Deuteronomy 4:9 (NIV) Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.

**Transcription Below**

Questions and Topics We Discuss:

How can we all become enthusiastic lifelong learners and train our children to be the same?
What exactly is a charter school and what are a few of your favorite reasons to recommend it as a viable option for parents and students to consider?
What are a few ideas for ways our families can enjoy life and learning together?

Eva Moskowitz founded Success Academy Charter Schools in 2006. She has authored four books including her latest, A+ Parenting: The Surprisingly Fun Guide to Raising Surprisingly Smart Kids. Learn more about her through Success Academy.

Thank You to Our Sponsor: Sam Leman Eureka

Connect with The Savvy Sauce on Facebook or Instagram or Our Website

Please help us out by sharing this episode with a friend, leaving a 5-star rating and review, and subscribing to this podcast!

Gospel Scripture: (all NIV)

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”

Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”

Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”

Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession- to the praise of his glory.”

Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”

Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“

Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“

Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

**Transcription**

[00:00:00] <music>

Laura Dugger: Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here.

[00:00:18] <music>

Laura Dugger: The principles of honesty and integrity that Sam Leman founded his business on continue today, over 55 years later, at Sam Leman Chevrolet Eureka. Owned and operated by the Bertschi Family, Sam Leman in Eureka appreciates the support they've received from their customers all over central Illinois and beyond. Visit them today at LemanGM.com.

As we continue our school series, I'm reminded again of the overlap between educating and parenting children. Eva Moskowitz is my guest, and she beautifully weaves these topics together. She is the founder of Success Academy Charter Schools and author of A+ Parenting: The Surprisingly Fun Guide to Raising Surprisingly Smart Kids. We're going to chat about both topics, parenting and charter schools. [00:01:20]

Here's our chat.

Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, Eva.

Dr. Eva Moskowitz: Thanks for having me, Laura.

Laura Dugger: Will you start us off by giving us a little context and sharing more about who you are and what you do?

Dr. Eva Moskowitz: Sure. So my name is Eva Moskowitz, and I'm the founder and CEO of Success Academies, one of the largest charter networks in the country with extraordinarily high performance. We are in New York City, educating 21,000 students, kindergarten through 12th grade. We are all lifelong learners and incredibly enthusiastic about the criticality of a great education.

I'm also the author of four books and very interested in parenting. [00:02:21] I'm a mother of three myself, and I've been thinking a lot about how to raise intellectual children, both from a schooling perspective, but also from a parent perspective.

Laura Dugger: And after reading your most recent book, I gather that you are passionate about infusing the joy into learning. So you mentioned you all are enthusiastic lifelong learners. How can we all become that way and train our children to be the same?

Dr. Eva Moskowitz: Well, there's nothing more important than reading. You can teach yourself anything through books. We all need to be avid readers. I would argue not only of fiction but also nonfiction. I personally read four or five newspapers a day so that I can be an informed global citizen. I also listen to audible books and podcasts. [00:03:23]

I find there are so many opportunities in today's world to continually improve yourself and make sure that you are more knowledgeable, more learned, more thoughtful, have better questions to ask. If you do that for yourself, you will also impact your children.

Laura Dugger: I think it's wonderful that reading is such a delightful activity, not only for ourselves, but also even reading aloud.

Dr. Eva Moskowitz: Reading aloud is the best. With my three children, we read short stories aloud, we listened to short stories being read aloud by wonderful actors and readers. Today's technology actually affords so much ease at getting access to great literature. You can listen to the wonderful BBC dramatization of great novels and short stories. [00:04:30] There are so many different ways that you can become a lifelong learner today.

Laura Dugger: Well, and again, back to your book. I love how you pointed out that students who are going to school are going to spend approximately 180 days a year at school. But that leaves the other 185 days at home. So there is actually an incredible opportunity for learning to occur at home. So, Eva, how do you think that we can be intentional to maximize the effort and enjoyment of those 185 days at home?

Dr. Eva Moskowitz: Well, I think there are a couple of ways. I mean, first, just by realizing how precious that time is and that even formal schooling only occupies a small percentage of that. Obviously, we need to sleep and eat and clean our houses and pay our taxes and do the laundry and participate in religious or community activities. [00:05:37] But there's an awful lot of family time, and you want to use that time impactfully.

