Of all the experiences we share on our unique and individual life journeys, there’s none quite as unifying as catching big feelings on the first day of school. It's a day filled with promise: New friends! Old ones! New teachers! New ‘fits! New shoes! 

But it can also be a day filled with the weight of realizing you’re different. Everyone but YOU went to faraway places, had the Best Summers Ever. Your name, when you say it out loud, gets laughed at by classmates unfamiliar with its sound. At lunch, someone turns up their nose at the rice and kimchi your mom packed. And at recess, you’re not wanted on the team.

As we near the closing of this season of the podcast, it felt important to include a book that takes on our country’s diversity, including the immigrant experience. After all, we are a Melting Pot, a Nation of Immigrants, a TAPESTRY of histories and cultural experiences.

The Day You Begin is a great starting point to discuss our nation’s diversity–and how our differences make us stronger, both collectively and individually–while also allowing grownups and children to talk about the personal and interpersonal challenges that come with being Different, whatever our differences may be.

Host Sarah DeBacher is joined in by three panelists–each with their own, unique stories: historian and children’s book author, Freddi Evans, emerging literacy scholar and writer, Kyley Pulphus, and philosopher and author of multiple books on discussing big ideas with little ones through picture books, Tom Wartenberg.  In today’s family discussions, we’ll hear from two mothers and their children–Caitlin and 7-year-old Fisher, and Shana and 6-year-old Silas.