Connor Boyack is the author of the popular children’s book series: “The Tuttle Twins.” Through entertaining stories, the series teaches kids timeless moral principles and the fundamental values of freedom. Each book chronicles the adventures of twins Ethan and Emily and focuses on essential concepts such as individual liberty, free markets, and the Golden Rule.
With its success, “The Tuttle Twins” brand has expanded to include an animated series (with a first episode due out on Oct. 12) and, most recently, a monthly kids magazine—
“Tuttle Times.”As more and more parents find themselves searching for resources for homeschooling or teaching their children important ideas they’re not learning at school, “The Tuttle Twins” continues to increase in popularity.
I spoke to Connor Boyack about the new ventures and how his products have served parents during recent times. Here’s what he said.
The Epoch Times: Since the first “Tuttle Twins” book was published, the series seems to have enjoyed ever-increasing popularity. What draws so many families to “The Tuttle Twins”?
Connor Boyack: Freedom-minded parents are worried about everything “woke.” They’re seeing propaganda in public school, garbage on social media, and so they want to make sure their children have their heads on straight and are taught true principles. And, sadly, there aren’t many voices out there to trust. There’s a clear problem for which the “Tuttle Twins” is a solution—and it certainly helps that our books are spreading by such strong word of mouth. Parents really like what we’ve been offering their families.
The Epoch Times: What has been the most surprising feedback you’ve received from parents using your products?
Mr. Boyack: When we started creating the “Tuttle Twins” books, we set out to teach children the ideas of freedom. What was a huge surprise is how many parents told us that they themselves were learning these ideas for the first time. Clearly, this is a failure of public schools for decades—not teaching about sound money, property rights, free markets, and more. Every day we hear from parents who love learning alongside their children with the “Tuttle Twins,” so we love that we’ve been able to create a whole family learning experience out of it.
The Epoch Times: What do you recommend for adults who want to better understand the freedom fundamentals that “The Tuttle Twins” teaches kids?
Mr. Boyack: Most adults don’t want to read economic texts written decades ago. Some of these books, while popular, such as “The Road to Serfdom” or “Economics in One Lesson,” are intimidating for many to try to understand. Our books offer an accessible opportunity to still be exposed to the ideas and principles from these books while learning alongside one’s children in a bonding moment.
But for those adults who want to learn more, we share information about the original books and point interested readers to this material so they can keep learning. We also have an economic curriculum, a podcast, and more—all to keep families (including the adults) learning more on an ongoing basis.
The Epoch Times: You’re now launching a magazine. How does the magazine content differ from “The Tuttle Twins” books?
Mr. Boyack: Our community is clearly hungry for more content, and many parents remember fondly the monthly magazines they would receive as a child full of activities, lessons, and more. We want to teach kids in a variety of formats—books, podcasts, cartoons, and now a magazine where they can do activities and projects that are interactive and give kids an opportunity to explore and apply the ideas they’re learning. The new magazine is a vehicle through which we can teach these ideas in another fun format.
The Epoch Times: The number of parents choosing to homeschool their children has skyrocketed in the past couple of years. As a homeschooler yourself, what advice or encouragement can you offer the newbies?
Mr. Boyack: The beautiful thing about homeschooling today is that there are so many options and opportunities for families. One family’s homeschooling approach can be completely different from another’s. There are so many online communities and support systems to help parents embarking on this new effort, and it’s great.
The message I would send to new homeschoolers is to shun the rigidity and structure of public schooling. I wrote a book a few years ago called “Passion-Driven Education” for parents to learn about how they can tailor their child’s education around their interests, to make learning fun and deeply meaningful. The families that embrace this customized approach see such massive success with their kids because they are honoring the personal desires and goals of their child, rather than simply subjecting their child to a standard someone else came up with.
The Epoch Times: What motivates you to continue this work?
Mr. Boyack: The world seems to have gone crazy lately, and I hear directly from so many families who are struggling to feel a sense of stability. They’re worried their children are being exposed to “influencers” and role models who are leading them down dark paths. Families need help, and I and our team are in the privileged position of being able to offer help to many of them. When problems abound, it’s an amazing feeling to have a solution to offer. Yes, we have our critics—socialists don’t really like us—but I wake up each morning absolutely energized to go serve more families and help restore some sanity to our world.
