Highlights from Ancano Live Sessions!

by Bryan Odom

We’re so excited about the feedback we’ve been getting on our newest board game, Ancano!

More and more kids and parents are discovering how fun and fulfilling the game can be.

Over the last few months we’ve live-streamed sessions featuring kids playing Ancano with each other and with parents. It’s clear that both kids and parents agree that Ancano is a lot of fun. 

In a July Live Session, Cameron and his Mom played Ancano! Cameron said, “It was amazing.  It taught me how to solve anger problems”. His Mom liked that it helped them talk about ways to work through anger and to learn to problem solve. Cameron’s Mom is actually a teacher and believes that Ancano can be useful for school teachers. She thinks it can help students and staff to talk about how they’re feeling. 

Talking about our feelings is fundamental to social emotional learning (SEL). Educators around the world are now recognizing that SEL is as important to child development and education as traditional subjects like math and history. In our other July Live Session, K’hari played Ancano with his Mom, Sharelle. “This was awesome”, Sharelle said. “It was a lot of fun. K’hari shared some stuff that I’ve never heard him share before”. The sharing that Ancano inspires can lead to stronger parent-child bonds and can help our kids become more empathetic, calmer and more focused. 

In our Live Session at the end of August, Carly and Ziema played Ancano. Their Mom, Karen, commented that “as a Mom it’s a great tool” because normally discussions about how to manage anger and emotions don’t come up. Having these discussions can make a big difference. The issues and trigger-points that lead to tantrums, blow-ups and arguments can often times be addressed by talking about what we’re feeling and how to deal with those feelings. 

The Ancano Kickstarter campaign is now live! And the campaign was just selected as a “Project We Love” by Kickstarter. Learn more about the campaign and become a backer HERE!

‘Everything Board Games’ Really Likes Ancano!

by Bryan Odom

Great news!

Ancano, our newest board game, was recently reviewed by Everything Board Games. For those of you unfamiliar with Everything Board Games, they review board games and card games. They also do giveaways and offer special deals on games. Reviewer Jazz Paladin gave the game a really positive review. 

Here are some of the highlights:

• Ancano is great for emotional and behavioral growth. Ancano builds social emotional skills, which can improve academic performance and can help develop self-control. Jazz commented that “Ancano is very much akin to classical cognitive approaches to learning and behavior—getting us to recognize and proactively deal with emotions that can leave us feeling depleted at the end of our day if we do not learn to manage them.”

• Ancano is a great tool for counseling children. Many child psychologists and counselors use SEL games when working with children. Tapping into the spirit of play makes the time spent developing behavioral and emotional skills more impactful. Jazz commented that Ancano reminded him of “a lot of resources I have seen at use in the field of psychology . . . so I think anyone involved in counseling children could probably benefit from it.”

• Children think Ancano is fun! Jazz noted that his daughter came to him the day after they played the game to tell him that “she loved playing it last night , and that she wants to do it again soon”. He concluded his review stating that “we all had fun, and it was a great bonding experience that we do not get from just any game that is out there.”

Jazz also compliments the game’s production quality and notes that its appearance and design is superior to classic board game, Candy Land. 

Thanks to Everything Board Games and Jazz Paladin for their review. We’re big fans of their site and are honored to have Ancano appear on it. 

You can read the full review of Ancano here! 

Our Kickstarter is now live! Kickstarter recently named our campaign as a “Project We Love”! Click here to become a backer!

Highlights From Lan Lan’s Talk with Katherine Sellery

by Bryan Odom

Recently Lan Lan spoke with parenting coach, Katherine Sellery. Katherine is the CEO and Founder of the Conscious Parenting Revolution and co-creator of the Guidance Approach to Parenting. She’s given TED Talks on three different occasions, most recently appearing at TEDxCWRU in November 2019. 

Lan Lan and Katherine talked about more effective ways to communicate and relate to our children. There were some fascinating insights that came from the conversations:

• When our kids say “No” to us, they’re really saying “Yes” to something inside themselves. Katherine pointed out that parents have a tendency to only react to their child saying “no” to them. In reality, the child isn’t so much defying what their parent wants but is stating a strong preference for something that matters to them. Katherine says that it’s “about that ability to listen to what they’re saying yes to . . . and getting curious about what they’re saying yes to.”

• Once we train our kids to be obedient and compliant, they begin to lose their ability to judge others’ intentions. Katherine advised that we want our kids to develop a strong sense of who has their best interest at heart (and who doesn’t). When we teach them to simply accept what they’re being told and not to oppose ideas they disagree with, it keeps them from developing that ability to read other people.

• Look at the behavior as a sign of unmet needs. “A traditional parenting model focuses on manipulating the surface behaviors so that children are well behaved”, says Katherine. “Conscious parenting focuses on the underlying unmet needs and going to the source of the behavior.” It is best for us and our kids if we learn to use assertive skills, creative problem solving and learn to listen to the underlying unmet needs.

We were thrilled that Lan Lan and Katherine had the opportunity to sit down and have this conversation. We all learned a great deal from Katherine and believe the entire Lan Lan community can benefit from her wisdom. 

You can see the whole conversation between Lan Lan and Katherine here!

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New! Fun SEL Summer Worksheets!

If you have kids, you know how challenging it is to keep them busy when they’re not in school. It’s been especially tough to keep them from getting bored while many children have been attending school online. Television and YouTube can keep them occupied. But that’s not really what you want: to just keep them occupied. You’d love for them to be doing something where they’re having fun while learning and growing. 

We’re debuting our new SEL Worksheets for Summer!

All of our email subscribers will get a new worksheet sent to them every week for the entire Summer. They’re fun and creative. Children can do the worksheet on their own or work on them together. 

Our worksheets are great for helping kids explore their own thoughts and feelings. They won’t just be killing time. They’ll be developing their fine motor skills and using their own creativity to better understand themselves. They’ll also be improving  their cognitive skills and emotional coping skills. That will lead to better academic performance, fewer behavioral issues and fewer emotional troubles.

Research shows that SEL can be a major positive in a child’s development:

• SEL can help kids become better planners and more comfortable multi-tasking.

• Studies suggest that children involved in SEL will have 10% fewer psychological, behavioral, or substance abuse problems when they reach the age of 25.

• SEL improves children’s attitudes towards school 

No one is born with social-emotional skills. They need to be learned through observation, personal experience or direction. Not all children have the same opportunities to learn these skills at home and our increasingly online world is further limiting those opportunities. That’s why we want to help your kids continue to grow while they’re off this Summer. 

(And you’ll have something to give them when they say they’re bored)

Subscribe to our mailing list below and receive a brand new SEL worksheet every Tuesday. Watch out for more announcements Coming Soon!