You know, I wrote this book because I found a gap in the literature. There's tons of books on how to toilet train your child or how to deal with tantrums or all sorts of problems that parents encounter, but there wasn't anything in the literature on what I would argue is one of the most important jobs of a parent, and that is shaping and raising intellectual children.

There are a variety of ways to do that. Reading is one, but it's certainly not the only one. I know you know from the book that I'm a huge believer in games, intellectual games. That can be super enjoyable for parents and for kids and, in fact, can be a family bonding experience that your kids will remember their whole lives. [00:06:38]

Laura Dugger: I love how you brought out so many enjoyable activities to share together. I'm just curious, then, will you catch us up? What are the ages currently of your children?

Dr. Eva Moskowitz: Well, I'm sort of at the other end of the spectrum, meaning I became an empty nester last year for the first time, which I was rather sad about. I love motherhood. I love the family and the family time.

My kids are now... my eldest is 25 and he's graduated from college. My middle one is at the U of Chicago studying mathematics and my youngest is at Wharton studying business in Philadelphia.

But I did all these things when my kids were very young and when they were teenagers. We still play games to this day. The games are a little more sophisticated or there are games that they played when they were little, like Backgammon, that either can be played at sort of a six or 7-year-old level or a 20-year-old level. [00:07:48] My kids still enjoy those activity.

My eldest recently was in a New York City Backgammon competition and is waiting to play the semifinals in his Backgammon competition. So it can last a lifetime. And it certainly has been a really important part of our family time.

Laura Dugger: I hope that you're even encouraged if you're hearing yourself. You have done what you set out to do with your children. And they sound like phenomenal human beings. I'm also curious, even going back to your family of origin, was this lifestyle instilled in you growing up as well?

Dr. Eva Moskowitz: Yes. I mean, maybe a little less on the games. My family really emphasized dinner conversations. I can still remember to this day as a little kid, my mother and father asking us the big policy questions. [00:08:52] So they didn't say to themselves, well, a 6-year-old or 7-year-old is going to have nothing to say about peace in the Middle East. They kind of were patient with us and said, "Well, here's the issue. Here is how different sides view it. What do you think we should do or how do you solve problems like poverty? How do you make the schools better?"

So dinner conversation was something in my household growing up that my parents assumed that even young children could enter into those debates. I think the other thing they did was assume the criticality of diversity of thought. Meaning, sure, you want to raise your kids with clear values, but you also want to have some level of humility about whatever position you have.

There are alternatives and you want to learn to listen to those alternatives and always have evidence for your opinions or disagreeing with other people's opinions. [00:10:03]

Laura Dugger: That's so well said. In this series so far, we've covered various schooling options such as public, private, and homeschooling. But now I'd love to learn a little bit more about charter schools. So what exactly is a charter school? And can you also share just a few of your favorite reasons to recommend it as a viable option for parents and students to consider?

Dr. Eva Moskowitz: Sure. I'm maybe a little bit unusual in the sense that I support all forms of parental choice. I think it's really, really important that parents of all socioeconomic backgrounds, of all religions, of all ethnicities get to decide what works best for them. [00:10:52]

But I am the founder and CEO of the largest network of public charter schools in New York City. A charter school is a school that is publicly funded. Unfortunately, we get less than the traditional district school, but it is nonetheless publicly funded, but independently run. So I have the freedom to make decisions about teaching and learning that I think is best for kids. Whereas in the district school, that is all sort of predetermined and a principal has to kind of follow the curriculum or follow all the rules that the district sets up.

At Success Academy, we are able to do very rigorous mathematics, science, literature, history. And we're able to design a K-12 program that works backwards from college and life and ensures that students are not only intellectually prepared, but also have the habits of mind that lead to success. [00:12:15]

We are very, very big at Success Academy on hard work and intrinsic motivation and organization, and time management. Those are just as important as being able to do physics and chemistry and calculus and game theory and economics, etc.

Laura Dugger: Okay. Just to make sure I'm tracking with you, so a charter school is still publicly funded, but then maybe even each one would have a different emphasis. So someone listening in California or New Jersey may have different options for the emphasis of their charter school. Is that right?

Dr. Eva Moskowitz: That's correct. So I am one operator and I have my particular educational vision and school design, but there are others that have a different design and a different educational vision. [00:13:18] And parents can literally kick the tires and figure out, well, which charter school in their community do they want to go to?

Laura Dugger: And then are charter schools free to the public?

Dr. Eva Moskowitz: Yes, they are free. You are not allowed to charge money, but you get admitted by random lottery. So if demand exceeds supply, you must run a random lottery and accept on a first come first serve basis.

Laura Dugger: And now a brief message from our sponsor.

[00:13:58] <music>

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[00:15:20] <music>

Laura Dugger: Let's just get a little bit more specific about Success Academy. When you're going back to the beginning, you said you worked backwards. Can you share a little bit more about your vision? And once those students launch, what is your hope and goal for them?

Dr. Eva Moskowitz: Sure. So we would like 60% of our high school graduates to major in math, science, and engineering, not because we don't like history or poetry, but we think that pragmatically that is where the world is going. And I should mention that I serve mostly poor children. So 94% of our kids are Black and brown. About 80% live below the poverty line. And our kids are outperforming kids in the affluent suburbs or in affluent parts of New York City.

So going back to our goal, we would like 60% to major in math, science, or engineering. [00:16:25] That is why we teach science five days a week starting in kindergarten. So it is not a second-class subject. It goes to the heart of what we do.

Our kids will have studied physics multiple times in elementary before they get to middle school. Our kids in high school take AP Physics, Chemistry, Biology, AP Calculus, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, Environmental and Biomedical Engineering. So that is one design element.

I would also say, even though we have this emphasis on math, science, and engineering, our children read a poem a day starting in kindergarten. So, after 13 years, they will have read a lot of poetry when you do a poem a day. [00:17:27] So it is rigorous.

We assess kids quite frequently so that we know if the children are learning. We also have a tremendous emphasis on what we call scholar talent. That is the visual arts, dance, sports. All of our kids in elementary play chess. We have very robust chess teams. We have a tremendous emphasis on coding starting as early as kindergarten.

Laura Dugger: Wow, that is very impressive. It's fascinating that you mentioned a poem a day. Do you have any research to back that up or reasoning? Because I've heard that there's so much benefit for studying poetry, but I think it's helpful to know the why behind it.

Dr. Eva Moskowitz: Yeah. I don't have research other than I've been educating thousands of kids over the past 18 years. [00:18:32] And I find it, one, very pleasurable because great poets provoke and delight and make one think. But we call them in kindergarten wonderful little packages that kids get to open up and really figure out the deeper meaning.

They're like little puzzles where kids have to infer because in poetry, everything is not explicitly laid out. The poem about a rosebush is not really about a rosebush. It's about the bloom of life and the diminishment of life as one journeys through the life cycle.

So kids have to kind of figure that out. We love how compact the exercise is. And we find that children get very good at seeing the delight in language and unpacking the intellectual puzzle that lies within the poem. [00:19:48]

Laura Dugger: I even remember back to my own childhood, whatever age we were when we maybe started resisting poetry or scoffed at it. And one teacher was saying, actually, all of you love poetry, and you probably listen to it on a daily basis. And she pointed out that music is set with language of poetry. So that's always stuck with me. If just in case someone's listening and thinking, oh, poetry is not for me or I don't want to incorporate that, it may already be a part of your life and benefit you in ways you're unaware of.

Dr. Eva Moskowitz: That's an excellent point. Actually, in the book, you know, we have a whole chapter on lyrics and songs because you're absolutely right. Vocal music is poetry set to music. So unpacking lyrics is not only enjoyable but quite intellectually productive. [00:20:47]

Laura Dugger: I love how education and parenting just go hand in hand. More on the parenting side, I think there are so many parents that have questions when it comes to the topic of discipline. So what has running schools taught you about disciplining children?

Dr. Eva Moskowitz: Well, I have to confess, you know, I'm a little old-fashioned and really believe that order and civility is better for learning and for the emotional security of children and that any kind of chaos is not as productive. So at Success, we are a uniform school, meaning children are all in our orange and blue plaid uniform. Our classrooms are quite orderly.

