Today’s world can be a scary, troubling, and frustrating place for even grownups. Image how our children must feel! However, with children, emotions such as being scared, frustration, anger, etc. along with the physical reactions to them can be confusing. Learning to recognize these feelings and emotions and knowing how to handle them is important in their emotional health and wellbeing. It is especially important as they grow and get ready to begin kindergarten. But, as a parent, what can we do? Read on to learn how The Imagine Neighborhood is helping parents help their kids.
What you may think is a behavioral problem may be they don’t know how to process their emotions and the strange physical feelings they are experiencing thus causing them to act out. If you think about it, even adults have trouble with this. A long frustrating day can make us tired, irritable, and snappy. Suppressed anger and frustration can be our undoing and cause us to be unkind when that is not really who we are. Unfortunately, it happens to the best of us. On the other hand, if we have the skills to better handle and process our emotions it makes it so much easier. It also makes for kinder kids AND adults.
But, how do you even begin to know what your child is thinking or feeling? That is where these fun podcasts from Imagine Neighborhood come in! The podcast gives you an opening in a fun imaginative way to talk with your child and learn what feelings they are having. By sharing The Imagine Neighborhood podcasts (launching in March) with your child, you can gently help them process their feelings and help with social and emotional learning.
What are Imagine Neighborhood Podcasts?
The Imagine Neighborhood podcasts are short story episodes that bring social emotional learning right into your home! You may already listen to podcasts. You may have some podcasts that your kids listen to. But what if the podcast you listen to could help you be a better parent, and help your child be ready for kindergarten?
As you sit with your preschooler listening to a podcast, a story unfolds about a birthday party for a royal dino named Princess Donnasaurus. In another episode, an adventure involves the need to cross a street made of lava! Over the course of the podcast season you both look forward to hearing a tale knowing you’ll have wide grins and even wider eyes as your imagination takes over. And hopefully, your hearts grow bigger with the lessons to be learned with each story. That’s the magic behind The Imagine Neighborhood podcast series coming in March. Discover this enchanting series where Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is learned and kindness becomes contagious at ImagineNeighborhood.org.
Each 15-minute episode uses a story to help describe an important Social Emotional Learning (SEL) skill, such as recognizing and dealing with angry feelings.
Where Can You Find the Podcasts?
The fun-to-listen-to podcast series is free to download, with no advertisements. Grownups can find them on The Imagine Neighborhood podcasts, Spotify, Google Play and Stitcher or anywhere podcasts are found.
Designed for Children and Adults to Listen Together
The Imagine Neighborhood is one of the first podcasts designed for adults and their children to listen to together. It brings important parental lessons into the home and informal learning environments. Episode One’s Count Vacula, debuting on March 16, asks children to ponder being frightened. Does your heart pound? Or does your tummy feel tight? Count Vacula admits he too feels scared sometimes. By the end of the short story youngsters learn how to talk about the sensations being scared creates and how to deal with feeling afraid (especially when their grown-ups leave for work). The interactive prompts guide mom or dad to kick start these important conversations at an age-appropriate level.
Every weekly podcast can be saved for a carpool ride or played while snuggling on the couch. Grownups can turn on and off the podcast as their child responds. With audio stories, children use their imagination to picture the characters, the surroundings of the story and the spontaneous urge to open their eyes wide, giggle or frown!
The Imagine Neighborhood Launch Dates
March 16 Introducing Count Vacula
March 16 The Clouds Are Made of Cake
March 23 Lava Avenue
March 30 Macho Supreme Has An Accident
April 13 Phone Gremlin
April 20 Princess Donnasaurus’ birthday
April 27 Macho Needs an Oven
May 11 Macho’s New Spaceship
May 18 Attack of the Angry Ogre
May 25 Saying Goodbye Can Be Hard
“We knew we had to meet parents where they were. As a single dad working full time, I know this is something every parent can use, and we hope they will feel the same,” said Iseri, the show’s creator and host. “Parenting can be really challenging, and sometimes it can be helpful to have conversations using the context of a fun story. Robots and Dinosaurs can make it easier to talk about the big feelings that happen when you’re growing up.”
My Thoughts
As a parent, there is nothing more important than our children. Their physical health is always a top priority. We make sure they eat nutritious food and get the medical care they need. With that said, I believe their emotional and social health is just as important in helping them make it through life. It comes into play with everything from conquering their own fears to playing with other children. However, as parents, we are sometimes at a loss as to how we can help our kids. This is why I am totally in love with the podcasts from The Imagine Neighborhood!
The Imagine Neighborhood brings the subjects up in a fun delightful way. The short stories offer opportunities to broach the subject of emotional conflicts that may be troubling my kids. I love how it opens an opportunity for me to talk on their level. I guess the best way to put it is, it takes the pressure off. Sometimes asking my child what is bothering them is not very helpful as they aren’t able to put it into words or explain it. The podcasts use robots, dinosaurs, etc. in a fun story they can relate to that helps them express their own feelings. It makes it much easier to talk about what they are feeling or experiencing.
I feel like this is a big step in helping my children grow emotionally and will help them socially now and into their adult lives. I love knowing we now have a dialog that will serve to help my kids grow into kinder more socially grounded adults!
About Committee for Children
Committee for Children is on a mission to ensure children everywhere can thrive emotionally, socially, and academically. Best known for our innovative social-emotional learning (SEL) curricula that blend research and rigor with intuitive program design, we empower children and their adults with skills that help them realize their goals in the classroom and throughout their lives. Our Second Step Curriculum is 35 years old and is used by more than half of U.S. elementary schools. Since 1979, we’ve been connecting experts in the field to share experiences and advance the cause of educating the whole child.
A force in advocacy, we’re helping pass policies and legislation that place importance on creating safe and supportive learning environments. Today, our social-emotional learning and child safety programs reach more than 14 million children in over 70 countries worldwide. By lifting up children today, we’re helping them create a safe and positive society for the future. Learn more at cfchildren.org.
Learn more about Imagine Neighborhood — a podcast where we use our imaginations to talk about the things that matter most, with the people that matter most to us – at www.ImagineNeighborhood.org.
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