In this parent-focused episode of The Gentle Year, Knikki sits down with Dr. Emily Levy, founder of EBL Coaching, to demystify special education, early reading struggles, and what parents truly need to know. Dr. Levy explains the early signs of dyslexia and learning differences, when to request a psychoeducational or neuropsychological evaluation, and the difference between an IEP and a 504 plan.

The conversation dives into the science of reading, the power of the Orton-Gillingham method, and why multisensory instruction helps children retain information and build confidence. They also discuss structured literacy vs. generic tutoring, red flags to watch for in tutoring programs, accommodations vs. remediation, and how AI should support — not replace — real learning.

If you’re a parent navigating ADHD, dyslexia, autism, reading comprehension struggles, or questions about special education services, this episode offers practical guidance, research-based insight, and hope.

🎧 Topics include:

• Early warning signs of reading difficulties
• IEP vs. 504 plans explained
• Multisensory learning at home
• Orton-Gillingham and structured literacy
• Assistive technology and AI in education
• Building confidence in neurodivergent learners

A must-listen for parents who want informed, individualized support for their child’s academic journey.

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Acting With Pippi
Acting with Pippi is acting program that helps youths build courage & presence through performance.

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In this powerful episode of The Gentle Year, Knikki Hernandez interviews Sean Dawson, host of the Raising Men podcast, for an honest and nuanced conversation about raising boys, modern masculinity, and fatherhood in today’s culture.

What does healthy masculinity actually look like? How do we raise emotionally strong boys without suppressing their nature? And is “boys will be boys” harmless — or harmful?

This episode explores the modern masculinity crisis, toxic masculinity vs. healthy masculinity, emotional intelligence in boys, fatherhood challenges, gender roles, feminism, male identity development, and parenting in a polarized world. Sean shares vulnerable stories about apologizing to his children, navigating school discipline issues, teaching boundaries, and redefining what it means to be a protector and provider.

Together, they discuss:

• Raising confident boys in modern society
• Emotional regulation and vulnerability in boys
• Fatherhood and male role models
• Gender equality and masculinity
• Parenting advice for sons
• How to model strength without brittleness
• Self-esteem and identity formation in children

If you’re a parent raising boys, a father questioning your role, or someone interested in male development, parenting strategies, and emotional intelligence, this episode offers grounded insight, practical wisdom, and a hopeful vision for raising the next generation of strong, stable men.

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Black history is often taught as a single storyline—centered on slavery—while countless Black contributions to early American life are left out of standard textbooks. In this episode of The Gentle Year, historian and public school teacher Ted Lamb returns to share a primary-source approach to “omitted Black history” and the lesser-known Black patriots, leaders, and thinkers who shaped the nation.

You’ll hear the stories of figures like Wentworth Cheswell (sometimes called the “Black Paul Revere”), Peter Salem (a hero of Bunker Hill), and Henry Highland Garnett, along with a wider conversation about why curriculum often narrows history into a single narrative. Ted explains why he trusts primary sources over textbooks, how standardized testing can drive what gets taught, and why integrating these stories into everyday American history matters for kids’ identity, critical thinking, and perspective.

This is a parent-facing conversation about how to teach history without propaganda—by asking better questions, reading original documents, and learning together at home.

Connect with Ted: History Moments with Ted (Facebook)
Primary source starting point: Yale Law School’s Avalon Project (documents and historical sources)

Keywords: omitted Black history, Black patriots, primary sources, American Revolution, Wentworth Cheswell, Peter Salem, Henry Highland Garnett, Black History Month, history education, teaching kids history, curriculum and standards, critical thinking, parenting and education

This episode is supported by Structured Thought, Clear Expression, a high school writing course through Turning The Tide Tutoring that equips students to think critically, write with clarity, and communicate with confidence.

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What does it mean to survive stillbirth — and then keep living?

In this deeply moving episode of The Gentle Year, I sit down with Val Kleppen — a bereaved mother, homeschool mom, and host of The Motherhood Experience podcast — to talk about infant loss, NICU trauma, marriage after child loss, and finding purpose after grief.

