HeyKiddo Social Emotional Curriculum for Elementary School

I am always looking for ways to talk to my kids about their emotions and to help them develop positive relationships and healthy identities. But, I’m not always sure how to start the conversation about these skills, or how to explain things in a way that my kids will understand. That’s why when I discovered HeyKiddo Huddle, I knew the program would be a great fit for my family. Here’s what you need to know about this exciting social emotional curriculum for elementary school, and how to get started using HeyKiddo in your homeschool.

I received compensation and access to HeyKiddo Huddle in exchange for my honest review, but all the opinions in this post are my own. This post may contain affiliate links and I may earn a small commission for purchases made through those links.

What is HeyKiddo?

HeyKiddo is a complete 36-week curriculum for kids in elementary and middle school grade levels, ages 5-12. The curriculum includes resources and lesson plans designed to help parents teach Social Emotional Learning, or SEL skills to their kids at home.

The curriculum includes several different resources that are designed to set parents up for success with this social-emotional learning curriculum.

HeyKiddo Huddle

The main social and emotional curriculum in HeyKiddo is the HeyKiddo Huddle. This is a 36-week long curriculum, designed to take an entire school year to complete. The home school program is created for kids ages 5-12.

HeyKiddo Talk

This is a companion coaching program for parents created by HeyKiddo. HeyKiddo Talk sends helpful text messages directly to parents. This helps parents learn best practices in helping our kids develop supportive relationships, dealing with tricky topics, and preparing our kids for life success.

I love the text messages I am receiving from HeyKiddo Talk. They are really practical, often include specific phrases to ask or questions to say to start conversations with my kids.

HeyKiddo Talk helps me feel more confident that I will know what to say to my kids about current events, or things they might be struggling with. And all of this happens right from the convenience of my phone!

HeyKiddo Talk received funding from the National Science Foundation to turn this coaching program into an app for parents. You can join the waitlist to get early access to the app as soon as it is released.

Join the waitlist for the HeyKiddo Talk App here.

Why is Social Emotional Learning important?

Social-emotional learning programs (SEL) are an integral part of education for kids. By learning and practicing social-emotional skills, kids learn to become more resilient and improve their self-esteem.

Effective SEL programs help parents create a positive learning environment that sets kids up for academic success. In addition, when kids focus on their emotional development, this sets them up for success in their life as independent adults and for success in their future careers.

SEL Competencies and CASEL

The main categories of Social Emotional Learning programs were developed by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). This group identified five core social and emotional competencies (called the CASEL 5) that are important for young people to practice and that are included in high-quality SEL programs like HeyKiddo.

Self-Awareness: This includes awareness of the whole child, as well as helping your child recognize the strengths and specific skills that make them unique. Kids who develop self-awareness will be more self-confident as well.

Self-Management: This includes practicing awareness, gratitude, and stress reduction techniques, so kids can choose a positive action, even when feeling a negative emotion. Kids who are practicing self-management skills learn to develop coping strategies for dealing with emotions like anger in a controlled way.

Responsible Decision Making: Practicing responsible decision-making means building a multi-tiered system of supports to help kids with problem solving and conflict resolution skills, so they can make positive choices and learn from conflicts. Supportive environments will help kids be able to create positive outcomes for the challenges they face.

Social Awareness: This means developing the social skills to be able to practice empathy and see situations from someone else’s point of view. SEL activities can help kids understand the social behavior of others, which will improve their socialization and interactions overall.

Relationship Skills: This includes communication skills like making eye contact or practicing mutual respect for other people. SEL instruction helps students of all ages learn to communicate better with others.

The HeyKiddo Huddle curriculum includes SEL lessons centered on each of the Social Emotional Learning Competencies.

Getting Started with HeyKiddo Social Emotional Curriculum

As a busy homeschool parent, I love how easy it is to use the HeyKiddo Huddle curriculum. All the resources are organized in a parent dashboard. It was easy for me to find all the resources I needed to complete the each day’s lesson with my kids.

The HeyKiddo Huddle curriculum is divided up into several different parts.

Conversation Starters

These are my favorite part of HeyKiddo! Each week of the curriculum comes with five conversation starter questions. The questions get kids thinking about an important topic that will help them practice critical thinking skills, improve their academic performance, or get positive results in their relationships.

I love that each of the conversation starters takes just 15 minutes to complete. I was able to have some great discussions with my kids throughout the day when I was intentional to ask the questions.

As a teacher, the format of the questions was helpful as well. Each question included notes about what kinds of responses kids might have to the questions. Many of the questions offered tips about how to get kids to think more deeply about the topic, or how to help them process their answers. And, each question ends with some suggestions about what to say back to kids. This helped me to encourage my kids and create a safe space for them to share their thoughts openly.

Creative Activity

Each week’s lesson plan also includes a creative activity, to be completed at some point during the week.

Although the creative activities are optional, my kids really enjoyed them and said that they were the best part of the HeyKiddo Huddle curriculum. My kids always love doing crafts, so this was a highlight for them every week.

I really appreciated that as they worked on the crafts, we were able to have some great discussions together about the week’s topics.

