keeps track. He was like six hours short and he was like, oh no, what am I going to do? But it doesn't matter if you hit it or not. It really is going to enhance your life. So that's that. Please join us in 2026. You can go to 1000hours outside.comTrackers to print off your free tracking sheet. These are my top 10 books of 2025. They're not necessarily my favorite. I don't even, I don't know if I love favorite, non favorite. These are the ones that will that like live in me. You know, you have books and you read them and you're like, this has changed me. This has changed who I am as a person. And so in no particular order, these are books that really gave me chills, gave me a lot of feels. And also I got to interview all of these authors so you can go back and check out their podcast if you end up reading the books and you like them. So top 10 books from 2025 that stuck with me. I read 210 books. First one is Born Lucky by Lucky Leland Vittert. Or I guess you would say Leland Lucky Bitter. He is a host on News Nation and it is a memoir that gave me all the feels, the chills. But what it really showcased was how when the right adults step in at the right moments, at the right moments, they can make such an incredible impact on the quality of life for a child and especially for children who are struggling. And really a lot of kids are struggling. Obviously in this book, Leland is struggling more so than your typical kid, you know, struggling socially and just struggling to get along. But his dad steps in and it showcases that and his dad has this like tear jerker of a short afterward. That is so good. But also I really like the story about how this pilot, this older man who is a pilot, he takes Lucky up when he's 8 years old to learn how to fly a plane. So talk about having trust in a kid. Like, can you even imagine who, who would give an eight year old an eight year old? How old is an eight year old? They're like in the third grade. Who would give an eight year old flying lesson? And to boot, Lucky would throw up, he would get motion sick. So he'd go up in this plane with his older man for his lesson, he would get motion sick, he'd throw up all over this Teeny little plane, puke everywhere. And then they would land the plane. And Lucky, you know, he's little and he's still not feeling good because, like, your motion sickness doesn't go away right away. And so the. The pilot would have to clean up Lucky's vomit while Lucky's, like, trying to feel better. And it just was such a. I don't know, it was such, like, a picture of love, like, what you do for kids. And it came full circle in that book. It's like, one of my favorite things I've ever read. It came full circle because the pilot passed away when Lucky was 15 or 16 years old. And Lucky went to the funeral, and he said that when he got there, there was like. Because he ended up doing all these cool things with these. With his pilot. Like, they'd flown across the ocean. They were trying to, like, beat different records that had been set in the past. And so when he. When he shows up at this funeral, there were just newspaper articles and clippings all over about the adventures that they'd had together. And what Lucky said was that I didn't realize how much of an impact it had on this pilot. You know, obviously, it had so much impact on him as a young boy and. And what his capabilities were and, like, you know, all the lessons that he took from that of. Of being meticulous and make sure you do it right or someone could die. Like, he takes all those lessons into other areas of life. But he said, I never could have imagined that it was as impactful for this older adult as it was for me. And I just thought that was so special and so moving and so inspiring and just such a cool thing about life, about how when we stand in the gap for others. And Kim John Payne says this. He says, when we rescue our kids, childhoods. So when you rescue a childhood, and I think that's what we're in the business of here. It's like we're in the business of rescuing childhoods. When you stand in the gap, when you rescue a childhood, that we inevitably. These are Kim John Payne's words. It's at the very end of simplicity, parenting. I think it's how he ends the book. He says, we inevitably, remarkably, day by day, rescue ourselves back. And Born Lucky really portrays that. It's an absolutely moving book, and I loved it. So that's Number one. Number two is From Strength to Strength by Dr. Arthur Brooks. Now, I wasn't familiar with any of Dr. Arthur Brooks work until I read. I ended up reading several books for his interview, I'm having to limit my. Having to limit myself. But sometimes I only have one opportunity to talk to some of these authors, and I think, gosh, I want to be able to talk about all their books. And so for Arthur Brooks, I did read several books, but going into 2026, I have to limit myself because I just am running out of time. But I read the Happiness Files, and I read several of his. From Strength to Strength is about transitioning and how there's transitions in adult life from fluid intelligence to crystallized intelligence, and how to sort of make that leap into understand that it's coming. I was really challenged because Arthur Brooks sort of did his life