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Social Emotional Learning in the Classroom: Simple Tools for the New School Year

by Suzanne Tucker

Social emotional learning starts in everyday classroom moments. Explore simple SEL strategies teachers can use to build emotional literacy, support regulation, strengthen relationships, and create a classroom where children feel safe, understood, and ready to learn.

Woman kneeling to comfort a young boy, with illustrated hands exchanging a gray cloud for a red heart in the background

Positive vs. Negative Reinforcement: A Guide for Parents

by Alex Petrou

Learn how positive vs. negative reinforcement influence your parenting style and the ways positive reinforcers can support your child’s development.

Mother comforting her highly sensitive teenage son during an emotional moment, illustrating parental support, empathy, and teen mental health.

Helping Your Highly Sensitive Child Gain Confidence

by Rebecca Eanes

When our children are highly sensitive, rejection and criticism hurt more deeply. They get embarrassed easily and have strong emotional reactions, which can make them the target for bullying. Here are 5 tools to boost your child's confidence.

Woman looking at an old childhood photo of herself, surrounded by illustrated hearts and clouds

Healing From A Childhood You Don't Remember

by Ashley Patek

While we may not remember our childhood with our mind and verbal words, our body keeps the score and stores the information it receives from our formative years, namely which parts of us to grow and which to shrink. These downloads show up as patterns in adulthood and in our parenting. Read more.

Woman with eyes closed and hand on her chest, staying calm, with a flower graphic beside her

9 Mantras I Use When Low On Patience With My Kids

by Ashley Patek

Mantras can change the wiring of our brain and create a new lens to see ourselves, our kids, and the world at large. Here are 9 parenting mantras I use when low on patience with my kids.

of two young girls/ siblings fighting, one pulling hair

End Sibling Rivalry And Bring Peace Into Your Home

by Ashley Patek

Siblings are natural competitors for attachment, bidding for our love and attention. Here's 3 Parenting Do's and Don'ts when it comes to sibling relationships.

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Santa's 'Naughty List' Has Been Canceled This Holiday Season

by Ashley Patek

The holiday season is meant to be a magical time, but often it is used as leverage to control a child’s behavior. We have a real opportunity to rewrite the narrative. Here's how.

What Young Children Need You to Know About Separation Anxiety

by Rebecca Eanes

Children are born with a need for attachment and so it stands to reason that separation is a great fear for many children. This doesn’t mean we cannot ever be separated from them, but rather that we take time to understand the developmental aspect of this issue so that we can fulfill their need for attachment in our absence.

Child Stress And How Emotional Intelligence Can Keep It In Check

by Alex Petrou

Stress is our body’s natural reaction to a challenging or adverse situation, whether real or imagined, which triggers the body’s fight-flight-or-freeze response. By learning to express emotions, listen actively, and consider multiple perspectives, children and adults alike can learn to control stress more effectively.

Portable Emotional ToolKit for Sensitive Kids

by Guest Author

How do you discipline a highly sensitive child? Using time-ins help children understand and mange their deep emotional world, nurturing connection and emotional intelligence. Here are 8 tips to building a portable ToolKit for your child to help them regulate not only at home but on the go.

Why Improv Is Not Just For The Stage

by Guest Author

We all improvise every day, and children are the ultimate improvisers. Through play and connection, improv games nurture brain development and bolster social-emotional learning. Here's how to do it. Plus get our E-Book: 10 Minutes of Play For 10 Days!

Why Being a Sensitive Parent is a Good Thing

by Rebecca Eanes

I am a highly sensitive parent, and here is why it is a good thing. Plus 5 sanity-saving tips for fellow parents who are sensitive, too.

Why Is My Child Behaving This Way?

by Ashley Patek

Power struggles ... meltdowns ... defiance. Here's what's causing your child's behavior and tools for transforming it.

Emotional Intelligence is More Than Naming Emotions

by Alex Petrou

Emotional intelligence is more than naming emotions. Remaining calm when our child is emoting requires great patience, often more than we have in reserve.

The Stories Kids Want To Tell About COVID

by Rebecca Eanes

Our children grew up in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their brains developed in quarantine. Their bodies changed in lockdown. They are emerging from this as different people, and the impact it had on them is yet to be told. Here are 4 things we can do to support our children’s social-emotional health this school year ...

3 Simple Tools To Gain Cooperation From Your Child (With Less Yelling From You!)

by Rebecca Eanes

When it comes to getting your child to listen, tricks and bribes only go so far. Eventually your kids will wise up to them, and because these tactics evoke a fight or flight response, they will rebel. Here are 3 tools to increase cooperation so that your kids want to work with you (instead of against you).

Tuning Into Your Own Voice With 3 Simple Tools

by Rebecca Eanes

These 3 simple practices will help you learn to lean into your own voice, and with time and practice, you’ll be able to discern it above all others most of the time.

Mama Of Two Neurodiverse Sons Uses ToolKit To Nurture Their Unique Minds

by Guest Author

We love reading stories about how our tools are living for families in their homes. Here’s a story that came in from mama Kelley Rufkahr with her children Wyatt, age six, and Emmett, age four.

Move Your Body, Move Your Emotions

by Ashley Patek

Research has shown that dance has social-emotional benefits. When we communicate with our bodies, we are not expected to make sense of things. We just move, and this movement taps into deeper, more primal feelings. Read more.

Is Rushing Academics Detrimental To The Developing Brain?

by Ashley Patek

How do children best learn, and what happens when academics are the focus of pre-school and kindergarten? This study gives us some pretty telling answers.

One Mama Realizes: My Child's Feelings Are About Her, Not Me

by Ashley Patek

I had done everything right, and yet my nine-year-old daughter was having her version of a tantrum. And then I realized her emotion wasn't about me ... it was about her. Here is how I helped her process her emotions.

I Am Not An Angry Mom. I'm An Overwhelmed, Single Mom. Now What?

by Ashley Patek

Being able to take a break is a privilege. Having mental health resources is a privilege. Having options is a privilege. Not all of us have it. So what do we do when there is no one to pass the baton to?