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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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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.

6 Meaningful Christmas Gifts

by Ashley Patek

Rather than storing unwanted toys in the closet, this year give the children on your list meaningful memories instead. Here are six connection-based gift ideas for ages two and up that we love for the holidays.

3 Effective Ways to Create a Peaceful Home Life

by Rebecca Eanes

Want to create a home with less yelling, power struggles, and chaos - a home that has more peace? Then these are your three ingredients.

Time-In ToolKit Helps Mom Realize: My Son's Behavior Is Normal And Healthy

by Guest Author

This mom feared something was wrong with her three-year-old child. And then she realized that his behavior was a sign of healthy brain development.

5 Therapeutic Art Activities for Emotional Health

by Rebecca Eanes

Art can help your child release and express feelings they may not know how to process and let go of otherwise. Use these 5 art activities to navigate loss, stress and transitions and to nurture emotional intelligence such as managing big emotions.

The Harm Of Forcing Manners On Our Children (And What To Do Instead)

by Ashley Patek

If we want to step away from punitive measures and towards a deep understanding of manners, and an internal motivation to practice them, it stops with “say the magic word” or “say you are sorry” or “what do you say???” And it starts with these 5 tools.

Foster Families Are Making It Safe For Kids to Feel

by Alex Petrou

One foster family shares how they are managing emotions on a daily basis in raising their five children.

Positive Communication with Kids at Every Age

by Rebecca Eanes

These positive communication tips will create a family culture where children and adults alike are spoken to with respect and listened to with love. Children live what they learn at home, and all of their future relationships will benefit from having learned these important and positive skills early in life.

Mom Of Two Advocates For Her Neurodiverse Daughters

by Ashley Patek

Natasha is a mama of two neurodiverse daughters and she has one big focus: teaching her girls social-emotional skills, not only to help them express themselves but to advocate for themselves.

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.

8 Ways To De-escalate Meltdowns With Your Child

by Ashley Patek

Teens and toddlers alike can demonstrate aggressive or uncooperative behaviors from time to time as influenced by big emotions and neurological overwhelm. De-escalation tools help parents defuse a situation and help their child calm and regulate their system.

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.

Attachment is Not a Reward. It’s a Lifeline.

by Rebecca Eanes

In using a time-in, my boys learned valuable skills they would never have learned by sitting in a corner. Did this produce perfect children? No. But this did produce securely attached children who no longer had to make desperate bids for the attachment they so instinctively desired. Read more.

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.

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.

Helping Teens Cope with Holiday Stress

by Rebecca Eanes

As our children grow up and the pure wonder and excitement of the holidays wane, adolescents often experience an uptick in stress and anxiety during the holiday season. What can parents do?

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.

Breaking Multi-Generational Shame Cycles

by Ashley Patek

No one is born ashamed. It is a learned, self-conscious emotion. And, often, it is multi-generational. If we aren't aware of our own tendencies to shame, we won't notice when they get triggered. We'll just act them out onto our children, passing shame down to the next generation. This is how we break the cycle.

Behavior is A Symptom, Not The Problem

by Ashley Patek

Behavior is a symptom, not the problem. And when we focus solely on the symptom, the problems causing these behaviors remain unsolved, and they stack up. So, how do we transform challenging behaviors at home and in the classroom?