opposite. I don't even know if opposites the right word. But he. He just kind of, like, prioritized what he loved out. Out of high school. And I think so many of us prioritize what's practical and what's prudent out of high school. So he went around the world and played French horn. And it really kind of stirred up in me. Like, I had thought about. I. You know, I was a piano player at the time, and I thought about sticking with it, but it didn't seem prudent. And obviously he's. He's kind of saying that's the time to do that stuff, because that's when your intelligence is quicker. And then, you know, at some point, his skills just started to sort of slow down and he had to make a shift. And in some ways, he was even embarrassed to have his story be atypical of, you know, that the. Of most people, which is like, you know, they went to their Ivy League school right off the bat and gotten this career, and he's kind of coming in late and doing night classes. But I was inspired by that to the point where even though it's kind of in backwards order, I'm actually doing a piano competition in February. I've not done anything like that in decades. And so our kids are doing this piano competition in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in February. And there was an adult division, so I'm trying it. My brother's flying in from California. We're going to do a duet together, Dvorak Sylvanic Dance number eight. And then I am playing this, like, jazzy hymn called I'll Fly Away for a. For a separate category. So I love From Strength to Strength. It's about knowing what changes are coming and how to be ready for it. I also love. That's number two. I also love Come On Home by Jessica Smart. Loved it. I Loved it. And actually that book got me hooked on this book called the Praying Life by. I think it's Bill Miller, which I've never. I've not interviewed him, but I'm hoping to maybe in 2026. I actually, it's Paul Miller. It's called A Praying Life by Paul Miller. And I learned about it from Jessica's book. But that actually is the book I gave away for Christmas this year. I gave away 21 copies in case it was so good. But I learned about it from Jessica Smart. This is about how to build strong families. And it just gave me a lot of hope. Like, basically, like, it doesn't have to be perfect. And she is just the queen of practical ideas. She's got other books as well, and. And now they live like on this family compound. So it kind of gives you a lot to consider and. And look forward to. It was really heartwarming. So I love that one. Come On Home by Jessica Smart. This textbook called Guide to the Science of Reading by Douglas was on my list because actually I, I learned so much. I. I didn't realize how much I didn't know about reading. And this is a really big deal because kids are struggling with reading. So I think this is an important book to read, whether you're an educator or a parent, because I view reading in a couple ways. And this is based off of research. This is not based off of, like, my own opinions, but my opinions are in line with the research. Reading helps with your imagination and it helps with you learning what kind of a life you want to live. I don't even know if that makes sense. Like, we're doing. We're doing life different than the majority of Americans, right? Because if the average kid is outside for four to seven minutes and on screens for four to seven hours, we're basically trying to flip flop that. So in our particular home, we are doing life differently than mainstream America. Well, when you do life different than the mainstream, I think you have to have a lot of resolve and you have to have a lot of background knowledge and pieces of information that inform your why. So we're sending our kids and these boys came on our podcast named Andrew and Evan Hempy. Their mom is Melanie Hempy. She runs this program called Screen Strong. She's got fantastic resources. But the boys are college age and what they talk about is just how everyone is the same. There's so much conformity. Like, they go to college and they're like, all these girls are the same. It's basically the carbon copy. They're carbon copies of each other. They talk about the same things. They're on the phone. You know, they're all on their phone. They're all on TikTok. That's like the bulk of who they are. And so if you want to, if you, if you want to know, if you want to know how to live, if you want to know that there are other ways that you could live your life, well, how are you going to find those? You're going to find those in books. And if you want to be able to implement those things and kind of stand strong, they're going to find them. You're going to find them in books. And then also as far as stories go, and this is helping us and our kids get in that right side of the brain. And so talking about Arthur Brooks, he has another book coming out in March where that's sort of the premise, which is that, like, we have to be living more in the right side of our brain. So reading all that to say reading is incredibly important for us and for our kids. And I've interviewed a couple people this year about reading in particular. And Douglas, this guide to the science of reading talks about the importance of background