povi :: the connected storytelling buddy

As a mom of three young kids, rarely do we have a moment of silence during the day. It seems like someone is always eager to tell me a story about something that happened that day. But, despite their stories upon stories, I often find it can be hard for them to talk about their feelings.

For example, my preschool son will tell me about how a friend dumped sand on his head today at school (in great detail) but, when I ask how that made him feel, he’ll reply, “sandy”.  Ok, I guess that makes sense but I want to know how it made him feel emotionally. Did he get upset? How did he respond to the situation? Of course he just moves on to the next story. I can tell he’s upset about what happened and was mad at his friend. He’s struggling with being mad at his friend and not wanting to be mad at his friend. It’s tough! Emotions can be confusing!

That is why I was really intrigued when a colleague told me about Povi.

Povi, created by a fellow mom, helps kids ages 3-8 work through emotional responses through this interactive storytelling platform.

Basically, this adorable plush Povi Buddy works with an app on your smartphone to download stories to the Povi Buddy. Then the app provides follow-up questions to help the parent guide the conversation and help the child work through emotional responses to the story. The really cool thing about this system is that it is customizable to your child’s age and interest based on feedback you, as the parent, provide in the app.

And…this may be the best part in my opinion — this isn’t a toy you just hand to your child and walk away. It’s something you use WITH your child. It’s a fun way for you and your child to engage together while having conversations about how they would respond to a situation in the story or how that would make them feel. Possibly even leading to further conversations about things that happened to them and how that made them feel.

It’s all about promoting healthy emotional intelligence.

The best way for you to get a really good idea of what Povi does and can do is to visit their Kickstarter page. There you can see a really great video about Povi and hear how it was developed and their plans to bring it to market.

The Povi Kickstarter campaign starts today and not only gives you the opportunity to help bring an amazing (and needed) product to kids but you can also snag one of the very first Povi buddies and app at an amazing introductory price — saving 40% on the future off-the-shelf pricing!

Learn more about Povi and their plans by visiting Povi.me or by following them on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

This post is part of a sponsored campaign for Povi. I received compensation for my participation, but my opinions are my own.