One of the things that has become clear during the pandemic is that supporting children’s emotional needs will be critical to a successful return to school. Great Schools has six suggestions for different age ranges on how you can help build up your child’s emotional intelligence at home. Students with high emotional intelligence (often referred to as EQ or Emotional Quotient) have better coping skills and do better in school.

Great Schools breaks the suggestions down by age range for elementary, middle school, and high school ages. While the activities suggested vary by age, the focus of many of them are similar across the age ranges, including:

  • Asking “What if…”
  • Using the experiences in books and movies to discuss why characters are feeling certain emotions and why they behaved certain ways
  • Helping them learn how to deal with anger
  • Allow anyone in the family to request a do-over or second chance when they lose their cool
  • Playing the “maybe” game to help your child put themselves in someone else’s position and build empathy

You’ll find age-appropriate activities for each of these that you can use to help your child build their emotional intelligence. Be sure to check out the suggestions for: