Heartwood & Ember · About Mariah
It happened to me first and it's why I've spent my career making sure it happens for your child too.
I struggled to read as a child. Really struggled.
Not the kind of struggling that gets noticed quickly. The quiet kind, where you work harder than everyone around you and still fall behind.
Where books feel like something other children understand and you don't.
Then someone saw the pattern beneath my struggle. I got the help I needed.
And something shifted slowly at first, then all at once.
Reading became the thing that changed everything.
I fell in love with books. With stories. With the way a page could open a door to somewhere entirely new.
That experience is the reason I became a teacher.
It became the reason I spent years training as a credentialed educational specialist.
It became the reason I raised my own children to be voracious readers. Daily, voluntarily, reading all day if left to their own devices.
Through story woven into the ordinary moments of our days. Through a home where books were simply part of the air. Through intentional practices that turned reading into rhythm.
And it became the reason I built Heartwood & Ember.
Every parent I've ever met wants this for their child.
They just don't always know how to find the way in.
what I know to be true
Not every child has found their way in, yet.
Not every home has found its rhythm, yet.
The capacity is always there waiting for the right conditions, the right story, the right moment to shift.
Reading is Intentional Living
Reading isn't just a skill. It's a practice. A presence. It's how we live with intention through stories.
Patterns Can Become Rhythm
The resistance you see? The struggle? They're patterns waiting to become the rhythm that resonates with your family.
how I can help you
when reading feels like a battle
A child who refuses to read is communicating something. I help you see what and respond in a way that shifts the pattern rather than deepening it.
when you don't know where to start
You need one moment to go differently.
I help you find it and build from there.
when reading keeps getting forgotten
Reading doesn't need a dedicated hour. It needs a home in the ordinary moments of your day. I'll help you find where it naturally belongs.
when your child can read but won't
There's a difference between a child who can't read and a child who doesn't want to. Knowing which you're dealing with changes everything about how you respond.
what I bring to this work
1
I know how reading develops in children. The difference between a child who is struggling with learning to read, a child who reads because they have to, and a child who chooses to read because they want to. That knowledge is the base.
2
Reading grows in homes where there's no pressure and no performance. Only connection.
We create the conditions for reading to return naturally through mindful, intentional practices.
3
The rhythms we build here aren't added on top of your life.
They grow from within it, from the in between moments, the slow mornings, the ten minutes before bed.
By doing what matters, by living intentionally through the power of stories.
you're in the right place if
You just need help finding the way in.
You want real answers from someone who knows how reading develops
You're done with strategies that create more pressure, not more connection
You want reading to feel like something your family reaches for, not manages
You're ready for one small shift and willing to trust what grows from it
come gather with us
Every rhythm begins with one moment.
Let's find yours together.
This is how reading comes home.
We are committed to being a sustainable company that gives back to our world, we call home.
Each year we give 5% of our profits to help fund sustainable living to protect people, animals, & the planet. ♡