Key EQ Skills for Preschoolers age 2-5 Taught in the First Video

Our first video has four color segments, Chili Pepper Red, Fern Green, Pure White and True Brown below are the key themes within each of those segments.

NOW, YOU have help in teaching your child the skills of character, cooperation and confidence!

And - they'll have fun doing so!

Main EQ themes in Chili Pepper Red: Empathy, Self-confidence Listening to Others

Empathy: The awareness of others feelings, needs and concerns. Empathy is a key component to compassion, understanding and caring about others. In Dr. Bruce Perry’s work (See section A) “The six core strengths that children need to be humane.” Empathy would be directly connected to Affiliation/Being a Friend, Self-Regulation and Awareness.

Empathy, is directly correlated to Social Competence. For children to move from “Me” to “We” they need empathy.

Self-Confidence: Knowing “how to be” in the world and feeling, “I can do this.” When children learn how to ask another child to “Come on let’s play” or to defuse a difficult time with “Be good, be kind be nice.” they’re developing a respect for their own ability to know how to be in the world, how to handle life - in other words to participate in life, instead of life being something that “happens” to them.

Listening to Others: “I Believe in Me!”™ is “About Us”. There’s no “We” or “Us” unless we learn the self skills… listening to others is a self skill, a life skill, where we consciously listen – hear what others are saying, needing and sharing. In Chili Pepper Red you’ll hear the line, “Listening to others instead of a fight”, what a great skill to develop at an early age.

Main EQ themes in Fern Green: Acceptance, Trusting Friends, Telling No Lies, Everyone is unique

Acceptance: Accepting others – tolerance, understanding, reception of others for who they are. Components of acceptance are key concepts in social and personal development. In order to be a friend, to accept others, it also helps to accept and understand one’s own self.

Trusting Friends: Trust involves components of self-regulation on the part of each individual involved. Each person has to be able to maintain a standard of honesty and integrity. For children the basic understanding of trust ress within the other person, will do what they said they would? Trust is desired and needed. When we begin to trust we form relationships and if we learn to trust, we are also going to have to learn to forgive.

 Telling No Lies: Telling the truth goes hand in hand with being accepted, trusting friends and developing relationships. It is knowing the difference between this is true and this is not true. This “really” happened, this did not and this is pretend. Learning to tell the truth early is a major EQ skill or life skill. Children who tell lies cannot be trusted and trust is pertinent to friendship, relationship and it is important for one’s own safety.

 Everyone Is Unique: The more a child learns about their own uniqueness, the more they can learn and accept other’s uniqueness. Social competence has an association with empathy, understanding and accepting others' uniqueness. As children learn to appreciate differences they can also learn to discover similarities.

Main EQ themes in Pure White: Concept of Self, Confidence, Manners, Cozy – Safe – Warm.

Concept of Self: Learning to understand awareness of self – what makes you feel good, what helps you, how do you interrelate with others, what makes up your inner awareness in conjunction with the exterior reality. Learning about self, being able to label your feelings and emotions, express your needs are key EQ skills.

Confidence: What often is called a strong sense of self worth and capabilities. Yet, confidence comes with the knowing you can handle what is going to come your way – how to “be” in the world. Children want to desperately know, “How to act.” What is the thing expected of them – how might they feel comfortable going into an unknown situation. Where to go, what to say… teaching them the basics, helps them to develop and comfort with self, which displays outwardly in what we call confidence.

In "I Believe in Me!" we actually show children ways to interact with others and how to be confident.

Manners: The accepted customs if how we interact and interrelate to those in our society. Learning basics manners will support children in all social functions. Beginning with a simple Please and Thank You, leads to a social self confidence that lends to further discovery of how to be more courteous and can bring ease to uncomfortable situations.

Cozy – Safe – Warm: Three simple words that express a state of being – the human body desires to be at ease, to be comfortable, to feel secure, and to be safe. Children notoriously carry blankets, suck their thumbs, cuddle a teddy bear…they wish to be able to know what helps them to feel cozy, safe and warm. As parents and educators, we should help children learn how to find that which brings them peace – too many adults seek a peaceful state and don’t know how to establish that in their own life, often seeking sources that are more harmful than reassuring of the state they seek.

Main EQ themes in True Brown: Belief in self, Perseverance, Determination, Positive Self Image and Reaching a Goal

Belief in self: Belief in self is paramount to where we head, what we become and what we are willing to attempt. Our whole series is based on children learning to believe in themselves. Imagine if every child who walked out there door in the morning headed to school believed in their ability to live life fully.

Perseverance: The ability to hang in there, stick to the task, be consistent in the pursuit of – all skills that can be the determining factor to accomplishment. Too many people give up right before the magic point of completion. Persistence is the key to completion – once truly learned many realize they can finish almost anything they set out to do.

Determination: Where does that strength of mind and heart come from? The ultimate question many parents agonize over, why doesn’t my child have the fortitude, the will power to be determined? We know that children learn through observation, interaction and participation – let’s show them children being determined – let’s help them recognize the times they were determined and they managed to complete the task, accomplish the goal and get something done.

Positive Self-Image: The only person any of us will live with our whole entire life is our self. Too many adults have a poor self image, that image did not serve them well. When we have a poor or low image of self we expect others to constantly lift us up, to encourage us…imagine if every child grew up having a positive self-image and the ability to lift themselves up from within! The distance between, “I can do this!” and “I can’t” is a chasm that sometimes is too hard to climb out of – we wish to teach children early on the empowerment of a positive self-image.

Reaching a Goal: “I did it!” To know and be familiar with one’s capability to get the task done. We are all born with the capacity to be creative, to think, to dream, to desire…the magic of EQ is that when one utilizes the emotion, with the thought, with the words in one’s head and the words voiced aloud – then one is more apt to take action – taking “action” allows a goal to be reached – reaching a goal allows the belief in self to happen, the perseverance to kick in again, the determination to flow and a positive self- image to develop – it’s a cycle: Belief, Persevere, Be Determined, Develop Self-Image, Reach the Goal!