// Happy Heart Kid Giveaway

I'm really excited about today's giveaway because it's for a brand/product that Toby has been using for several months now. Happy Heart Kid is a line of activity kits aimed to children to help teach social emotional learning. With kits such as Empathy, Courage, Patience, and Responsibility (among others), children learn valuable lessons while "playing" with their parents. My personal favorite of all the kits we have is Empathy, but Toby loves the Manners game. Archana, the brains of HHK, got in touch with me several months ago simply asking if Toby would like to receive some of their stuff to play around with. There was no obligation to share the product anywhere, or write about it, etc. She just wanted some honest feedback on how we both felt about it after playing. Toby was instantly hooked and he loved when we'd take time out of our evenings to play. It can be hard to ensure Toby gets as much individual attention as he needs since he's constantly in and out of the house, playing sports and playing with the kids next door. Not to mention the added obstacle of Linden. When we sprawl out in the living room to play, Toby's eyes light up. The most recent kit we played with was Generosity. Toby is really good about being generous, despite not knowing what it was prior. (Last year he regularly took extra ice cream money to give to kids in his class who didn't have any. Proud mom moment!) It gave me the opportunity to teach him something so incredibly valuable. I asked Archana a few questions (below) and then there's a giveaway, too! Whether you have kids yourself or just know someone who does, these kits would make such a lovely gift. They're truly so fantastic.

Hi Archana! We are so tickled to have you with us today to tell us a little bit more about Happy Heart Kid! I’m sure everyone would love to know what inspired you to create this line and how HHK came to life. Care to share?

The idea for Happy Heart Kid was born while I volunteering at a neighborhood children's class. I met my friend Martha there and while we were working with young kids and planning lessons and activities around universal values such as patience, kindness, manners, team work, and more.  As we built relationships with these families, we realized that busy parents were constantly seeking tools to teach these same traits to their kids, and weave meaningful conversations into their everyday lives.  We all tend use situations when we observe bad behavior to react and talk to kids, but what if we made playtime a way to proactively get our kids to start thinking, practicing and talking about their character? Our goal was to create a line of products that used creative art projects and fun games to inspire meaningful playtime. What we realized after speaking with hundreds of parents is that each toy, book or kid product facilitates a certain interaction between parent and children. Just as Legos are about building, we wanted to provide a fun set of activities with the purpose of engaging kids in social and emotional learning through play.

The idea of interactive board games to help teach children a lesson is pretty clever! How did you outline what you could teach and how to approach the topic?

Our games and activities are created by Montessori teachers and mom themselves. I am usually just involved in project managing between the creators, graphic designers, copywriters, illustrators and our craft suppliers. We do a lot of user testing and our goal with these sessions is to make sure the activity is engaging, age appropriate and fun! It is difficult to test for social-emotional or non cognitive skills, but we do keep in mind a few things in mind when developing the product. 

1. Does the project activate learning vocabulary around character building skills e.g. ' learning phrases such as 'Try, Try Again' ?
2. Is it simple enough for parents to engage in talking about values during playtime ?
3. Does the pretend play component extend into a family's daily life as a teachable moment? 

How has HHK grown since it’s creation? Have you noticed parents and children taking a liking to your games?

The experience of launching and growing a business has been incredible for me. While challenging and fraught with many mistakes, HHK has helped me personally grow beyond my comfort zone and growth can be scary but rewarding in the long run. This business has given me the opportunity to connect with so many wonderful teachers and moms who have validated our mission. The best part of our job is to hear customers say things like "my son brought up sharing the felt necklace (from our Generosity Kit) when he shared his animal crackers at his playdate." And we have heard that several iterations of such testimonials,  and that has been heartwarming :)

When you think about the future of HHK, where do you see yourself and your brand? Do you hope to expand the values taught through games? 

We have big dreams to be a leader and innovator in the toy industry. We've seen upward trend of STEM products in our toy stores but there is little to nothing focusing on social emotional learning. While many schools are focused on developing these skills, parents need more tools available at home. We hope that trend for character education sees the same positive change we have witnessed in STEAM education over the last decade. Happy Heart Kid has several new products on additional character traits in the pipeline but are waiting until 2016 for new releases.  We are also approaching retailers this fall in preparation for the holiday season.

If you could give one piece of advice to parents of small children, what would it be?

The best part of my job is learning from moms and hearing their parenting stories. I really don't have any advice for parents other than to be yourself and enjoy the time with your kiddos. Our idea with HHK wasn't ascribe to or be a particular type of parenting philosophy about how to teach your kids values. We are just trying to creates resources for parents to use in whatever way best suits their lifestyle. We want to make it easy and provide a tool which we hope incorporates naturally into their playtime. 

♥  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥ 

Happy Heart Kid is giving one lucky TCL reader $50 to spend on their site. All you have to do is leave a comment below on which kit(s) you'd spend your winnings on!

You can earn additional entries by Following Happy Heart Kid on Instagram and Liking Happy Heart Kid on Facebook. (Just be sure to leave a separate comment for each entry!)

A winner will be chosen at random next weekend and contacted shortly thereafter! Good luck, friends! And happy Friday!

xo KB