We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Melissa McCall. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Melissa below.

Melissa, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Risk taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

As I’ve navigated my business, it’s become clear what’s been successful and what’s not. Working with young families, I see the importance of easy actionable items for literacy and children’s development. I’ve tried various approaches like literacy kits, in-person classes, mommy and me sessions, drop-off classes, and coaching, but I’ve learned that parents need simple, research-based literacy activities that don’t demand much of their time.

Therefore, I decided to take the leap and create a product focusing on delivering such activities, along with a 5×5 activity pad. I’ve invested hours in developing the content, working with a printing company, and collaborating with a PR company to design the product in Canva. It’s finally coming to life, and I’m thrilled about it! I’m even participating in a contest with a chance to win $10,000 to pitch the product. Regardless of the contest outcome, I’m committed to producing the product because preschool children are capable of early literacy skills, which many teachers and parents are unaware of. My product aims to fill this gap, and I’m ready to take the risk!

Melissa, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Back in 2020, when the world stopped, I was in Rogers, Arkansas at home with a preschooler and a kindergartner. I went full-on teacher mode, embracing my new normal with my kids at home. Understanding the struggles that many families of preschoolers were having, I decided to create detailed lesson plans for families in my area. Each week, I would email the plans, full of literacy and math lessons, art projects, links to videos, and online games. So many people expressed gratitude and I received numerous compliments about how fun and engaging the plans were. I continued writing and sending plans for several weeks until the school year ended. I loved the process and helping others, but the summer passed and school year began, so I never got back to this job. Looking back, I think I was ignoring the signs from the universe that I was actually quite talented at creating fun, engaging, lessons plans for preschoolers! It didn’t feel like work…it was fun, came quite naturally for me, and using the lessons with my son, I knew how effective they were.

Now, here I am, three years later and believe that the stars have finally aligned. I’ve truly found my calling as not only a preschool literacy teacher, but also as an adult educator. I love my current job spreading the love of literacy to children, but I equally love educating teachers and parents on how to give children more meaningful literacy experiences on a day-to-day basis.

My time in the classroom both as a teacher, and a consultant, I have learned that many parents teachers are lacking knowledge in the amazing capabilities of our children. That’s my goal to educate people about the science of reading or also giving tips and tricks for how to actually build these are literacy, skills and young children. I provide a Literacy kits, my 5 x 5 100 Days of Literacy pad, teach your child to read parent, coaching, preschool, professional development, preschool, evaluations, and more.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Back in 2020, during the world’s pause, I found myself in Rogers, Arkansas, at home with a preschooler and a kindergartner. Embracing the new normal, I went into full teacher mode and created detailed lesson plans to help families in my area. These plans were filled with literacy and math lessons, art projects, video links, and online games, which received immense gratitude and compliments for being fun and engaging.

Although I loved the process of helping others, life got busy with the summer passing and the school year starting, so I couldn’t continue. Looking back, I realize that creating these plans came naturally to me, and it didn’t feel like work; it was enjoyable and effective, especially when I used them with my son.

Fast forward three years, and I believe the stars have aligned. I’ve discovered my true calling as a preschool literacy teacher and adult educator. I’m passionate about spreading the love of literacy to children and educating teachers and parents on providing meaningful literacy experiences daily.

Having experienced both teaching in the classroom and consulting, I’ve noticed that many parents and teachers lack knowledge about the amazing capabilities of children. My goal is to educate people about the science of reading and offer tips and tricks to build strong literacy skills in young children. I provide various resources like Literacy kits, my 5×5 100 Days of Literacy pad, parent coaching, professional development for preschool educators, evaluations, and much more.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Building a following on social media can be overwhelming. One of the ways that I have had success is by following similar Instagram accounts that are in my niche. I follow some of their members and engage with their content. Another strategy that has helped me grow my local audience is tagging myself in specific locations. This has definitely attracted more followers! And lastly, networking! I have worked hard to partner with local businesses in my field, as well as get out and about in the community. This has helped tremendously!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.movinglittleminds.com
• Instagram: @movinglittleminds
• Facebook: Moving Little Minds
• Linkedin: Melissa (Moving Little Minds) McCall