I love how each activity was directly related to the skills my kids were learning that week. We used the creative activities in our homeschool on Mondays, as an introduction to the concepts. This was the perfect way to get my kids thinking about the topics. It helped them to be able to understand some pretty abstract concepts more fully, too.

Adaptations

I love that each week’s lesson plan in HeyKiddo Huddle includes adaptations to help parents personalize the curriculum for their own children. The adaptations are great for families who want to use the curriculum together for multiple ages. They are also helpful for kids who are struggling with a concept and need a little extra help.

Learn more about how to use HeyKiddo with these HeyKiddo FAQs.

HeyKiddo Features for Teaching Social Emotional Skills

Designed for Families

I love that HeyKiddo was created for homeschoolers, and has many features that make it perfect for families who are learning together.

My kids are 3 years apart in age, and so sometimes it can be hard to find a curriculum that will work for them both at the same time. HeyKiddo Huddle made this easy with the “special adaptations” section included in each week’s lesson plans.

This section included specific, practical tips for how to meet kids where they are at, no matter their age level. This is perfect for homeschool parents with multiple kids like me!

Makes Connections

The conversation starter questions in HeyKiddo Huddle really got my kids thinking about important topics that matter in their lives. I had deep conversations with my son about his strengths and weaknesses, what makes him unique, how he handles his emotions, and more as we worked through the curriculum together.

It can be hard to bring up these topics to discuss. I was so grateful to have an opportunity to talk about such important topics with my son. I feel we have grown closer, and I have learned a lot about my son while using HeyKiddo Huddle!

Critical Thinking Skills

I love the way HeyKiddo Huddle encouraged my kids to think more deeply about themselves. The conversation starter questions were perfect for digging below the surface and getting my kids to really think about themselves and how they think and act in different situations.

I know that this new level of self awareness my kids are developing will serve them later in life, and in their future careers.

Expert Support

Parenting can be hard, and there are many times when I wish I could ask an expert what to do in a difficult situation. HeyKiddo was created by a team of expert psychologists and educators. I love the confidence that comes from knowing I can get advice from the experts when I’m not sure what to say to my child.

This curriculum is so helpful in figuring out what to say in those challenging times.

Learn more about the experts who created HeyKiddo here!

Easy to Use

HeyKiddo Huddle is the perfect curriculum for busy homeschool families. I love that I could just open the parent dashboard and find the day’s conversation starter at a glance. Even the creative activities required very minimal prep from me. They also used common supplies that we already had in our home.

I am always looking for homeschool resources that are easy to prep, and HeyKiddo definitely fits that bill.

Perfect for Busy Families

It can be hard for us to commit to adding anything extra to an already full homeschool day. But, HeyKiddo is clearly designed with busy families like mine in mind.

I love that the conversation starter questions take just 15 minutes and require no extra supplies to complete. I spend a lot of time in the car with my kids driving them to and from activities. The conversation starter questions were perfect to talk about while we were in the car together.

I printed the questions for the week and put them in the car, so I had them to refer to at a glance when I needed a reminder. HeyKiddo Huddle helped us make the most of that time in the car together, by being able to have discussions about important SEL topics.

Fun Activities

As a former public school teacher, I know that many kids (mine included) learn best when they’re doing hands-on activities. Their brains are more engaged in what they are learning. This helps them to be able to learn better and remember more. The Creative Activities in the HeyKiddo Huddle curriculum were perfect for my kids.

My kids were so excited to be able to draw, make a collage, or even have a snack to help them learn more about the Social Emotional Learning topics. And, the activities were the perfect introduction to the week’s conversation starter questions. My kids often referred back to the activities throughout the week as we discussed the related conversation starters.

Resource Library

The hidden gem in HeyKiddo is definitely the resource library. The library includes articles about a variety of topics like helping kids handle the pandemic, dealing with grief, what to do if your kids are acting out, how to handle a child who is afraid of the dark, and much more.

I love the peace of mind that comes with having a resource library like this one at my fingertips. If my kids are struggling with a topic and I’m not sure how to respond, I can turn to HeyKiddo and find an answer instantly from a team of experts.

Check out examples of the kinds of resources HeyKiddo offers for parents on the HeyKiddo blog.

Progress Tracker and Reports

HeyKiddo even comes with a progress tracker, where you create custom reports to keep track of your child’s progress through the curriculum at a glance.

Affordable for Homeschool Families

Sign up now for major discounts on HeyKiddo’s award-winning products to help fortify your child’s mental, social and emotional wellbeing. Right now, HeyKiddo is offering 20% off all annual subscriptions and 10% off all monthly subscriptions. Just use the promo code HKIHN when signing up. This offer ends on June 20, 2022. 

Check out HeyKiddo’s pricing and sign up now to try HeyKiddo with your family!

HeyKiddo Social Emotional Curriculum for Elementary School

My kids really enjoyed using HeyKiddo Huddle in our homeschool, and I loved the extra support I received from HeyKiddo Talk. I would definitely recommend HeyKiddo to anyone who is looking to add more social emotional learning support for their kids.