That doesn't mean that kids aren't talking to one another. [00:21:48] You'll hear noise in our classrooms, but it will be children discussing books or mathematics or science. But I believe that schools have an obligation to teach kids self-regulation and internal discipline and that that is a really important part of schooling to teach the habits that lead to enormous success. So we are what we call warm, strict.

Laura Dugger: I like that. Will you unpack that a little further? Even if someone wants to apply that within their home, how can they also be warm and strict?

Dr. Eva Moskowitz: Well, you want to encourage kids to take intellectual risks and to try things, but no means no. And you want to use the no sparingly, but the rules need to be followed. So if your children have chores, they have to do those chores before they play. [00:22:54] If your children have to contribute to the running of the household, whether that's mowing the lawn or putting the dishes in the dishwasher or vacuuming or setting the table, whatever it is, your children must do that.

Also at Success, we do believe in hierarchy. It's not a small d democracy. The teachers go by their last names. Students would either call me Dr. Moskowitz or Ms. Moskowitz. They don't say, "Hey, Eva." We're formal. We think that formality is important for children to understand that there is a hierarchy. You want some level of formality because that's part of growing up and understanding that respecting your elders or respecting your minister or rabbi or respecting elected officials or whatever the case may be, you want to raise children who understand that there is a formality. [00:24:06]

Laura Dugger: I'll just read one other piece I appreciated. It was in your intro where you are talking about discipline, and I'll read your quote. It says, "Praise when it has been earned can be an even more effective motivator than criticism."

Dr. Eva Moskowitz: I wholeheartedly believe that. Now, you don't want unearned praise. And it is important that kids feel positively about themselves and positively about learning. But you really want to make sure that you're not leading with the negative, but that the praise is well earned.

Laura Dugger: Have you checked out our library of articles available at thesavvysauce.com? New posts are added multiple times a month related to parenting, intimacy and marriage, personal development, habits, and other topics connected to what we discuss here on The Savvy Sauce. [00:25:11] If you sign up to join our email list, you're also going to enjoy little extras delivered straight to your inbox.

Our hope is to encourage you to have your own practical chats for intentional living. So these freebies will include things like questions that you can ask on your next date night, safe resources to read to promote enjoyment in your intimacy and marriage, or questions to ask your kids to connect at a more relational level. We hope you check out all the available reads at thesavvysauce.com under the "Articles" tab.

From your experience, how have you seen screens influencing our children's learning potential and their enjoyment?

Dr. Eva Moskowitz: I think it gives kids a kind of warped sense of reality to be on their phones. The average American kid is on for about six hours a day. And it has social implications. It's really important for kids to be able to bond with other kids and also learn how to resolve conflict. [00:26:17] If you're on your phone, you're basically alone. And that aloneness does not teach kids how to develop all the social skills.

I also think that TikTok and Instagram and even YouTube, not all of that is intellectually worthwhile. Some of it may be, but a child doesn't necessarily have the discriminating taste to know what is going to be productive and what is not going to be productive. So I am in favor of significantly limiting that kind of time on social media and instead reading and playing board games and playing parlor games. They're actually much more fun as well as being more worthwhile.

Laura Dugger: I really couldn't agree with you more. [00:27:18] I'm inspired by what you said at the beginning about having humility when we approach differences. So I need to keep myself in check. I hope I have a spirit of humility.

But it is so hard to understand the use of iPads from my perspective. There is no research that I've come across where it is beneficial to increase all of the technology at home or in the schools. I would love to know whether you have the same or differing opinion. Would you like to speak into that at all?

Dr. Eva Moskowitz: Sure. I think I have a different opinion. To me, technology is a tool to be more efficient. So we give all of our teachers iPads because it is easier when they're walking around the room and evaluating student work to use an iPad. All of our students have laptops. We give them laptops. We are fairly digital. So they do their homework digitally. [00:28:19] They take tests digitally.

For us, it's purely a matter of efficiency. We were spending a ton of money on paper and paper is difficult to distribute and collect. We still do some things on paper but now there are digital writing tools. So we use a program called Kami, where all of our kids can use a stylist to do their mathematics. It's almost the same as writing on paper.

