Family

One of the joys of parenthood is the peaceful, soothing experience of reading a bedtime story to your child. Your comforting voice can help lull them into a sleepy state as you read aloud melodic nursery rhymes and other enchanting stories. To this day, I can remember some of these moments as my mom read my favorite stories aloud at bedtime.

The childcare field, with low teacher pay and high stress, has struggled with burnout and teacher shortages, especially since the pandemic. The lack of a reliable, centralized pipeline of substitute teachers makes it harder to keep classrooms open and take care of teachers, said JC Elrod, director of The Learning Tree.