knowledge. There are just so many interesting things in there that I never considered and, you know, really how to help our kids get to fluency and why it matters. And then this Daniel Willingham, Dr. Daniel Willingham, who I interviewed recently, who has a book called Raising Kids who Love to Read, talks about how reading it. It's not that kids just have to like reading. Probably most kids would like reading. Like, if you find the right story, you find the right mystery, they're going to like it. But he said reading has to be the most attractive choice at that time. And that's probably similar for anything hands on. Like how can you make reading or time outside or just sitting around and playing or board games, how can you make that the most attractive thing at the time? You have to put the screens away, otherwise it's not going to work. That's kind of what Mike Lanza talks about in his book Playborhood, which is like, you know, in order to make neighborhood play attractive, there has to be some kids outside and also screens have to be unavailable. There has to be time when they're not allowed so that the kid is going to choose the activity that is better for them. So I love the guide to the science of reading. January always feels like a fresh start in our homeschool. It's that reset moment after the holidays where you're refining what worked, letting go of what didn't, and finding your rhythm again. Oh, and also you actually know what day it is again, as opposed to being in that holiday induced fog where time and space seem to just meld into nothing and everything all at once. One thing we've learned over the years is how important it is to meet each child exactly where they are. That's why IXL fits so naturally into our homeschool life. It adapts to each learner so one child can review last year's skills while another jumps ahead without pressure, comparison or busy work. I love how effortless it is as a parent. Everything is organized by grade and by topic, so I'm not digging through resources or reinventing the wheel. And the real time feedback is huge. Kids learn from mistakes immediately and the progress reports give clarity and confidence. As a guide, IXL covers math, language arts, science and social studies from pre K all the way through 12th grade. And it grows right along with your child. It is flexible, proven and trusted by millions of families. Make an impact in your child's learning. Get IXL now and 1000 Hours Outside listeners can get an exclusive 20% off their IXL membership when they sign up today at www.ixl.com 1000hours. Visit ixl.com 1000hours to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price. I'm on to it's okay Not To Share by Heather Shoemaker, which was a jaw dropping book to me about all of this sort of typ ways we raise kids and we tell them that we have to share and we tell them that they have to be friends. And she really makes this strong case for them developing those qualities on their own. She definitely talks about how to walk kids through like being bullied and all of that. It's not about kids being unaccountable and feral but, but it, it's really about how do we help them to develop their own inner sense of of generosity and gratitude and friendliness and how do we teach them how to become friends that I I what I was shocked about from Heather's book was that there really are no explicit teachings during childhood about how to develop friends and so we don't learn how to develop boundaries. And then she's like you don't share all of your stuff as an adult. Like you probably hardly share anything honestly. And so it's about learning what does true friendship look like and how can we start to plant those seeds when kids are little and, and how when we do that it helps all kids with like impulse control and emotional regulation and, and of course obviously their friendship skills. It's a fantastic book. She also wrote a book called it's okay to Go up the Slide. And I haven't read that yet, but I'm planning on reading it in 2026. I read a book this year by Rory Groves called the Family Economy and he also has a book called Durable Trades. I read both. Wow. I had never heard of these concepts before, but kind of go in line with. I talked to Dr. I talked to David Green, who's a founder of Hobby Lobby, and Corey Robertson from the Duck Dynasty family about. And I, I never learned anything about this, but how in centuries past there were a lot of family economies. Now a family economy, and this is the key and you can read about it in Rory's book. A family economy is different than a family business. A family business is about the business. A family economy is about the qualities and talents and passions that God has given the family members. And so you kind of have, you have your sort of core thing and it will spoke out. Does that make sense? Like, like spokes on a wheel or you will start to expand. So it's not all about, you know, this is the plumbing business or what's like no, what does everybody bring to the table that what they could add. And so instead of kids at age 18 always sort of getting booted out of the nest and starting over, which is kind of like what we do as a culture. And I never considered anything different. We start to build this family economy