I think what I object to is just all the TikTok, Instagram. There's a lot of cyberbullying these days. It's just sort of unnecessary, and I don't think it has a productive end goal. I mean, we have found that with our five-year-olds in kindergarten, for example, in addition to having math manipulatives, we also have virtual manipulatives. [00:29:19] But I would not have kids color on their iPad. Old-fashioned crayons, I think it's important to work with the material in art on paper.

Now, as the kids grow older, we do animation in high school. And they're doing that digitally, obviously. But I think in the early years, it's important that kids get their hands dirty with paint and smocks. And the point is really to sort of free their minds to express their artistic ideas.

Laura Dugger: Love that. Well, you just have an abundance of ideas. So what are some of your ideas for ways our families can enjoy life and learning together?

Dr. Eva Moskowitz: Well, I'll first say that if you look at parenting from one end of the telescope as opposed to the other, it can feel like a duty and a chore. [00:30:22] Of course, it is a duty. If you bring children into the world, there are parental duties. But I'm honestly trying to get parents to enjoy parenting more. I think if you enjoy it yourself, you will end up being a more successful parent.

One of the ways to enjoy parenting is to do with your kids things that you enjoy. So I loved reading. So reading to my children becomes a really enjoyable activity, really bringing me back to my own childhood. My mother read to me constantly as a little girl. So that's one way to enjoy your children. I would argue that family dinners, if you have topics, and I would really encourage parents to have a topic, that could be a policy topic. [00:31:27] Or as our family often did, we would select a movie on Sunday night. We would have Sunday night movie night, classic movies. The kids would be involved in picking. And sometimes at the beginning, the time spent selecting the movie can be as long as the time spent watching it when there are disagreements, etc.

Then after the movie, we would have dinner. The dinner topic conversation would be about the movie. And it's a really great way to focus children of a variety of ages and have a sort of unified topic. So dinner is a really valuable way to intellectually engage one's children.

I would argue things like parlor games, playing charades, cannot only be a tremendous amount of fun, but can be very, very educational. [00:32:30] As well as board games. I'm a big believer in Backgammon, blockers, chess, of course, many, many card games that are intellectual, from very simple ones to playing Bridge. Bridge is a great intellectual game. We started playing bridge with our kids when they were 8, 9 years old. It's a little slow going. And by the time they're in their early teens, they are quite accomplished at Bridge.

Laura Dugger: Let's just pause on a few of those. Let's go back first to the movie idea. Could you share a few of your favorites that your family watched and then discussed together?

Dr. Eva Moskowitz: Sure. [00:33:18] Well, when they're little, we watched Judy Garland's The Wizard of Oz, which is just a tremendous favorite. You know, what is the lion? What is he afraid of? How does he get transformed? So that was an incredible favorite.

As the kids got older, there is the great Humphrey Bogart. Casablanca is one of our family favorites. Lawrence of Arabia is one of our favorites. I have to say that we probably over-indexed old movies. So my kids have watched almost all the silent films.

The comedies are great. Buster Keaton, how he did those stunts and the humor and the jokes. It gets kids involved in wit and what is witty about something and why is it funny? [00:34:18] What's the joke is a very worthwhile intellectual skill. And my kids just spend a lot of time laughing. We would watch the Tom and Jerry series that my kids found hilarious. And then we would sort of have to ask, well, why is it so funny? What about it is funny? And that intellectual exercise of articulating the joke, as it were, pays intellectual dividends.

Laura Dugger: What about for a family who's more passionate about art and music? What ideas would you recommend they could even start implementing this week?

Dr. Eva Moskowitz: I would encourage you to find musicians and lyrics that you love and play them with your kids and get the kids to be able to articulate. It may be you listen through it, but then at other times you kind of stop it and go over the lyrics or get them online and have the kids reading along while they're listening and talking about why that's such a great line. [00:35:30] You know, we did a lot of listening to Bob Dylan when my kids were growing up. He got the Nobel Prize for poetry because his lyrics are that good.

