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In my opinion, one of our greatest roles as parents is to teach our children how to be independent, good human beings. While academics are important, are we (society) emphasizing basic life skills and emotional intelligence enough? I’m not sure. I think that life skills can often be misunderstood as “chores.” However, life skills are independence skills and organizational skills. There’s more to intelligence than just IQ. There’s EQ (emotional quotient, also known as emotional intelligence). And in my opinion, that is just as important, if not more important, especially in this technological, AI/digital world we live in today. So, how do we raise good humans? It’s a great question, and we’re chatting about it with our guest today, Dr. Jenny Woo.
Who is Dr. Jenny Woo?
Jenny Woo, MBA, PhD, is a Harvard-trained researcher and educator. As the founder and CEO of Mind Brain Emotion, she has created a series of award-winning card games and tools to help adults and kids build emotional intelligence and social mastery. Her product line has been used by teachers, psychologists, parents, and teens in more than 50 countries. In addition to her MEd from Harvard, MBA from UC Berkeley, and Ph.D. from UC Irvine, she also spent several years as a Montessori school director and seven years as a human capital consultant at Deloitte and executive coach at Cisco Systems. Dr. Woo teaches emotional intelligence at the University of California, Irvine.
Dr. Woo is a two-time TEDx speaker, author, and has been featured in Forbes, Business Insider, Yahoo! Finance, Parents, and The Harvard Gazette.
Dr. Woo is the former host of 52 Essential Conversations to Inspire Children for Life podcast. She has also done two TEDx talks, including “How to Be Self-ish Without Feeling Selfish.” Dr. Woo has spoken at the Institute for Child Psychology conference, the Happy Family conference, and other gatherings for parents, teachers, educators, and school administrators across the country. That’s right, she’s been everywhere, and we’re excited to have her here with us on our podcast.
What Did We Discuss?
Today, we’re chatting with Dr. Jenny Woo about how to build life skills and emotional intelligence for children. As I mentioned, life skills can often be misunderstood, so we are thrilled to have Dr. Woo here to “chick chat” with us about mastering these essential skills and raising good humans. Here are several of the questions that we covered in our conversation:
- How would you define emotional intelligence to someone unfamiliar with the concept?
- At what age does emotional intelligence in children begin to come into play?
- When should parents focus on teaching “life skills,” and how can parents get started?
- You have said that life skills can often be misunderstood as “chores.” Can you elaborate on this and give us more insight into how you would describe life skills?
- What are some simple ways parents can begin to integrate the concept of emotional intelligence while incorporating important life skills into day-to-day life with their family?
- What do you think are the most important life skills children should learn at an early age?
- What advice would you offer our listeners who would like to improve their emotional intelligence and continue developing life skills that improve their day-to-day lives and relationships?
- What role do you think our current society plays in the development of emotional intelligence and essential life skills? And how do you believe this impacts our children?
- What is your number one tip for raising an emotionally intelligent child?
As an educator and mother, Dr. Woo has experienced all of this firsthand. Her warm presence on this podcast and valuable insight on these topics are encouraging and refreshing. She gives parents and kids a great place to start growing life skills and gives us hope for what the future can look like for our children. Be sure to tune into this episode and leave us a review!
Mentioned in the Episode
Dr. Woo’s Resources
Thank you for listening to this episode! Follow us on our podcast Instagram page @thebabychickchat, and let us know what you think and if there are any other topics you’d like us to cover. Cheers to life skills and being a good human!
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