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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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We Often Think Our Kids Are Manipulating Us But Are We Manipulating Them?

by Rebecca Eanes

We often feel like our children are manipulating us yet research shows that willful manipulation is a function of higher brain regions that are still extremely underdeveloped in toddlers. Unfortunately, parental manipulation is much more common and used to get our children to listen and comply, which uses their need for attachment against them. Here is what to do instead for more cooperation.

What Co-Regulation Looks Like

by Alex Petrou

A young child is so frustrated and overwhelmed that she just hit her big sister. As the adult responsible for managing this moment, how can you navigate this? Enter co-regulation.

The 12 Things I Now Know As A Mother

by Ashley Patek

Parenthood is the ultimate journey - not only in getting to know our children but in growing (and testing) ourselves, too. I have learned so much in my years of mommin’, and here are just a few. Maybe you can relate, too …

Dear Daughter: A Spoken Word Poem

by Alex Petrou

Grab your tissues. This heartfelt video captures the love and prayers one father carries for his unborn child: "The pain and the pleasure, they are buried treasure. Get your hands dirty..." - Kurt Peloquin

The Gift Of Life And One Mama's Fight For Her Son

by Ashley Patek

A mother's devotion to finding a cure for her son's rare kidney disease and to helping him manage his big feelings along the way.

7 Easy Ways To Have Hard Conversations With Your Child

by Ashley Patek

In having hard conversations with our kids - whether it be their untamed anger as a toddler, their heartbreak as a teen, or their transition from one gender to another - we strengthen our parent-child bond and equip them with resources for how to handle future situations. Here's how to do it.

I Messed Up. Have I Messed Up My Kids?

by Ashley Patek

You know you are a parent if you have ever questioned your qualifications for the job. You may be asking yourself, How do I know I am not messing up my children every time I pitfall into conditioned habits? Whatever your wounding patterns are, these tips can help you embrace your enoughness as a cycle breaker.

5 Steps to Set Intentions (Not Resolutions) That Stick, Plus Free Printables

by Guest Author

If you are in the habit of setting goal based resolutions for the new year that feel more like a “have to” than a “get to”, here are some things to consider: A goal is focused on the future with a specific outcome or external "achievement" in mind whereas intentions are set in the present.

Talking To Our Kids About Death

by Ashley Patek

Death is part of life, yet it can be an uncomfortable topic to discuss, especially with our children. Here are 5 tips for parents when talking to their child about death to support their emotional experience and understanding.

Celebrating The Birth Of A Mother

by Guest Author

Motherhood seemed to come so easy to everyone around me, yet here I was, barely keeping it together. One mom shares how she was re-born after having children.

How to Become a Cycle-Breaking Parent in 4 Steps

by Catherine Liggett

Unlike many of our parents who repressed, denied, ignored, or shamed their own feelings, resulting in abusive explosions and emotional neglect, becoming a cycle breaker means that we commit to FACE-ing our emotions with clarity and deep compassion. Here's how to use FACE (Feel, Amplify, Connect, and Embrace), a 4-step process, to break cycles.

On Peace Tents, Healing the Generations and Motherhood

by Alex Petrou

Every child wants to know, do you see my light even when I’m not shining it?

Allowance And Chores: For Learning Or Earning?

by Ashley Patek

Is allowance a form of bribery and reward to get kids to do their chores, or is it a way to teach our children about money management? We take a look from a positive parenting lens.

When Play Feels Like A Chore

by Ashley Patek

The language of a child is play, but play isn't always easy for adults. Learn why and how parents can overcome these play roadblocks.

5 False Toddler Myths

by Rebecca Eanes

Toddlerhood is a precious time. We do our kids and ourselves a great injustice by assigning negative intent to their developmentally normal behaviors. Instead of going to war, let’s spend these quickly-passing years seeking to understand our little ones and rewrite the narrative on common myths.

10 Simple Mindfulness Activities For Kids To Build Emotional Intelligence

by Ashley Patek

Practicing mindfulness with children nurtures social-emotional skills and builds higher-level functions such as impulse control - the pause between reacting to and responding in the face of big emotions. Here are 10 simple activities you can add in to your day.

Your Child’s Happiness Isn’t Your Job

by Rebecca Eanes

We cannot make our children happy, but we can teach them how to make themselves happy, because ultimately, happiness is an inside job. Here are five tools to help children find their own happiness.

4 Effective Ways To Break The Generational Cycle Of Yelling

by Ashley Patek

I yell. I was yelled at. My guess is, my parents were yelled at too. Poor emotional regulation - and its wounding - has been handed down from one generation to another. Here are 4 effective ways to break the cycle so that our children don't have to carry that shame. It stops with us.

To The Boy That Called My Daughter Ugly

by Brandon Janous

From a dad in our community: "To the boy that called my daughter ugly on the school bus the other day, I have some things to say to you."