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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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Three Ways To Love A Bully

by Ashley Patek

What would happen if we taught our children to empathize with the "bully"? Here are three ways to love the person who is bullying.

Teaching The Whole Learner: School Spotlight on Bloom360

by Ashley Patek

Bloom360 Learning Community, a nonprofit school in southeastern Wisconsin for Learners ages 5 to 21 with neurodiverse needs, based their entire 2019/20 school year curriculum themes around the PeaceMakers themes of Power, Joy, Balance, Love, Peace, Intuition, and Forgiveness, and the outcomes are inspiring.

Our Kids Are Listening Even When They Don't Seem Like It

by Ashley Patek

I was starting to lose hope that my three-year-old was actually absorbing anything when I talked to him about emotions or attempted to elicit empathy after he hit or kicked another in a fit of rage. But then this happened, and I realized he had been listening after all.

An Open Letter To My Child's Teacher

by Ashley Patek

For months, every morning, I sent my child off to school to be in your care. I entrusted you with my heart as he walked into your classroom. I handed him off to you, woman to woman, knowing that for the next several hours, it would be you that he looked up to, watched, and absorbed. Now, here we are, in this unusual time of staying home. He no longer takes a seat in your classroom, yet he is still in your class.

Parenting Toddlers, Tweens, and Teens Using Time-Ins

by Ashley Patek

Crystal is a mama with a household of toddlers, tweens, and teens where uncontrollable sobbing and outbursts were a daily occurrence, and not just from her three-year-old.

Peaceful Parenting Tips: How To Do Time-Ins

by Ashley Patek

This video is for anyone who has ever struggled with parenting (all of us), for those who are working to respond to their children instead of reacting to their behaviors, and anyone who wants to raise emotionally healthy humans but isn't sure where to start.

Virtual Calming Corner Teaches Kids About Emotions Playfully

by Ashley Patek

How do we teach social-emotional learning (SEL) to our children?

Why Using A Behavior Chart Is Ineffective

by Ashley Patek

Before you decide to add to or continue using behavioral management charts, let's take a closer look at the undesirable side-effects. Read more.

This Twist on a Classic Teaches Children Loving Limits and Boundaries

by Ashley Patek

While some may say that The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein is a tale of selfless love, others find the story actually sends a much different message --- one of co-dependency.

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.

Children Need Less Academics and More Social-Emotional Learning in the Classroom

by Ashley Patek

Starting school or starting a new school year can be stressful at the best of times, let alone during a global pandemic.

Social Distancing Impact on Children

by Ashley Patek

We share parents' top concerns and frustrations about their children’s behaviors during this time of staying home, and tools for navigating regression and other stress responses.

The Day My Son Told Me "Mad is Bad"

by Ashley Patek

When our children believe that unpleasant emotions are "bad", they become unsafe to feel those emotions. However all emotions are sacred and useful. Here's why. Read more.

A mother kneels and holds her young child’s hands against a colorful abstract background.

How To Make A DIY Calming Corner

by Alex Petrou

After a failed DIY Pinterest-inspired Calming Corner, this mama turned to Generation Mindful's Time-In-Toolkit to save her time, money, and sanity while creating a space for her tantruming three-year-old to explore her feelings.

Social-Emotional Learning Starts At Home

by Ashley Patek

Students who are self-aware and able to understand their emotions have a greater ability to relate to others, make decisions, and excel academically. Here is how to help your child develop social-emotional skills at home.

The ABCs and 123s of Emotional Intelligence

by Suzanne Tucker

Today I'm sharing two social-emotional skill-building activities I wish EVERY child and every adult in the world knew. These two skills make up the ABCs and 123s of emotional intelligence. They are free, simple, easy, and dare I say, even fun to practice. In the following 18-minute video, I walk you through these skill-building activities for building emotional intelligence in your home or early childhood classroom. This video is for parents and educators, and it can be shared with tweens and teens as well! Tune in and learn: What are the three skill sets that lead to higher emotional intelligence in children and adults? What are two ways children can practice these skills on a daily basis? How do these practices help us manage things like depression and anxiety with toddlers, teens, and right on into adulthood? Thank you for learning more about Generation Mindful's mission to raise an emotionally healthy world. If you believe every child deserves to learn about their emotions, join our 1M+ online community of parents and educators from around the world who are making it safe for kids to feel. And check out these additional articles: 5 Ways To Nurture Emotional Intelligence For Kids 10 Simple Mindfulness Activities For Kids To Build Emotional Intelligence Emotional Intelligence is More Than Naming Emotions Teach Children How to Regulate Emotions Using A Calming Space Classroom Time-In ToolKit® Bundle GENM's social-emotional learning (SEL) tools take a positive, relationship-based approach to nurturing emotional intelligence in the classroom. Our ... View Product Positive Parenting Mood Meter model to learn time-in-toolkit emotional regulation emotions social emotional skills Time-In ToolKit emotional intelligence

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.

Montessori Parenting Techniques for Teaching Emotional Intelligence

by Guest Author

What is so special about the montessori parenting style? Learn how Montessori parenting can instill emotional intelligence in your children.

Play Is More Than Just Fun at Philadelphia's Children's Museum

by Ashley Patek

In collaboration with Generation Mindful, Philadelphia's Please Touch Children's Museum takes a bold step forward in creating a world where all children are able to exercise creativity, compassion, confidence, and social-emotional skills as it opens its new exhibit XOXO: The Exhibit About Love And Forgiveness.

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?