Val shares her story of delivering her daughter stillborn at 37 weeks, planning a funeral for a full-term baby, walking out of the hospital empty-handed, and navigating the physical and emotional trauma that followed. We talk openly about what grief does to a mother’s body and nervous system, how husbands and wives often grieve differently, and why so many bereaved parents feel isolated in their pain.

This episode explores:

• Stillbirth and infant loss
• Grieving as a mother
• Marriage after the death of a child
• Faith and Christian perspectives on eternity
• Parenting living children while honoring a child who died
• Support systems and friendships after tragedy
• The physical impact of trauma on the body
• Homeschooling and working from home after loss

Val speaks candidly about grief not as a linear process, but as something that comes in waves — sometimes thirteen years later. She also shares how loss reshaped her priorities, strengthened her marriage, clarified her values, and changed how she parents her children today.

If you are a grieving mother, a bereaved parent, someone navigating pregnancy loss or stillbirth, or simply someone who wants to better support a family walking through infant loss — this conversation will meet you with honesty and compassion.

You are not alone in this.

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Acting With Pippi
Acting with Pippi is acting program that helps youths build courage & presence through performance.

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Certified pickleball coaching in Charlottesville. Level up your game with Aydon.

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In this episode of The Gentle Year, I sit down with Roman Wyden — author of ADHD Is Over and host of the podcast and documentary by the same name — for a deep, thought-provoking conversation about childhood diagnoses, parenting, stress, and responsibility.

When Roman’s son was diagnosed with ADHD at age seven, he was told what many parents hear: that the condition is genetic, lifelong, and best managed with medication. Instead of accepting that narrative at face value, Roman began a decade-long investigation into what ADHD actually represents — not as a label, but as a lived experience within families, schools, and modern culture.

Together, we explore:

• Why ADHD may be better understood as a nervous system response to stress rather than a fixed disorder
• How labels and diagnoses can shape a child’s identity and self-esteem
• The difference between blame and responsibility in parenting
• The role of school environments, family dynamics, and chronic stress
• Why “managing” behavior is not the same as understanding it
• What informed consent should look like when it comes to children’s health and education
• How parents can reclaim agency without shame, fear, or perfectionism

This conversation isn’t about denying children’s struggles — it’s about asking better questions. What if a diagnosis is less about what’s “wrong” with a child and more about what’s misaligned in their environment? What if slowing down, reducing stress, and changing systems could be just as powerful as any intervention?

This episode is for parents, educators, and anyone willing to challenge conventional narratives and look deeper — with curiosity, nuance, and care.

Send a text

Turning The Tide Tutoring
Sponsored by Turning The Tide Tutoring — empowering students and parents to grow and thrive.

Acting With Pippi
Acting with Pippi is acting program that helps youths build courage & presence through performance.

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Join the conversation beyond the episode inside The Gentle Year Facebook community — a thoughtful space for parents seeking clarity, encouragement, and real dialogue.

What if the reason families feel so fractured right now isn’t a lack of love—but too much pressure, too much information, and too little shared responsibility?

In this episode of The Gentle Year, I’m joined by Angela Caldwell, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with over two decades of experience working with families. Together, we unpack why family life feels harder than ever—and what might actually help.

Angela shares how the pandemic reshaped family systems in ways we’re only beginning to understand, from increased mistrust and tribalism to what she calls neural overload: the chronic overstimulation that leaves both children and adults emotionally fragile, reactive, and exhausted. We explore how behaviors often labeled as “defiance,” “laziness,” or even diagnoses may actually be signs of overwhelmed nervous systems.

The conversation moves beyond individual parenting strategies and into something deeper: family identity. Angela explains how families unconsciously form core values, how those values stabilize—or fracture—during crisis, and why so many households today function more like logistical units than connected systems.