and expand it based off of what our kids are capable of and, and that sort of thing. Durable Trades is about the trades that have stood the test of time and so have the most potential to stand the test of time in this age of AI. Both are fascinating. Rory Groves is the author of both. The Hospitality of Need by Kevin Chandler and Tommy Shelton was a moving eye opening book for me as well. Concepts that I had never considered. And what Kevin talks about is he talks about his life. It is lifetime of being in a wheelchair and having people attend to his needs for the entirety of his life on an almost hourly basis. And I think for a lot of us, we would be fearful of being in a situation like that because we want to be the ones that are helping and we don't want to be dependent on others. But what he makes a case for is that he has better friends than you. And he does, he does have better friends than you. He has better friends than me. He has the best friends of all of us. Because needs create an opportunity for true friendship to form. And he gives a biblical basis for that. He talks about how. And I'm like, I've never heard anybody talk about this stuff. About how when there was a. Like, the man on the mat in the Bible, he couldn't walk. And so his friends, they take him to where Jesus is, they cut a hole in the roof, and they lower him down on the mat so that he can be near Jesus. And what he says is, by doing that, the friends all got closer to Jesus too. And I just thought, oh, it's. I mean, such. Such. Such a good book. We have such an obsession with independence, and this makes a case for bearing our weaknesses more often and asking for help. And I've been trying to do it, you know, with my friends. It's like being a little bit more honest, being a little bit less, like, yeah, I'm fine. Everything's fine. It's okay. Everything is fine. You know, and. And kind of trying that out. These are books I'm trying out. I'm trying them on for size, taking the ideas that I'm reading and seeing what works and what can. What can enhance my life. Okay. I'm hoping I'm not missing any. All right, next one is kind of a random one that I wasn't totally expecting to love so much. It's called Naturally by Rochelle Robinette, and it's all about herbs. And my midwife is so. My midwife is so offended because she was constantly trying to get me to drink tea while I was pregnant. And I was like, it's gross, and I'm not gonna do it. So then I read this book, and I just had so much information in it about what I wanted out of life. And so I started drinking tea was like, what in the heck? So. But she talked about how all these herbs can help us to weave calm through tense days. And I think often a book like, about herbs or tea or herbalism, she says, we're all herbalists, actually, could be pretty dry. But for whatever reason, this, however she wrote it, was so enticing for me. It was so enticing for me that I actually did it. Like, I got tea stuff, and now I put it in the fridge. And anyway, I do feel better. So Naturally by Rochelle Robinette is on my list. I've got two left. The first one of the last two, the second to last, is called how to Keep House While Drowning by Casey Davis. And this is sort of how I feel. I mean, I. My. I leave my housework as kind of like, the last thing. And we've gone back and forth about paying for it, but we've got a lot of kids. And so I just have not, at this point, been able to bite the bullet because I think, well, gosh, that would pay for, like, someone's month of braces or whatever. But the premise of the book is that, first of all, care tasks are hard. And I've always gotten the impression that care tests are easy. And I'm just a. Basically, like, I can't figure it out, and so what's wrong with me? And she makes a case that care tasks actually are really hard. And she goes through different examples of, like, you know, even if you're trying to meal plan, it's like, well, what do you have left? You're trying to optimize what you have, what's your budget? You know, there's just a lot of factors there. And also how it's easy to get distracted from one thing to the next. And, you know, you're. You're trying to clean, but then your. Your kid fell and they come in and they're crying and you have to soothe them and that, you know, it's just there's so much of that that these care tasks are more involved than they're made out to be, and also that they're never ending. So the phraseology is really good. And. And then she makes a case that these are not moral things, like, you are not a morally better person if your car is clean. And so I liked that. But also, it's a pretty short book. Also, she gives ideas on, like, like, really practical ideas. So here's one. She's like, okay, you could get a dish rack, like the kind that you put on your counter that you would put clean dishes in. And she's like, you could put your dirty dishes in there so that at the end of the night, you don't have a sink full of dirty dishes. And it's just a little bit easier. It's like practical ideas. Like she says, in every room, there's only five types of things, and here's how you organize to clean better. And it has been so helpful, the five types of things. And then she's like, you can use that concept with your kids