Little Kids, Big Hearts

Grandparents, or older friends and family members, can play pivotal roles in children's lives, acting as caregivers, mentors, and friends. Whether grandparents live in a child’s neighborhood or far away, the love and emotional support they provide can significantly contribute to the healthy social and emotional growth of their grandchildren. In this episode, Todd interviews his own 96-year-ol...

Last week, we released an episode about BOUNDARIES — the limits and rules we set for ourselves within relationships. Today, we're excited to release a bonus interview with the guest stars of the episode, Ana Cruz Kayne and Michael Cruz Kayne. Ana and Michael are siblings in real life ... so they know A LOT about the topic of boundaries.  Ana is an actress and writer, known for her performance...

Helping children establish boundaries is important for developing friendships and maintaining positive social interactions. Boundaries help people set limits for themselves and honor limits set by others. In "Boundaries," three eight- and nine-year-old kids (Olivia, Izzy, and Wynter) define and discuss boundaries and help Qook-a-leekie and Link-a-deedle friends learn the importance of bo...

In "Hopes & Dreams," three kids (Levi, Christine, and Ariel) reflect on the new things we have learned, the friendships we have formed, and the challenges we have faced in the past year — and what we are excited to learn and do in the year ahead. The children also discuss the concept of "letting go" of the feelings and experiences that we don't wish to carry with us in...

On last week's episode, we explored "Belonging" — being who you are and being accepted and embraced for who you are. In this special bonus interview, we continue to explore this idea. Little Kids, Big Hearts host Todd Loyd interviews hip-hop pioneer Darryl "DMC" McDaniels, an American rapper and founding member of Run DMC. In addition to winning many awards and being induc...

Belonging — being who you are and being accepted and embraced for who you are — is important for children and for all people. In this episode four kids (Providence, River, Valencia, and Yonatan) discuss what it means to belong — and how to grow feelings of belonging. The kids and Todd then go on an imaginary journey to the Land of Qook-a-lackas, where they meet with a Qook-a-lacka named Quinnie, w...

On last week's episode, "Imagination Time!," we flexed our imagination muscles with three kids — Shaelan, Sameia and Hunter. After recording, our host — Todd Loyd — was lucky to explore the power of imagination with Antoinette Portis, the award winning author/illustrator of "Not a Box" and many other modern classics in children's picture books.  This conversation with...

Using our imaginations might seem like a basic part of childhood, but imagination plays an important role in childhood and in life: it builds creativity and independence, social and problem-solving skills, teamwork and empathy.  In this episode — the first in Season 3! — three kids (Shaelan, Sameia and Hunter) discuss the power of imagination with host Todd Loyd. Then they journey together to the...

In honor of World Mental Health Day , we wanted to share the visualization and song that Quinlan shared in the Land of Qook-a-lackas during our August episode, "The Key to Calming Down." Research shows that techniques like what we practiced in the Land help to promote mental health, and we wanted to share this special visualization so that your family can use it to feel calm, safe, and p...

Little Kids, Big Hearts just became a finalist in the Signal Awards! Before Oct. 5, you — OUR LISTENERS — can do us a BIG (and big hearted ❤️) favor by voting for us in the Signal Listener's Choice Awards. It's easy: Just click here and vote for Little Kids, Big Hearts. We're honored to be picked from 1000s of podcasts to be a finalist — and to be in such amazing company! The episod...

In "The Key to Calming Down," three kids (Charlie, Katrina, and Sienna) join Todd to share tips and tricks they use to calm down — which come in handy when they're experiencing big feelings. The kids and Todd then take a journey to the Land of Qook-a-lakcas to visit Todd's friend Quinlan who invited the group to become the first humans ever to attend Camp Quinder-Calm! The role...

In "Moving Time," three kids with significant experience moving from country to country and home to home — Aurelia, Cris, and Henry — join host Todd Loyd to discuss their moves and to share some of the feelings they had before, during, and after moving. The kids and Todd then go on a journey to the Land of Qook-a-lackas to help a Qook-a-lacka friend, Kahmar, who's worried about how...

In "Winning & Losing," three kids who know a lot about winning and losing — Aiden (a chess player), Eliza (a soccer player), and Willa (a gymnast) — join host Todd Loyd to discuss winning and losing and to go on a journey to the Land of Qook-a-lackas to help a qook-a-leekie, Quinby, rethink a recent run of quibble losses.  The role of Quinby is played by Bridget Regan, an actor and p...

