Emotional Intelligence for Kids {What you’ve been waiting to hear}

“This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and EQtainment, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia  #Qsracetothetop http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV”

I first learned about emotional intelligence when my husband came home from work talking about it a few years ago. They had pulled him and his peers into a conference with an expert on emotional intelligence in the workplace. I was fascinated. And all that he learned (and then taught me) gave me vocabulary to describe behaviors (or lack of behaviors) I was seeing from my children. Emotional Intelligence is all about being able to understand/monitor your own emotions, be able to clue in to the emotions of other people, and able to change your behaviors using all that the emotional information.

Emotional intelligence (EQ) is kind of a a big deal. And learning how to be more emotionally intelligent is really as important as learning math and reading, but many of us, myself included, don’t understand how to teach our children about it. 

When I first heard about the Q’s Race to the Top Game that was developed to teach EQ, I thought “finally!” Sofia Dickens, a former educational TV host, wanted to develop a fun, easy, and accessible way for children to learn EQ, so that it isn’t just taught in fancy classes like my husbands! And I’m all about it. Please go learn more about the kickstarter campaign to get this game launched HERE.

I was so anxious to get our hands on that game that since it arrived while we were on vacation, we played it the day we got home as a reward to the kids for helping unpack. The kids started fighting over which color piece they could be and it was like a sign dropping from the sky was saying: “we need this game”! After we worked out the color issue, we started playing the game. Luckily, the directions are so simple it was really quick to get started.

I left the book by the game box and Isabelle naturally picked it up and started reading it while we gathered. This picture is not posed! The book is a precious story about the precocious and hilarious Q (the monkey).

The game is all about getting the monkey Q to the top. You role a dice and then pick the color card of the square you land on. There are three different colored cards. The blue ones ask self-reflective questions, the green ones asks questions about helping Q in different situations, and the red ones are activities that get everyone laughing and loosened up.

Cougar is a little too young to play, but he really enjoyed watching the rest of us act crazy and have fun. He was pretty sure he nailed the “wheelbarrow” move.

The book was so fun my older girls read it again before bed. Again, this picture was not posed, I just caught them reading it like this! Such a cute book!

When I took my daughter out for some alone time together last week, I brought the blue set of cards along. I told her I’d like to just do a couple, because I didn’t know if she’d like reading the cards while we ate dinner. But, the conversations generated were so awesome she kept asking me to grab more cards from my purse!

I want my kids to succeed in life, which requires emotional and social skills, probably even more than it requires memorizing a bunch of facts! It makes sense to spend time working on those skills too. What better way than with a game, so the kids want to learn about it?!

I’ve already told all my friends they need to buy this game, so now I’m telling you too!

Go HERE to learn about this Kickstarter campaign and how to make sure you can get your hands on this game!

Sounds good, right?! Did you pledge in the kickstarter?

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