We also spend significant time revisiting a powerful but often misunderstood idea: “it takes a village.” Angela challenges modern parenting norms around hyper-independence and rigid boundaries, offering a compelling case for shared responsibility, tolerance for difference, and rebuilding community in small but meaningful ways. From asking for help (even when it’s uncomfortable) to allowing other trusted adults to support and guide our children, this episode invites parents to rethink what support can look like.

This is an honest, nuanced conversation about:

• Why families feel more divided and reactive
• How neural overload affects both kids and adults
• The hidden cost of doing parenting alone
• Family roles, emotional regulation, and resilience
• Reclaiming village-style support in a modern world

If you’re a parent feeling overwhelmed, isolated, or unsure how to protect your family’s emotional health in today’s culture, this episode offers clarity, compassion, and one very concrete takeaway: you don’t have to do this alone.

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Turning The Tide Tutoring
Sponsored by Turning The Tide Tutoring — empowering students and parents to grow and thrive.

Acting With Pippi
Acting with Pippi is acting program that helps youths build courage & presence through performance.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

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Join the conversation beyond the episode inside The Gentle Year Facebook community — a thoughtful space for parents seeking clarity, encouragement, and real dialogue.

When the System Isn’t Built for Mothers: Birth, Power, and Voice with Suzzie Vehrs

In this episode of The Gentle Year, Knikki sits down with doula and childbirth educator Suzzie Vehrs for a deeply human conversation about birth, relationships, and the quiet emotional weight many women carry into motherhood.

Suzzie shares what a doula truly does—beyond birth plans and breathing techniques—and why emotional and physical support during pregnancy and birth isn’t a luxury, but a protective factor. Together, they explore informed consent, power dynamics in medical systems, and how the way a woman is treated during birth can shape her physical recovery, emotional wellbeing, and sense of self long after the baby arrives.

The conversation gently expands into less-spoken territory: how pregnancy and birth reveal the truth about relationships, the uneven emotional labor women often carry, and what happens when someone wants a child but isn’t prepared to be a partner. Suzzie speaks candidly about her own journey through postpartum depression, divorce, and rebuilding emotional safety—offering compassion rather than judgment, and clarity without blame.

Listeners will also hear about:

• Why pregnancy is an endurance event—physically, emotionally, and relationally
• How small daily acts of self-care compound into resilience
• The connection between emotional safety and physical birth outcomes
• What postpartum support families need but often don’t know to ask for
• Why there is no such thing as failure in motherhood—only learning that time makes possible

This episode is not about fear, perfection, or “doing birth right.”
It’s about agency, forgiveness, community, and remembering that birth—and motherhood—are not just medical events, but deeply human transitions.

A grounding, honest conversation for parents, partners, and anyone who wants to better understand what women are truly carrying during this season of life. 

Send a text

Turning The Tide Tutoring
Sponsored by Turning The Tide Tutoring — empowering students and parents to grow and thrive.

Acting With Pippi
Acting with Pippi is acting program that helps youths build courage & presence through performance.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Support the show

In this episode of The Gentle Year, I sit down with Roman Wyden — author of ADHD Is Over and host of the podcast and documentary by the same name — for a deep, thought-provoking conversation about childhood diagnoses, parenting, stress, and responsibility.

When Roman’s son was diagnosed with ADHD at age seven, he was told what many parents hear: that the condition is genetic, lifelong, and best managed with medication. Instead of accepting that narrative at face value, Roman began a decade-long investigation into what ADHD actually represents — not as a label, but as a lived experience within families, schools, and modern culture.

Together, we explore:

• Why ADHD may be better understood as a nervous system response to stress rather than a fixed disorder
• How labels and diagnoses can shape a child’s identity and self-esteem
• The difference between blame and responsibility in parenting
• The role of school environments, family dynamics, and chronic stress
• Why “managing” behavior is not the same as understanding it
• What informed consent should look like when it comes to children’s health and education
• How parents can reclaim agency without shame, fear, or perfectionism

This conversation isn’t about denying children’s struggles — it’s about asking better questions. What if a diagnosis is less about what’s “wrong” with a child and more about what’s misaligned in their environment? What if slowing down, reducing stress, and changing systems could be just as powerful as any intervention?

