Online SEL for The Classroom – New Social Emotional Learning Curriculum Launches

Character Ed Solutions is a New Jersey-based education company. We recently announced the launch of a new online social emotional learning curriculum and character education project. Enrollment is now available to local schools, families, and communities across the United States. We have plans to expand internationally in the near future. Our motto is "Building a better tomorrow by building stronger kids today!"

We believe that our new online SEL program will quickly be adopted by local school districts across the country due to its easy online access, ease of implementation in the classroom, and the included lesson plans and other teacher resources we provide. One of the biggest benefits for the schools we work with is the fact that there is no need for extensive teacher training because only limited guidance is required for the students to navigate through the virtual lessons. Our dream is that these guided online tutorials will enable a larger portion of the country's (and soon the world's) budding youth to gain access to, and benefit from, early exposure to social emotional learning and develop better social emotional skills as they grow.

Character Ed Solutions got its start when our founder, children's book author (The "Miss Kate" series), and award-winning educator Lori “Buck” Buckland realized there was a growing need for an engaging and interactive social emotional learning and character education program. She knew that a big key was creating something that required little to no parent or teacher training. The plan was to create a program that would not only provide a fun and effective SEL education for young children, it also needed to be simple for teachers to administer in the classroom. She took her three-plus decades of experience and her degrees from Penn State University in Health and Physical Education, Special Education Teacher certification from Kean University, Master’s degree from the University of Phoenix in Supervision and Administration, and a master’s plus 30 credits in curriculum development and she set to work on creating a brand new SEL curriculum.

Her dedication and passion ultimately produced a very amazing social and emotional learning curriculum called Kayleigh's High Fives. It stars Kayleigh, a cute little rescue pup that is based on Buck's own fluffy little rescue pup of the same name. The program currently boasts nearly two hundred SEL activities and lessons including online drag & drops, songs, craft projects that incorporate the related arts, journaling, motivation, and more.

The core curriculum is specialized for elementary school children, but we also have a curriculum of social emotional activities for preschoolers as well. All the virtual lessons are meant to enhance the teaching of each of the 5 competencies of social emotional learning which are: self-awareness, empathy, positive communication skills (including both assertiveness and cooperation), problem-solving skills (both interpersonal and intrapersonal) as well as relationship-building skills. They also give the children an introduction to mindfulness practice which can help kids focus on their emotions, regulate their stress responses, and control how they respond to both positive and negative experiences.

In studies that were conducted to measure the impact of social and emotional learning curricula in schools and their impact on academic achievement, it was shown that there is a significant positive correlation between social emotional learning and academic performance.

It's also generally accepted that children who have character strengths are more likely to be successful in life overall. Character strength refers to the positive aspects of a person's personality or the qualities that make people stronger community members.

Buck Buckland says, "Everyone involved in the company truly believes in the long term value of character education and social emotional learning starting as young as Pre-K right up through Elementary school. The ultimate goal is to create positive change in our communities by helping children develop their character and social emotional skills to improve their lives while simultaneously providing them with activities and resources for self-improvement and self-awareness."

She went on to say, "Self-awareness is simply the ability to recognize your feelings as they occur. Self-awareness includes understanding your positive emotions such as happiness, but also your negative emotions such as anger, frustration, and sadness. Self-awareness also means being able to recognize the emotions of others around you. Kayleigh's High Fives teaches self-awareness, as well as helping kids find ways to manage their feelings in a positive way."

Buck or "Buckie" as she is sometimes affectionately known also established The Good Deed Initiative which is an individual and community-based project that inspires good deeds through collaboration and friendly competition. She also personally designed a good deed goal tracker, good deed bracelets, and colorful character stickers. Each item is meant to drive and inspire "Good Deed Challenge" participants to compete against one another while at the same time getting them to work together to accomplish the larger goal of doing good deeds in their families, communities, and schools.

Finally, Buckie developed a fitness program to round out the Character Ed Solutions offerings. It is a brilliant program consisting of more than one hundred eighty specialized video workout routines designed to be done in a 3' x 3’-foot space. It is called "Fit To Be Me". It is a valuable additional resource for teachers. They can use it to give students a brain break or movement break in the classroom. Parents at home can use the program to give their child a "wake up" moment or even a cool down.

We urge all local school districts, private schools, families, and community groups to take a closer look and seriously consider implementing Kayleigh's High Fives program immediately. The benefits of SEL for kids has been clearly shown and we hope that our goal at Character Ed Solutions to connect families, communities, and schools and to create the perfect environment for youngsters to develop good character and succeed in social emotional learning is realized.