Meet Anne Livingston of Faithful Foundation

Today we’d like to introduce you to Anne Livingston.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I grew up in a family of educators and have loved teaching for as long as I can remember. After first attempting a different path, I ended up at the University of Florida majoring in Early Childhood Education. I received my Bachelors in Special Education and my Masters in Early Childhood Education and taught 1st grade in Gainesville, Florida as well as Houston, Texas before moving to Chicago to teach Kindergarten. My first year in Chicago, there was a teacher’s strike and multiple school closures, which resulted in me losing my job and ultimately my career in the public school system.

I became a nanny for a few years but then ended up leaving the early childhood arena temporarily while I became a spiritual life coach, working with women and their families. After being a nomad for three years, traveling around the United States living in Airbnbs, I was led to Phoenix in 2020 where I chose to root down and make it my home. Two months after signing my lease, I gave my life to Jesus Christ and closed down my spiritual life coaching business. The Lord led me back to my early childhood roots and I started tutoring young children who were struggling in school, as well as helping even younger children prepare for Kindergarten.

During this time, I also noticed there were parents who were pulling their children out of the public school system and although they were wanting to educate them, they were unsure how to go about it. I was clear I had no desire to step back into the classroom setting as a teacher, but I developed a deep desire to not only tutor children to make learning fun and engaging, as well as fruitful, but I also desired to come alongside parents to help educate and empower them to play an active role in their child’s education.

In my first ministry role in my first church, I worked as the Special Needs Coordinator in our Special Needs Ministry. I wrote a chronological Bible curriculum for our teens and adults with special needs, as well as modified a prewritten curriculum for our younger students. With previous experience assessing and writing curriculum, I am very confident in diagnosing certain gaps within a child’s education to be able to come up with an academic plan to help fill those gaps.

As a strong believer in Christ, it informs everything I do; however I work with both Christian and non-Christian families. I believe all children can learn and I also believe all behavior is communication that first stems from the heart. I believe in heart transformation over behavior modification, although there may be instances where behavior modification is the first line of defense. I work not only with helping children academically, but I also work with children on understanding their emotions and what is driving their behavior. Usually when children can put words to what they are feeling and are given appropriate outlets and tools for those emotions, the behavior shifts.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It hasn’t always been a smooth road. When I first lost my job due to school closures in Chicago, I was devastated. I had no clue what I could possibly do with a Masters in Early Childhood Education outside of teaching. I often felt like I was overqualified for some of the jobs I ended up in, but I have watched the Lord use every single experience in my life and redeem it. Having the vast experience of nannying, working in preschools, teaching in the public education classroom, and tutoring, it has given me a much broader range of expertise. Taking a few years to coach women helped me to learn some of the struggles families face within the home and helped me to merge the worlds of early childhood education and coaching.

We’ve been impressed with Faithful Foundation, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I am a Christ-centered Early Childhood tutoring business, although I work with both Christian and non-Christian families. I specialize in pre-Kindergarten to 3rd Grade tutoring and family support. I partner with families to help their pre-Kindergarten children prepare for Kindergarten to make sure they have a strong foundation entering into their first official year of school. I also am hired to work with elementary school children in primarily reading and math to help support any academic areas their children are struggling in. I often find that how things are taught in the classroom setting is not how children learn best, so I use best practices and developmentally appropriate activities to help fill in the gaps. I also support families in attending IEP meetings when necessary and observing in the classroom in order to help make sense of certain behavior and academic issues the parents and teachers may not be able to pinpoint. Homeschooling parents also hire me to assess their children and to help support parents in teaching the skills and academics the parents may not have the educational background to be able to teach. My approach is in the holistic development of a child and teaching in a way that is not only developmentally appropriate, but also is geared to their learning styles when appropriate.

With my Christian families, I pray with their child at the beginning of every session and I have a biblical worldview to be able to disciple their children as I work with them, academically. With my non-Christian families, I simply believe that I am to exude the light of Christ and exhibit the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control to the children and families I work with.

Any big plans?
Right now I’m still just solidifying a client base in the valley, but I would love to do more training and speaking in addition to my tutoring.

Pricing:

• Initial Assessment (up to 2 hours) – $150
• Tutoring – $60/hour

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.faithfulfoundation.co