Your blog category
Welcome back to our “begin to ECSEL School Stories” blog series, where we address common challenges that early childhood educators face on their journey to support children’s emotional, cognitive, and social development. Our last two installments focused on how to support children in learning and practicing important social-emotional skills like empathy and inclusion, and how to […]
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, a month where we raise awareness about the importance of mental health and ways to support mental well-being. At Housman Institute, emotional well-being and mental health are central to all of our efforts. In my last blog post, we took a look at a New York Times article that explored chronic absenteeism […]
Welcome to the third installment of “begin to ECSEL School Stories,” the blog series where we address common challenges that early childhood educators face on their journey to support children’s emotional, cognitive, and social development. Last time, we explored the important role that early childhood educators play in modeling, guiding, and teaching foundational social-emotional skills to […]
The New York Times1 recently explored chronic absenteeism in K–12 students since the pandemic, finding it has spiked and delving into the reasons and statistics. Alarmingly, many of the children have stayed home due to anxiety, other mental health issues, illnesses other than COVID, and to support their families, among other reasons. A Texas mother shared […]
Introduction: The Importance of Early Childhood Educators Welcome to the second installment of “begin to ECSEL School Stories,” our latest blog series where we explore common challenges that early childhood educators face on their journey to support children’s emotional, cognitive, and social development. Early childhood teachers are tasked with one of the most important jobs in […]
Emotional Intelligence Day is recognized on June 6th to promote the importance of nurturing self-awareness, empathy, and effective communication. Here at Housman Institute, we’re dedicated to promoting the building blocks of emotional intelligence all day, every day. We believe that educators and parents should be equipped with the tools they need to support children’s emotions in […]
Imagine a school where children, even children under eight, showed each other empathy, and resolved their conflicts with conflict resolution skills and by sharing and taking turns, rather than using physical violence or mean words. It’s possible! Through helping children learn to understand the why behind actions, they can become empowered to solve their problems […]
“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” – Nelson Mandela Children are […]
Introduction: Challenges in Early Childhood Education Early childhood is foundational to one’s development. These years shape the people that children will become – our future generation. Early childhood educators and leaders have one of the most important yet difficult jobs. They are tasked with meeting the unique needs of each individual child, guiding children on […]
Each year we think in earnest about how to become our better selves when traversing questions having to do with our bodies, our minds, and our souls. Whether it be about weight, knowledge, spiritual engagement or our relating and relationships. But what about our emotions – the instrumental force driving our thinking, our behavior, and […]
We often talk about how children develop within the context of relationships and that they thrive when surrounded by responsive and empathic caregivers and educators. However, we all know that knowing is one thing–doing is another. We all get distracted and, at times, bogged down by the hustle and bustle of life and the obligations we must fulfill. […]
Holiday season is expected to be the most joyous time of the year–filled with laughter and cherished moments. Let’s take the ‘h’ in “holiday” and consider what feelings we think of during this time. We typically think of happiness as the first emotional response when contemplating the holiday season. Other positive ‘h’ feelings we think […]
The mind of a child is an amazing thing. During the first three years of life, their brains develop rapidly, creating 1 million new neural connections per second 1. It is during this sensitive period that positive emotionally intelligent experiences lay the foundation for future growth and learning. And what is one of the best ways to […]
I recently spoke with Dr. Melissa Rampelli who writes for Psychology Today about the importance of bibliotherapy, or “the use of books as a form of treatment,” to improve emotional well being and mental health in children’s development. Melissa had seen Housman Institute’s work and cited the necessity of causal talk, conversations about emotions between adults and children, […]
In classrooms nationally, we are seeing extreme rates of teacher stress and burnout, children navigating anxiety and trauma, behavioral issues, conflicts with peers, and a significant decrease in empathy and prosocial skills. Teachers feel unable to manage their own heightened emotions let alone redirect children’s behaviors or support their big feelings. What all these pieces […]
Recently, we’ve seen an alarming report from the CDC that in 2022 that the United States reached a record number of suicides at more than 46,000 lives lost to suicide. The rate of suicides increased between 2011 and 2021 among 10- to 24-year-olds by 60%. It’s clear that we remain in a mental health crisis, and […]
