Our Top 5 Heart-Mind Online Resources

Our website Heart-Mind Online hosts a collection of evidence-informed resources to help you as an educator, parent, and/or caregiver raise the young people in your life to be kind, compassionate, and well-regulated in heart and mind. With practical strategies, activities, and lesson plans all backed by research on social and emotional learning, resources help you nurture the development of the five positive human qualities of the Heart-Mind Well-Being Framework in children from infancy to adolescence.

Here is a list of 5 of our most popular Heart-Mind Online resources:

1. 10 Exercises for Your Prefrontal Cortex
This is our most popular Heart-Mind Online resource ever! Since we first posted it, it has been viewed over 436,000 times.

The brain has the amazing ability to change and improve itself. Peak brain development occurs in the early years (0-3), and again between the ages of twelve and twenty-four.  We now know that humans also have the ability to continue to improve brain function throughout life. Check out this resource to learn 10 exercises to strengthen the prefrontal cortex, and develop Executive Function abilities!

2. 10 Games to Boost Attention & Focus
Games with rules or a little structure have the added bonus of helping children practice important self-regulation skills such as working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility. This resource offers 10 active games for preschool and elementary school children that start off simply and build in complexity to help them learn to be Alert & Engaged.

3. Scaffolding! 10 Ways to Stimulate Learning Through Play
Scaffolding is a technique that educators and caregivers can use to help children go from “what they know” to “what else they could know”. By modeling a new skill, giving clues and asking questions, adults can instill in children the confidence to expand their abilities. For ideas for key questions to ask children to help “scaffold” their play and learning, check out this resource!

4. Boost Emotional Intelligence with the Mood Meter
The Mood Meter is an evidence-informed tool for building emotional intelligence through self-awareness and self-regulation, that is effective and simple to use for adults and children alike. The four different emotional “zones” help you and the young people in your care to identify how you are feeling, and choose how you will either maintain your emotional state, or move to a more desirable one. This resource introduces the Mood Meter and offers 3 ways to use it.

5. 12 Self-Regulation Strategies for Young Children
We can help the young children in our lives manage challenging feelings by strengthening the Heart-Mind Well-Being quality of "Alert & Engaged". Feeling "Alert & Engaged" is linked to recognizing and naming emotions and self-regulation. While toddlers and preschool aged children are learning to notice their feelings and exercise self-control, the adults in their lives are still essential co-regulators. Check out this resource for 12 strategies to help young children self-regulate!

What kinds of new Heart-Mind Online resources would you like to see? Email your suggestions to us at [email protected]!