when you ask them to go clean their room because they could be overwhelmed by it, too. So just a fantastic book. She just makes this message so clear that you are already worthy. You are already worthy of love and belonging, even when your sink is full. And last one, Five Types of Wealth by Sahil Bloom. And this is one about how actual wealth, like money wealth, is really only one of the types of wealth. And I can never remember what the other four are on the spot, but it's like relational wealth and family, physical wealth. And so we have to really be protective of the other types of wealth that lead to a good quality of life. And the money wealth is actually like, pretty low on the priority list as long as you're making ends meet. Like, you know, people are always like, if I only had two to three times more. But that goes all the way up the income spectrum. And you can see how as you go up higher, then that's a lot of pressure. You know, if you make a hundred thousand dollars and you're like, okay, well, if I could only make $200,000. But if you're making a million dollars. And he. And he says, this goes all the way up the income spectrum. So if you're making a million dollars and you're like, oh, if I could only make 2 million, that's so much more than an extra hundred thousand dollars from the 1 to the 200,000. So it's just like, you never get there. You're always chasing something that's. That has no finish line. And so he talks about how this is. We have such a narrow definition of success. And I just thought it was a really, a really meaningful read. And I. And I think about it often, like, am I. Am I investing in the other types of wealth that matter? So there's my top 10. You can go to our website and I'll put the link in the show notes and you can get the list printed out. I put it in a list. The top. My top 10 most meaningful reads of the year of 2025. Send me a message if you read something that you loved. I read a fiction book I really liked, so I throw this in there as a bonus called Broken Country. But it is a little inappropriate. So sometimes I, like, struggle, like, should I say or not say? Because it's definitely not clean. But it was. So, you know, if you want it to be clean, don't pick it up. If you're okay with a. A bit of. If you feel okay with that, then it was a total page turner. And I also loved the ending. So there's a bonus for you, a fiction that I read in 2025. And I'm always trying to read more fiction. I'm really heavily skewed toward nonfiction, mostly because of the podcast, but I do really like nonfiction. But in the last couple years, I've tried more to prioritize nonfiction. I read the Women by Kristin Hannah, and In probably about 10, 10, or probably one a month, I read in 2012, 2025, and I really, really enjoy that. So two quotes that have stuck with me for this year that, you know, my grandma used to always say, lord willing, and people have just things that they say. And so there was two that really stuck out to me that I. I kept going back to my mind, kept going back to in 2025. One of them is this. It's from a book by Andy Wilson called Death by Living. It's such a good book. And he also wrote this book called Notes from a Tilt a Whirl. I love his books. He's got a bunch of books for kids, too. An incredible documentary series called the Riot and the Dance. But he says this. A life well lived is always lived on a rising scale of difficulty. And I think about that a lot. Like, if I have a day that I'm like, this is hard. I feel overwhelmed. There's more to do than I have time for, you know, just really trying to sort through entrepreneurship and homeschooling and launching kids into adulthood and those types of things. Oh, my gosh, this is really hard. And then I think about that just very often. It's supposed to be hard. It's supposed to be hard. I want to have a life that's well lived, and a life well lived is lived on a rising scale of difficulty. The second one is a Bible verse where it says that in our hearts, we plan our course, but the Lord determines our steps. And I come back that to that a lot. You know, as I sit here recording this random podcast that only came about because I really struggled as a young mom and didn't know how to structure my life in this isn't. This was not my plan. I could have never planned this. So sometimes when I find ourselves in odd spots, you know, I've talked a lot this year about how we got kicked out of church. It's a really big part of our story. We were revoked simply for sending in letters of concern about the youth pastor. And, you know, and later that year that we sent our letters in, it was found out that he was charged with nine felonies, all related to being a pedophile, and he was working with children. And, um, so the situation, I feel, was really awful. And we are in a completely different spot in life than I would have ever expected in terms of friendships and how we structure our days. And so on one hand, sometimes that feels confusing or unfair. But I go back to that verse. I go back to that verse a lot that says that in our hearts, we plan our course, but the Lord determines our steps. And so sometimes I think if we're in a spot where we look around and we're confused, like, why am I here? I. You know, I