This week, Dr. Whitney chats with Slumberkins founders and CEOs, Callie Christensen and Kelly Oriard about their leading children’s educational brand that is on a mission to promote early emotional learning. They talk through educators and parents teaming up to create the best environment for kiddos to thrive with their skills they’re learning. Lastly, they talk about how feelings are real and valid, but are not permanent and don’t change anything about us as humans.

Key takeaways:

• Callie Christensen and Kelly Oriard are Co-Founders/CEOs of Slumberkins, a company focused on teaching children social and emotional skills through stories and characters. They were former educators who saw a gap in education for parents on how to help their kiddos who were struggling with their emotional health and created a leading children’s educational brand with a mission to promote early emotional learning.

• They’re getting their programs into schools as a proactive approach so teachers don’t have to continually focus on behaviors. It helps to address behaviors, but if you can get to the root of the cause before the behavior even presents itself, you’ll be miles ahead in helping to influence that behavior and coach that student through the situation they’re struggling in. So it starts in the home but now is able to be in schools to support teachers as well.

• When educators take on social and emotional training for kids, it normalizes it. It makes it commonplace, so that when it needs to be addressed at home, it’s something children are already familiar with–which takes some of the brunt of moms having to deal with the entirety of their kids’ emotional health. Anytime there’s another adult reinforcing something parents are teaching their kids, it makes it much easier on the parents to continually talk about it.

• One large skill that children (and moms!) can learn is that feelings are a part of us, but they don’t change who we are. Just like a mom can be mad or frustrated with a child doesn’t mean that they have anything but undying love for them. That’s the same way a child can feel anxious in a situation, but they are still a strong, resilient, wonderful kiddo. 

• Similarly, moms can feel that if their child is having a hard time or having big feelings means that they’re a bad mom or something is wrong with them. Feelings are just messages for you to be curious about. Who you are and who you always will be is “good,” regardless of your feelings.

About Slumberkins

Slumberkins is a leading educational children’s brand – founded by a family therapist and educator – promoting early emotional learning in an approachable way. Through a variety of interactive channels our characters are brought to life as teaching devices, while brand products are the tools that create comfort and support learning. Our company strives to enrich lives by bringing children and caregivers together to create a deeper bond.

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