In terms of art, we did a lot of art-making when I was growing up. My mother is herself an artist. But art was a little harder for us. It's only in the kids' late teens that they started getting interested in going to museums. But we dragged them to many museums and they didn't always love it. But it's interesting that now that they're adults, I find that they're going to museums and are appreciating art. So sometimes it doesn't kind of stick at the beginning and you have to kind of keep at it.

Laura Dugger: Which is so true for many parts of parenting. I love how you draw that out. Another section of your book, even helping us to enjoy our children more, I love this one, encouraging them to ask questions. So can you elaborate on how we train them in that and why it's so important? [00:36:47]

Dr. Eva Moskowitz: Curiosity is probably the biggest driver of learning, but it's not an on-off switch, as if some children were born without curiosity and some are. All children are curious. They might be curious about different things, and you can squelch their curiosity if you're not careful.

But if you encourage their curiosity, you will find that they ask so many questions you can barely keep up with them. But we've always explained things to our children and then paused. Usually, they have a follow-up question. So I can remember when my youngest, my daughter Hannah, was about eight years old. We would go on bike trips with our kids. We biked all over Europe and so forth. She was little, so she was on a tandem with my husband, Eric. [00:37:48] And he decided to explain the capital markets to her. She was 8. I could hear her asking questions and so forth.

I didn't really think about it much after that. But lo and behold, when it was time to apply to colleges, she said to my husband and I, "You know, Mom and Dad, I don't want to study Roman civilization that much longer. I would like to go to business school." And here she is attending Wharton. So I assume she got curious because my husband exposed her to a financial understanding.

My middle one, my husband, and I were always, and there's a chapter in the book, on logic puzzles and mathematical riddles. He is studying mathematics at the University of Chicago. And his interest in math riddles was generated when he was 6, 7, 8 years old. [00:38:54]

Laura Dugger: One thing that you write about made me think of a story I heard a while back where a junior hire was interviewed. And he said when he goes into a room, he likes to engage in conversation with the oldest person there who's going to take him seriously. That came to mind when you emphasized it's important to expose our children to adult conversations. I think the dinner table is such a natural place for that. But is there any other point you'd like to elaborate on for how you did this in your own family?

Dr. Eva Moskowitz: Sure. I mean, I just think that there's a tendency to think that kids can't handle or are not interested in adult conversation. My parents and my husband's parents, they never had a little kid table. We were always included in the conversation. [00:39:58] My parents didn't lower the level. And I didn't do that with my kids. I assumed that they could raise up to the level of the conversation. Not that you wouldn't have to define a word here and there or explain. You know, you have to explain to an 8-year-old capital markets. Otherwise, they're not going to understand it. But you assume that you can simplify and give kids the general idea without going into all of the complexity. And they too can contribute intellectually to whatever the topic at hand is. I think that was part of my own success as a parent.

I also think that socially, my three kids, and I hope my 21,000 other kids, are very comfortable interacting with adults. They're not some weird species of animal. [00:41:04] My kids, you know, respectfully, of course, assume that they have something to contribute and something to learn from others. And I think that's a very important habit that we sometimes fail to teach kids.

Laura Dugger: Also, what would you say are some opportunities for learning through travel?

Dr. Eva Moskowitz: Oh, it's my favorite. First, I love to travel. But also, I love my kids to experience different cultures and to understand that we are part of a larger global context. But even more basically and perhaps more prosaically, you know, trying different foods and seeing different cultural norms, I think, makes you wiser, more humble, more sophisticated, more self-aware of what is great about your own country or your own culture when you travel to faraway places and other lands. [00:42:24]

Laura Dugger: Well, and when you list ideas like this, I get so inspired and stirred up to give these a try. It's very energizing to me. But I also know some people can hear all of these topics and be a bit overwhelmed. You even address them. I love in the intro, again, I'll read your quote, because you graciously write, "If, like us, you can find some time to do some of the things in this book, it will have a huge positive impact on your children."

Dr. Eva Moskowitz: Yeah. And look, I was not a stay-at-home mom. Both my husband and I worked. I had a crazy schedule. I was an elected official when my children were very young. And then I built this enormous schooling operation. And so I didn't have gobs of time. But I did enjoy the time that I had with my kids. [00:43:28] I don't think you want to stress yourself out as a parent. I think you want to do what you can do and do it enjoyably and not over-index on should have, could have, would have. But find things that come naturally to you.

