Co-founders Roni Nocon, MA, LPCC and Amy Sage, MA, MS, NCC have been school counselors for the past 15 years.
Over the course of their careers they have seen a decrease in children’s overall well-being and an increase in depression, anxiety, self-harm and negative self-worth. They found that a child’s emotional health is greatly impacted by something they have no influence over in the schools - the family environment.
This discovery sparked their research into how they can teach children the social-emotional skills that research has shown are necessary to improve the family’s overall emotional well-being. As parents first and counselors second, they developed a passion for creating positive parenting activities and tools to teach their own families emotional intelligence skills.
Once they realized that they can have a broader impact by reaching beyond the school walls, they’ve continued to brainstorm strategies and techniques to build emotional intelligence which will have a positive impact on the whole family. That is how their idea for a subscription box was born!
After years of creating classroom lessons, and countless hours of thought and research, Amy and Roni decided to structure ParentingEQ around the concepts of: read, play, practice, and tools.
In each activity kit, parents will receive tools that promote positive parenting and develop their child’s emotional intelligence through:
Reading books with children stimulates their imagination and expands their understanding of the world. It helps them develop language and listening skills, and prepares them to understand the written word. Reading helps your child’s communication and social skills develop.
Play is fun and can trigger the release of endorphins, the body's natural feel-good chemicals. Endorphins promote an overall sense of well-being, can reduce stress, and increase our creativity. Through play and positive parenting you have an opportunity to see things from their perspective, explore their environment, and build problem solving skills.
When we engage children in practice and reflection, we encourage children to go beyond merely repeating what they've done. We help them become aware of what they learned, what was interesting, how they feel about it, and what they can continue using for their own benefit. These positive parenting approaches will build skills that last a lifetime.
Each box will include “tools” to add to your family toolkit. Internal tools are those we have with us all the time such as our breath, positive thinking, pausing and counting to three, etc.. External tools are objects or activities that help us access our internal tools such as fidget toys, yoga, or meditative coloring. These tools will encourage your child to manage their feelings.