This episode is for parents, educators, and anyone willing to challenge conventional narratives and look deeper — with curiosity, nuance, and care.

Send us a text

Turning The Tide Tutoring
Sponsored by Turning The Tide Tutoring — empowering students and parents to grow and thrive.

Acting With Pippi
Acting with Pippi is acting program that helps youths build courage & presence through performance.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Support the show

Join the conversation beyond the episode inside The Gentle Year Facebook community — a thoughtful space for parents seeking clarity, encouragement, and real dialogue.

In this episode of The Gentle Year, I sit down with James Moffitt, a husband, father, and man of Christian faith who has buried two children. One after a long battle with childhood cancer. One after weeks in the ICU as an adult.

This is not a conversation about easy answers, silver linings, or moving on.

It is an honest, unguarded conversation about what fathers are never prepared for. The moment life splits into before and after. The anger, bargaining, guilt, and silence that follow. The pressure men feel to stay strong while carrying unbearable loss. And the tension between faith and unanswered questions that many grieving fathers are afraid to say out loud.

James shares what grief taught him about masculinity, fatherhood, and emotional intelligence, why so many men self-medicate instead of asking for help, and how unprocessed grief quietly reshapes identity, marriage, and family life. He speaks candidly about trusting God without understanding, about faith that survives without certainty, and about the responsibility fathers carry to model honesty rather than perfection.

This episode is for fathers who are grieving, families living in the long aftermath of loss, and anyone who has wrestled with what belief looks like when God didn’t stop it.

If you have ever wondered whether faith can hold grief without collapsing, this conversation is for you.

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Turning The Tide Tutoring
Sponsored by Turning The Tide Tutoring — empowering students and parents to grow and thrive.

Acting With Pippi
Acting with Pippi is acting program that helps youths build courage & presence through performance.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Support the show

Join the conversation beyond the episode inside The Gentle Year Facebook community — a thoughtful space for parents seeking clarity, encouragement, and real dialogue.

In this episode of The Gentle Year, Knikki sits down with Dara Wax—global health expert, founder of SAM+LEO, and mom of two teenage boys—for an unfiltered conversation about what teen mental health actually looks like.

This isn’t a clinical discussion or a list of warning signs. It’s a grounded, honest exploration of what parents are seeing every day but rarely feel safe saying out loud.

Together, they ask the questions many parents are asking themselves:

• What if teen “mental health” is too broad a term to be useful—and actually hides what kids really need?
• Are we unintentionally creating addictions through screens, even when we have good intentions?
• Why does taking a phone away sometimes look and feel like withdrawal?
• What happens when therapy, medication, or school accommodations aren’t enough?
• How do you support a teen without making them feel like something is wrong with them?
• What if resilience isn’t missing but simply hasn’t been exercised?
• How much of anxiety is about the world kids are inheriting, not their personal weakness?
• What does real emotional safety look like in a home?
• And what do you do when you mess up as a parent… and need to repair?

Dara shares deeply personal stories about raising teens with anxiety, OCD, ADHD, and heightened sensitivity while navigating divorce, COVID disruptions, rural vs. urban schooling, and the quiet fear many parents carry about what their kids are seeing online. The conversation explores screen time, peer pressure, diet, sleep, self-talk, and why modeling imperfection may be one of the most overlooked tools in parenting today.

This episode is for parents who are tired of shallow awareness campaigns and want something more honest. For those who are trying to support their kids without hovering, fixing, or panicking. And for anyone who suspects that teen wellness isn’t about having all the answers but about asking better questions, earlier.

If you’ve ever wondered:

Am I doing too much? Not enough? Or the wrong thing entirely?

This conversation is for you. 

Send a text

Turning The Tide Tutoring
Sponsored by Turning The Tide Tutoring — empowering students and parents to grow and thrive.

Acting With Pippi
Acting with Pippi is acting program that helps youths build courage & presence through performance.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Support the show