For Children Ages 3-6+
The Sunshine Secret™ turns developing mental and emotional well-being into a joyful adventure. With an abundance of interactive activities that cover art, music, and science, Sunshine Secret makes learning self-awareness and self-regulation fun!
Winner of Omni Award (Bronze)
2018 Communicators Award (Gold & Silver)
2018 Horizon Interactive Award (Silver)
The Sunshine Secret™ turns developing mental and emotional well-being into a joyful adventure. With an abundance of interactive activities that cover art, music, and science, Sunshine Secret makes learning self-awareness and self-regulation fun!
“Bringing Learning to Life”
Teacher & Parent Guides Have Loads of Great Activities
Keeping Kids Engaged
Whether your child watches the entire Sunshine Secret story video all at once or one chapter at a time, the support activities for each chapter are essential to the learning process. These will strengthen learning and make the overall experience more engaging and fulfilling.
Interactive Activities
Keep Children’s Attention!
Featuring a variety of interactive activities that are as fun as they are educational, this innovative program gently challenges children. It teaches them important social-emotional skills that will benefit them throughout their childhood, schooling and into adulthood.
Kids Learn Social-Emotional Skills
So Easy to Use…
Sunshine Secret is child friendly, so once an adult logs in, even young children can easily navigate the program themselves.
As children travel through the story of Gloria the glowworm and Leon the Chameleon’s delightful world, they can complete support activities specifically designed to achieve positive emotional outcomes.
Among these are putting together virtual puzzles, coloring exercises with the Sunshine Secret story’s characters and learning emotion vocabulary words.
Hours of Learning and High Re-usability…
Children love practicing the easy-to-learn Heart Shine self-regulation tool. It teaches them how to replace negative emotions such anger or hurt with positive ones like understanding, compassion and hope. Heart Shine is a wonderful way for children to learn that relying on their natural uplifting qualities of the heart can guide them through any situation.
Other interactive activities include
Identifying and matching emotion faces of children to emotion faces of Leon and Gloria.
Promoting positive attitudes and feelings with the Appreciation Board.
Singing along with three wonderful songs to reinforce key program concepts and skills.
Animated videos with fun, age-appropriate science content, including a frog’s life cycle, the sun and more.
Heart-Breathing Pacer, practice a self-guided technique while using a simple tool that helps regulate their breathing.
The Sunshine Secret is an investment in your child’s EQ.
A lot has been written about the importance of emotional intelligence (EQ), and it undoubtedly makes a difference in a child’s connection to their teachers, mentors, and peers as they journey through their eductional track. The Sunshine Secret acquaints children with the importance of their emotional toolkit and how they can use it. It also helps ease and elevate the interactions with their siblings and parents, too!
Pricing
For questions, please contact HeartMath Institute by e-mail at [email protected], or call toll-free at (800) 711-6221 or (831) 338-8500.
Parent
1 Adult and 1 Child
Family
1 Adult and 1-5 Children
Classroom
1 Educator
Multi-Class
3 Educators
Site
8 Educators
District
32 Educators
FAQs
Is The Sunshine Secret aligned with specific early-learning or SEL standards?
The Sunshine Secret teaches core early-childhood social-emotional skills, including recognizing and naming emotions, self-regulation, self-control and positive relationships. These skills overlap with common early-learning and SEL frameworks, such as CASEL’s self-awareness and self-management competencies.. Schools that need a documented crosswalk can contact HeartMath Institute at (800) 711-6221.
How is child progress assessed or tracked in The Sunshine Secret?
Progress in The Sunshine Secret is tracked through completion of the story chapters and their support activities, together with adult observation. Activities such as matching emotion faces, learning emotion vocabulary and practicing the Heart Shine tool let adults see whether a child can recognize emotions and use self-regulation skills
How long does a typical Sunshine Secret activity or session take?
Sessions can be short or long. Children can watch the whole Sunshine Secret story video in one sitting or one chapter at a time, and then complete the support activities for that chapter. For young children, a practical approach is a short session of one chapter plus one or two activities. The program is designed to be reused, so children can repeat favorite activities and practice Heart Shine many times.
What devices and browsers are supported by The Sunshine Secret?
The Sunshine Secret is an online program accessed through the HeartMath Institute eLearning Center in a web browser. It was designed for computer and tablet learning environments, and an adult logs in first so children can navigate on their own. For current technical requirements, contact HeartMath Institute at (800) 711-6221.
Is The Sunshine Secret available in other languages or with accessibility options?
The Sunshine Secret program page does not list other language versions or specific accessibility features. The program already relies on narration, songs, animation and picture-based activities, which help pre-readers. Schools and families that need another language, captions or other accommodations should contact HeartMath Institute at (800) 711-6221 before purchasing to confirm current options.
What research specifically evaluates The Sunshine Secret, and what outcomes were measured?
The Sunshine Secret builds on HeartMath Institute early-childhood research, and its page describes the program as scientifically validated. A related HeartMath Institute preschool curriculum, Early HeartSmarts, was evaluated in a 2012 peer-reviewed study of 19 Salt Lake City preschool classrooms that found significantly greater social-emotional, physical, cognitive and language development than in the control group.
How does The Sunshine Secret differ from HeartSmarts Adventure?
The Sunshine Secret (ages 3–6+) is a story-based e-learning program in which children follow Gloria the glowworm and Leon the chameleon and learn one main tool, Heart Shine. HeartSmarts Adventure (ages 4–7+) is a trauma-informed blended program with a Leader’s Guide, six units, 63 activities and three self-regulation techniques. It also covers how the heart works and healthy habits. Sunshine Secret fits younger children and home use; HeartSmarts Adventure fits structured teaching.