Social Emotional Learning with HeyKiddo Huddle

That Homeschool Family is a participant in a variety of programs including the Amazon Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Purchases made from links on this website may result in That Homeschool Family receiving a monetary payment at no extra cost to you. For more details, please see our Privacy Policy.

This is a sponsored post. I have received complimentary access to this product and have been compensated for my time reviewing the product and producing this review. I have not been influenced in any way and my opinions on this product are my own.

When it comes to teaching my kids, I especially enjoy doing social emotional learning activities with them. Equally as important as the core content subjects, if not more important, social emotional skills are invaluable skills for kids. These skills will benefit practically every aspect of their lives, for the rest of their lives!

Before I was a homeschooling parent, I was a special education teacher. I’ve taught kids in pre-school through 8th grade and some of my favorite lessons to teach them…ALL of them…were social emotional learning lessons. I firmly believe that there is no person too young or old that cannot benefit, in one way or another, from building upon their social and emotional skills. These are the skills that stay with us, and benefit us, for a lifetime.

I have inadvertently taught my kids the social & emotional skills they have up until recently. It’s just happened in our daily lives and as a result of various actions. Even though social emotional learning lessons were a part of my lesson plans as a teacher, as a busy homeschooling parent, I just didn’t think to give it as prominent a position in our daily homeschool curriculum. With my introduction to HeyKiddo Huddle, though, that has changed!

My kids and I have incorporated the HeyKiddo Huddle curriculum into our homeschool days and we’ve been loving it.

What is HeyKiddo Huddle?

In a nutshell, HeyKiddo Huddle is a comprehensive social emotional curriculum for busy parents like you and me. Helping to build skills like self-awareness, mindfulness, positive mindset, empathy, critical thinking, resilience and so much more, the lessons learned in HeyKiddo Huddle will literally last a lifetime. Membership based, this curriculum requires no prep (my favorite kind of lessons!) and you can jump right into it no matter the age of your kids.

The HeyKiddo curriculum was designed to be completed in 1 school year, with 1 lesson per week. Because this curriculum is super flexible, each lesson can be completed in one day or even spread throughout your week. There is no set time minimum (or limit) per lesson either, so you can spend as much time on it as you’d like.

Each lesson is comprised of a conversation-based activity as well as a hands-on & creative activity and, if I’m being totally honest, I completely love that I can consider a HeyKiddo Huddle lesson to be both a social emotional lesson AND an art lesson in one. #twobirdsonestone

In addition to the resources that come with the paid membership, HeyKiddo also has a library of free resources! These resources have already proven to be helpful in our homeschool days. To view them, just visit the HeyKiddo Huddle website and click on “resources.”

Just in case you’re “all about the apps,” HeyKiddo is even developing a new app called the “HeyKiddo Talk App.” This app will allow users to take their HeyKiddo membership to the next level. More details, and the waitlist, can be found here.

Why Teach Social Emotional Skills?

In my lifetime, I have come in contact with many people in all walks of life and I can honestly tell you that a person’s social emotional skills can make or break a friendship…business agreement…you name it. If a person isn’t typically nice, I’m not interested in being friends with them. If a potential business client isn’t respectful, I’ll tend to consider it more trouble that it’s worth. You could even say I’m practicing self-respect by not letting myself be taken advantage of and I think that’s a pretty powerful lesson that kids should have the opportunity to learn early on.

I enjoy social emotional learning lessons with my kids because it’s my hope that, because of these lessons, they’ll be confident in their abilities, respect themselves and others, and be all-around awesome & contributing members of society. I’m assuming most parents want the same for their kids, too, but…how are our kids supposed to learn those skills?!

By using HeyKiddo Huddle with my kids, I know they are being exposed to lifelong skills that can benefit them for the rest of their lives. They’re learning how to deal with various potential individuals and experiences in their lives, how to be the best versions of themselves, and realizing how important meaningful interactions can be!

Plus, I have to admit that having the intentional conversations with my kids is just as good for the soul as it is for learning new skills.

How we use this SEL Curriciulum

In the time that we’ve introduced HeyKiddo Huddle to our homeschool “agenda” (my Nana always said the word “agenda,” just in case you were wondering), I’ve already seen emotional growth in my kids. They’re more confident, they’re standing up for themselves (in a good way!) and they’re more respectful of the way they interact with each other and others. They’ve really enjoyed the lessons and will actually remind me that “HeyKiddo Day” is coming up!

In our homeschool, we’ve been incorporating HeyKiddo Huddle lessons into our Monday activities. Yes, I’ve mentioned before that we tend to do “Fun Friday” and one would think that social emotional learning lessons would work better for the end of the week, but…what we’re doing seems to be working well!

On Monday, the boys will get their “regular” academic assignments complete and then we’ll finish off our day with our HeyKiddo Huddle lesson. I’ll open up the laptop, log in, and head right to the “curriculum” section to start working on our next lesson. After we talk through the discussion topics, we’ll do the suggested hands-on creative project.

Because we’ve chosen to do these social emotional learning activities, I’m able to extend the activities and continue the conversations for the rest of the week. If we had decided to do these lessons on a Friday, I’m pretty sure our brains would be more “checked out” than they typically are on a Monday. Just some (brain) food for thought!

I also love that using this HeyKiddo program is super user-friendly and is easy to do. I don’t need to plan ahead for anything and I totally appreciate that HeyKiddo Huddle is so easy for busy parents.

If you have any questions about the HeyKiddo Huddle program, please leave a comment! We’ll definitely continue using this curriculum in our homeschool lessons and I’m happy to help and share my experiences about this curriculum. Definitely consider entering the giveaway above and/or taking advantage of the special membership savings mentioned in the article, too!

Until next time, stay safe and enjoy quality time with your family,