You don't have to do all the things in the book. That's not the purpose of the book. The purpose of the book is to highlight some of the variety so that different parents who have different interests and different circumstances can support their children's intellectual development.

Laura Dugger: Well, Eva, you have so much to offer. Where would you like to direct us to go after this chat if we would like to continue learning from you?

Dr. Eva Moskowitz: Well, you're more than welcome to go on the Success Academy website and find out about the school. [00:44:30] I also have a sharing arm where I put our course content material on our website for anyone to download. So if you want to see second-grade literacy or our third-grade science curriculum, you can find that online to use.

I should mention that all of the proceeds for the book go to the not-for-profit, which is Success Academy. But I would encourage you to get the book so that you have it as a reference for a rainy Saturday afternoon when you're trying to think about what to do with your kids. Or if you're homeschooling. There are obviously lots and lots of activities that you can do.

Laura Dugger: I love that we will add those links in the show notes for today's episode. Eva, you may already be aware we are called The Savvy Sauce because "savvy" is synonymous with practical knowledge. [00:45:31] And so as my final question for you today, what is your savvy sauce?

Dr. Eva Moskowitz: I would say that my savvy sauce is really to find enjoyment in parenting and think about how you can impact your kids' intellectual development.

Laura Dugger: Well, you are a brilliant and passionate woman, and I so appreciate you sharing your ideas with us today. Thank you so much for being my guest.

Dr. Eva Moskowitz: Laura, thank you for having me. It was my pleasure.

Laura Dugger: One more thing before you go. Have you heard the term "gospel" before? It simply means good news. And I want to share the best news with you. But it starts with the bad news. Every single one of us were born sinners and God is perfect and holy, so He cannot be in the presence of sin. Therefore, we're separated from Him. [00:46:33]

This means there's absolutely no chance we can make it to heaven on our own. So for you and for me, it means we deserve death and we can never pay back the sacrifice we owe to be saved. We need a savior. But God loved us so much, He made a way for His only Son to willingly die in our place as the perfect substitute.

This gives us hope of life forever in right relationship with Him. That is good news. Jesus lived the perfect life we could never live and died in our place for our sin. This was God's plan to make a way to reconcile with us so that God can look at us and see Jesus.

We can be covered and justified through the work Jesus finished if we choose to receive what He has done for us. Romans 10:9 says that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. [00:47:35]

So would you pray with me now? Heavenly, Father, thank You for sending Jesus to take our place. I pray someone today right now is touched and chooses to turn their life over to You. Will You clearly guide them and help them take their next step in faith to declare You as Lord of their life? We trust You to work and change their lives now for eternity. In Jesus name, we pray, amen.

If you prayed that prayer, you are declaring Him for me, so me for Him, you get the opportunity to live your life for Him.

At this podcast, we are called Savvy for a reason. We want to give you practical tools to implement the knowledge you have learned. So you're ready to get started?

First, tell someone. Say it out loud. Get a Bible. The first day I made this decision my parents took me to Barnes and Noble to get the Quest NIV Bible and I love it. Start by reading the book of John.

Get connected locally, which basically means just tell someone who is part of the church in your community that you made a decision to follow Christ. [00:48:41] I'm assuming they will be thrilled to talk with you about further steps such as going to church and getting connected to other believers to encourage you.

We want to celebrate with you too. So feel free to leave a comment for us if you made a decision for Christ. We also have show notes included where you can read Scripture that describes this process.

Finally, be encouraged. Luke 15:10 says, "In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." The heavens are praising with you for your decision today.

If you've already received this good news, I pray that you have someone else to share it with today. You are loved and I look forward to meeting you here next time.

Welcome to The Savvy Sauce

Practical chats for intentional living

A faith-based podcast and resources to help you grow closer to Jesus and others. Expect encouragement, surprises, and hope here. Each episode offers lively interviews with fascinating guests such as therapists, authors, non-profit founders, and business leaders.

They share their best practices and savvy tips we can replicate to make our daily life and relationships more enjoyable!