Keep Emotional Intelligence Growing All Summer: A Guide for Educators to Support Families Beyond the School Year
Summer is here! School is out, summer programs and camps are underway, and routines are shifting for children, families, and educators everywhere. That’s why the summer is the perfect time to support families in continuing to nurture children’s emotional intelligence skills. We’ve created this guide to foster the home-school connection and keep children’s emotional intelligence […]
Big Feelings, Big Hearts: The Pros and Cons of Being a Highly Sensitive Parent
I recently shared with Good Housekeeping my thoughts on the pros and cons of being a highly sensitive parent. We so often talk about managing our own emotions before we can model and guide children through theirs that it can be easy to forget that for some highly sensitive adults, it can be more difficult than for […]
Developing Content, Successful Children Starts with Us – Not Them
What do we want most for our children? We want them to be content, successful in learning and in life, and become the best versions of themselves through the growth of character and moral development. To support our children in developing a positive sense of self, the ability to be caring, compassionate and empathetic with […]
Lack of Agency Creates Young Adults Underprepared for Life
A recent New York Times article1 began with emphasizing how important it is to give children the opportunity to take initiative, problem-solve and build resilience by pointing out how underprepared young adults are for succeeding in life given: “Many recent (high school) graduates aren’t able to set targets, take initiative, figure things out and deal with setbacks — because […]
Embracing Emotional Wellness Month: A Top-Down Approach for School Leaders
National Emotional Wellness Month is upon us once more, and not a moment too soon. This month marks a time where we can look inward, reflect on our stress levels, and make necessary changes to collectively improve our mental health and emotional well-being. With my years of experience as a clinical psychologist and founder of […]
A begin to ECSEL School Story – Part IV: Effectively Communicating Our Own Feelings to Children
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 […]
This Mental Health Awareness Month, Let’s Focus on Connection
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 […]
A begin to ECSEL School Story – Part III: Turning Exclusion into Empathy
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 […]
Absenteeism and Behavioral Issues Are Only a Few Effects of Emotional Dysregulation
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 […]
Celebrating Emotional Intelligence Everyday
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 […]
Bringing in 2024 by Navigating the Path to Becoming our Better Selves Through Emotional Intelligence
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 […]
Off to School We Go – With a House of Support and Confidence
It is back-to-school season, and stuffed inside all those new backpacks and lunchboxes are lots of jitters and emotions, especially as we send off our littlest learners for the very first time. Our so-called “Covid Generation,” children born right before or during the pandemic, are carrying all the usual excitement, worries, and questions; however, they […]
The Magic of a Great Early Childhood Educator
What makes for good teaching? And what makes a teacher great? Liz Willen posed those questions in a recent Hechinger newsletter as she highlighted Jill Barshay’s article Proof Points-The Paradox of Good Teaching in which Barshay acknowledged that “deciding what constitutes good teaching is a messy business.” No doubt that it is, but I’m sure we can all […]
The Power of Reflective Practice in Early Childhood Education – Part II: An Educator’s Journey
Welcome back! In our first installment on the power of Reflective Practice, we explored the importance of self-reflection and emotional awareness for ourselves as educators, and how Reflective Practice can be utilized within any education community to benefit everyone: teachers, supervisors, and mentors, families, and of course, children. Now, let’s take a look at an […]
Stop the Cycle of Struggling in Silence and Ignoring Your Emotions
As we close out Mental Health Awareness Month, we find ourselves at a critical point in the state of mental health for young and old around the globe. We were seeing an alarming rise in rates of depression, anxiety, toxic stress, and suicide for all ages. The past two tumultuous years have impacted every corner […]
The Power of Reflective Practice in Early Childhood Education – Part I: Helping Caregivers Tap Into Their Best Selves
Reflective Practice ensures that all members working in the educational community get the opportunity to communicate their self-reflections about how their work, their role, their actions, and their words impact others—and how they, in turn, are impacted by their work. ~ Dr. Donna Housman, Founder & CEO of Housman Institute In an article for Edutopia, […]