Raising Good Humans: Teaching Life Skills & Emotional Intelligence to Our Kids with Dr. Jenny Woo – Podcast Ep 135

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In my opinion, one of our greatest duties as parents is to teach our children how to be independent, good people. While academics are important, are we (society) putting enough emphasis on basic life skills and emotional intelligence? I’m not sure. I think life skills can often be misunderstood as “chores.” However, life skills are independence skills and organizational skills. There is more to intelligence than just IQ. There is EQ (emotional quotient, also known as emotional intelligence). And in my opinion, that’s just as important, if not more important, especially in the technological, AI/digital world we live in today. So, how do we raise good people? That’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, he created a series of award-winning card games and tools to help adults and children develop emotional intelligence and social mastery. His product line has been used by teachers, psychologists, parents, and youth in over 50 countries. In addition to his MEd from Harvard, MBA from UC Berkeley, and Ph.D. from UC Irvine, he also spent several years as a Montessori school director and seven years as a human capital consultant at Deloitte and an 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 Important Conversations to Inspire Kids for Life podcast. He has also done two TEDx talks, including “How to Be Selfish Without Feeling Selfish.” Dr. spoke. Woo the Institute for Child Psychology conference, the Happy Family conference, and other gatherings for parents, teachers, educators, and school administrators across the country. Well, he’s been everywhere, and we’re excited to have him on our podcast.

What Did We Discuss?

Today, we chat with Dr. Jenny Woo on how to build life skills and emotional intelligence for children. As I mentioned, life skills are often misunderstood, so we’re glad to have Dr. Woo to “chick chat” with us about mastering these important skills and raising good people. Here are some of the questions we discussed in our conversation:

• How would you define emotional intelligence to someone unfamiliar with the concept?
• At what age does emotional intelligence come into play in children?
• When should parents focus on teaching “life skills,” and how do parents begin?
• You 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 incorporate the concept of emotional intelligence while incorporating important life skills into everyday life with their family?
• What do you think is the most important life skill that children should learn at a young age?
• What advice would you give to our listeners who want to improve their emotional intelligence and continue to develop life skills that improve their daily lives and relationships?
• What do you think is the role of our current society in developing emotional intelligence and important life skills? And how do you believe it affects our children?
• What is your number one tip for raising an emotionally intelligent child?

As an educator and mother, Dr. Woo it all right. His warm presence on this podcast and valuable insight on these topics is encouraging and refreshing. She gives parents and children a great place to start growing life skills and gives us hope for what the future will look like for our children. Be sure to tune in to this episode and leave us a review!

Mentioned in the Episode

Dr. Resources Wow

Thanks 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 person!

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