An Emotional Intelligence Guide for Educators to Support Families

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 growing all summer long.

Why Focus on Emotional Intelligence?

Summer is a time that so many of us look forward to, with vacations, warm weather, beach visits, and so more to explore. Whether your family has a packed summer schedule or a lot of free time to relax, the transition away from daily structure and routines can be dysregulating, especially for young children.

It’s important to remember that a dysregulated brain cannot learn, and even though school is out, the opportunities for children to continue learning in the summer are endless. A solid foundation of emotional intelligence skills frees up mental space for children to do what they do best: play, learn, and grow. As educators, we can support families this summer by providing them with the tools they need to support children’s emotional intelligence.

5 Tips & Ideas for Promoting Emotional Intelligence This Summer

1. Check in with your feelings each morning. Creating a family feelings board or using tools like Our Emotions Cards can help children identify their own emotions and those of others and connect their feelings to a cause. Checking in each day also normalizes expressing your emotions and builds self-awareness.

2. Visit your local library together and find stories that explore themes like collaboration, social conflicts and resolutions, big feelings, compromise, and friendship.

Build empathy by asking children how they would feel if they were the characters in the story
Identify the different emotions that the characters feel and connect them to facial expressions and body language
Give children agency in problem-solving by asking them questions like:
- “How can we help these characters solve the problem?”
- “What do you think they should do next?”
- “What would you do to help them if you were in the story?”

3. Make time for mindful moments. With different schedules and routines (or lack thereof) in the summer, it's easy to feel overstimulated. Pausing to reconnect with ourselves and the world around us is a great regulation strategy to model for and practice with children at home. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Lay outside on a blanket or towel, close your eyes, and take deep breaths together. Take time to notice the nature around you!
Guide children to close their eyes and gently tap their shoulders, knees, elbows, etc. to ground them and build bodily awareness.
Take a Flower Walk around your neighborhood and practice deep breaths by smelling the flowers and pretending to blow out a candle. Make it a game by prompting children to find flowers of different colors, sizes, and patterns!
Listen to calm music, nature sounds, or bird sounds either while laying down peacefully or gently stretching. Connect with children who have more energy by channeling this calm through movement! Try yoga poses that remind you of different animals, dinosaurs, or make-believe characters and flow through them together.

4. Connect everyday activities back to emotions. No matter what fun activity, experiment, or adventure children explore this summer, there are always opportunities to reflect on the feelings involved to build emotional intelligence and awareness skills. Incorporate these prompts into children’s play or your daily routines to guide their reflection together:

“I saw you share your snack with your brother, and that made him feel so happy! What did you feel when you shared with him?”
“I’m feeling a little scared to go on our adventure. What can we do so I don’t feel so scared?”
- “Do you remember when you felt scared before our trip? What is something that helped you feel better?”
“Hmm, our friends are busy today and can’t play with us. I can see you are frowning and have your arms crossed. What are you feeling?”
- “Sometimes, things don’t work out the way we want them to, and it can make us feel prickly and disappointed. It’s okay to feel this way, and we can always try again another time.”

5. Have a dedicated space for emotion regulation and calm-down tools. We call this a “cozy corner,” and it can be any quiet space in your home that is away from higher traffic areas and includes a variety of tools for children to reach for when their emotions get too big. Make this a family project that everyone contributes to in their own way! Here are some ideas for tools to get you started:

Squishy, plushy toys or a favorite lovey to squeeze and snuggle with
Pillows (for laying down, yelling into, or squeezing as a safe physical expression of big feelings)
Tissues
Calm Down Bottles
Our Emotions Cards, to identify feelings in the heat of the moment when it might be hard to share verbally
Bubbles to practice deep breaths and move through big feelings