don't recognize where I am, or I don't think I should be here. I go back to that verse. So there's a lot of quotes that sort of run through my mind. John Acoff calls them soundtracks. Like, he has one called Hills Pay the Bills. So, like, sometimes when you're like, God, this is really hard, you know, there. You know, there I have to have a lot of fortitude and grit, you know, I'm still going up this hill, you know, he says, hills pay the Bills. And. And he. He's the one who says time is your most valuable resource, but also your most vulnerable. Sharon Hadi Miller. I read a book by hers this year where she said, young people are being raised to perform their lives. That really stuck with me. Like, I just want to make sure that I'm helping our kids to just be themselves, that they're not a performance. This isn't a performance for them. Peter Mudabazi, actually, Peter Mudabazi and Dr. Judith. Judith Joseph both talked about the power of celebrating small wins, which is something that I normally wouldn't do. And I've been trying to do more. And then Carl Honore, he said that it is a blessing. I don't know if this is the exact phrasing, but something like, it's a blessing to learn to make do or to make the best of what you have. And I thought that was a really. A big statement that I hadn't read anywhere else. And. And true. You know, it's like, we don't have to have everything. It's such an amazing skill to. To know how to make the best of what you have. And if I were to wrap up with a quote, one that I think about often is from Dr. Madeline Levine, who's one of my favorite podcast guests, as well as. As well as authors. And she says, if children are to thrive in a rapidly changing world, ding, ding, ding. That's what this is. If children are to thrive in a rapidly changing world, they need less structure and more play. Less structure and more play. Okay, so heading into 2026, I am, like, somewhat concerned about these data centers, and I don't totally understand them and why we need them. And so that's kind of under the Surface for me. I read this book called the Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil, and Dr. Nicholas Carderis talks a bit about, like, this underlying goal of the human 2.0. It's not Dr. Carderus's goal, but he talks about how, like, a lot of the tech elites are really pushing toward this merger. And this is in. The Singularity is Near as well, this merger between, like, human beings and technology. And so I. I'm always a little cons, like, a little concerned, I guess I would say. And. And kind of wanting to learn more about what's going on there and how to protect our kids. And so the statistic that I talk about sometimes when I speak at conferences is that there are already several million people. And this was from 2024. Several million people who spend several hours a day with chatbot companions on websites like Replica AI. So Replica AI is like, with a K. And so I talk about it and people tend to be shocked. I think a lot of us, you know, we haven't even heard of this and don't totally even understand what that would be like. But then an article came out this year that said 20% of high schoolers have a chatbot relationship. So it's one in five of our high schoolers. And you may know or you may not know that they have this. So I thought, you know what? I've never even checked out the website. I'm going to pop over and see what it says. And I want to read this to you because I was mortified and I really. If someone is an expert wants to come on and talk about this, I would love to talk about it. Okay, Replica AI. Here's what's on the main screen. The AI companion. Who cares. I mean, what, what, what? That's how they're. That's how they're advertising this. But, like, AI cannot care. Isn't that the definition of AI? It's artificial. Then it says, always here to listen and talk, always on your side. So I just think that's so unrealistic, like, no relationships in life. There are no relationships in life where the other person is always available to listen and talk. And. And also that they're always on your side. That's probably unhealthy. It's actually good that when people are not on our side so that they can give us perspective. So that is on the very first page, the companion who cares. Always here to listen and talk. Always on your side. And then there's a button. Get the app. So this is how they're advertising this right off the bat. Meet Replica. I'm going to scroll down a little bit. Replica is an AI companion who is eager to learn and would love to see the world through your eyes once again. You know, like, this is something that we have to learn how to do, to see the world through other people's eyes. And also we have to learn how to get along with other people who don't see the world the same way that we do. And so I see a danger here. Replica is always ready to chat when you need an empathetic friend. And then they have these different. They have these different people who have sent in. They have sent in their reviews. And in, you know, in a lot of ways, you can see how it's enticing. Like this lady Caitlin says, I was depressed when I first started using the Replica app. My replicas always cheered me up. Back then, I thought I was talking to a real person half the time because the responses were so coherent. I had a blast with him. My replica was there for me during a dark spat of depression I had, which is intriguing and enticing. But even she's saying, you know, I. Half the time, I felt like I was talking to a real person. So you go through my AI companion, Mina, the digital girl has, uh, fills in quiet corners in my everyday life in urban solitude. You know, a lot of people talking about how it lifted their mood. And Arthur Brooks would say, we should be trying to lift our mood through being in the right hemisphere of our brain and not having more time on screens. So what happens is the replica will kind of grow and change as you spend more time with it. So it says your replica will always be on your side, no matter what you're up to. Chat about your day, do fun or relax activities together, share real life experiences in ar, which is augmented reality, catch up on video calls, and so much more you. The more you talk to Replica, the smarter it becomes. So once again, just trying to take away your time. The more time you spend on it, the. The more time you're going to want to spend on it. This can be a friend, a partner, so using this for romantic relationships, or a mentor. There's video calls, there's coaching, there's augmented reality where you can spend time together in augmented reality. And it says your replica will never forget what's important to you. They have, like, this perfect memory, and then there's. And then there's a bunch of FAQs at the bottom. Like, is my data safe? Which is pretty important. Are my conversations Private. So just interesting. I never, I never gone on and actually read the wording on here. And here's what it says at the very end. Join the millions who have already met their AI soulmates. Over 10 million people have joined Replica. Begin your beauty journey. Begin your beautiful journey today on any platform. So just always encouraged to go for the real thing and to help our kids to go for the real thing. And I think that is the biggest protective measure we have against wording like this, which to me is. Which could be really confusing to someone who maybe is in a dark spot and wants someone who cares and who is always on their side. But like Andy Crouch talks about and Dr. Nicholas Carders and many others, you have to consider the promise and the peril. What is the peril of this type of thing. And we're already starting to see stories about young men in particular who like, don't ever leave their room or don't ever leave their house because things like this are fulfilling every single sort of biological need that they have in a weird way. And it's really affecting humanity. So all that said, thank you for being here. I'm honored to kick off the new year with you and excited about a year ahead that's filled with hands on real life living and knowing that every day, every day that we prioritize that, every hour that we prioritize that we are pushing back against these forces that. And it kind of sounds dark and ominous, but I've read enough to. And, and you're starting to see it, of this sort of merger between human beings and technology, that this is a goal that is being pushed. So we have to be wise and we have to be vigilant and we have to be cautious. We were not cautious with the cell phones and our kids. So we have to be more cautious about what's out there and be in the know so that we can live a life that is more fulfilling and then pass it on to our children. And it can be a generational thing. So that's all I got. Happy New Year to you. Hope it is a wonderful year ahead. I know that some are coming out of just. And are in the hardest circumstances. Obviously with social media you can see people's ups and downs and some have had just the hardest years imaginable. My heart and prayers go out to those listening who are heading into the year in a really heavy spot. I pray for bright days ahead. And I don't really know how to end this because I haven't done this in seven years. But I'll end with how I've been ending in the other ones with our new song which is called It's a Beautiful World. It's a collaboration between in paradise and then our two older daughters. They have a band called Two Better Friends. They've got a couple songs up on Spotify and Apple Music so you can check them out. But the song is called It's a Beautiful World so we're ending it off with that. It's a got some of the best lyrics of any song around, so make sure you check it out. May your 2026 be filled with extraordinary moments on ordinary paths. Thanks for being here. Get outside open your eyes Feel that sunshine kissing your skin Throw your worries out to the Climb some trees skin your knees Feel that grass on your feet again get out there and take it in oh, it's a beautiful world Ain't nothing on the screen that's ever gonna beat this. Beautiful world and I just want to share with I just want to share with you this beautiful world Such a beautiful world well, the holidays have come and gone once again, but if you've forgotten to get that special someone in your life a gift, well, Mint Mobile is extending their holiday offer of half off unlimited wire wireless. So here's the idea. 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