In this episode, four seven- and eight-year-old kids ( Evelyn, Ella, Chelsea, and Eliot) join Todd to discuss their best fur-riends: their pets! How do we care for our pets? How do pets make us feel? What do we learn from our pets? They then go on a journey to the Land of Qook-a-lackas, where they help a Qook-a-leekie, Quillion, who has lost their pet Quigley.  The role of Quillion is played by As...

In our episode "Celebrating Our Differences," Todd joined with Makeda Mays Green to chat about identity, belonging, and race with four big-hearted kids.  After the episode recording, Makeda and her colleague Dr. Colleen Russo Johnson stuck around to talk about their research and the resulting guide for families that inspired the episode. In this bonus episode interview, Makeda (SVP, Digi...

In this episode, six- and seven-year-old kids of different races/ethnicities (Elliott, Finley, Landon, and Sky) join Todd and a special friend, Makeda Mays Green, to discuss identity, belonging, race, and racism. They share their observations and experiences — and then go on a journey to the Land of Qook-a-lackas, where they advise a Qook-a-leekie, Qwee-co, whose friends have been excluded from a...

In this episode, three kids (Lauren, Esther, and Sam) join Todd to explore the feeling of anger — what it is, how it makes us feel, and what we can do about it! They share their experiences with anger and go on a journey to the Land of Qook-a-lackas where they advise a Qook-a-leekie, Kainaz, who is feeling very ... ANGRY. The roles of Kainaz is played by Marjan Neshat, an Iranian-born, American ac...

There’s a good chance that a sibling relationship will last longer than most other relationships in life. Many times, siblings can help children to define what they value and look for in other relationships. Siblings can also help each other to develop self-regulation and emotional understanding as they grow up together. All relationships will have some conflict, and this can promote growth ... bu...

This weekend, Little Kids, Big Hearts recorded a new episode about one feeling that ALL of us have — anger! The guest Qook-a-leekie in our episode was played by a friend, Marjan Neshat, an amazing actress who has recently been channeling her own anger by amplifying the voices of people in her home country of  Iran. After recording the episode, Marjan stayed on for a one-on-one conversation about h...

In this special fictional episode we learn how one small act of kindness can spread through a whole community. The story is the origin story of gummy bears in the Land of Qook-a-Lackas. But it is also about community and inclusiveness! Every single person in a community plays an important role and has the power to help others. In this episode, LKBH Host, Todd Loyd, reads the parts of Kenley (a par...

When was the last time you tried something new? Was it hard? Was it scary? Was it fun? Trying new things can take us outside of our comfort zones and into places of uncertainty, which can be a bit scary ... for kids AND grown-ups. Trying new things requires a certain level of confidence that most people are not born with — we have to work at it!  In this episode of Little Kids, Big Hearts, Todd ta...

We all have dreams and nightmares, but they remain mysterious to most of us: Where do they come from? Why do we have them? How do they make us feel? How do we cope with the bad ones? In this episode, three of our friends — Isla, James, and Riya — share their dreams and nightmares, and then we meet up to go on an adventure to the Land of Qook-a-Lackas to visit DreamFest (a special Qook-a-Lacka drea...

As we put together season two of the Little Kids, Big Hearts podcast, we're looking for kids who have big questions and big ideas about the topics we KNOW are on little kids’ minds. If you have a child — aged 4 to 10 — who has a lot to say about trying new things, sibling relationships, family traditions, or experiencing loss, we’d LOVE to connect! Please email us: podcast@playsparkler.org to...

The team at Little Kids, Big Hearts wrote this special fictional story, The Dragon Among Us, for our friends at Stories Podcast. They initially published it on their podcast feed, and we're sharing it here on our feed with their permission.  In The Dragon Among Us, we visit the Land of Qook-a-Lackas and meet some of the magical creatures who live there. We'll follow along as Crayton (a d...

Each neighborhood, family, and child is unique, but there is so much that we share — and so much that kids across the world can do together to connect across oceans and borders! In Part II of our global citizenship episode, Marcus from Japan, Gaurav from India, Ella from Australia, Nils Jr. from Norway/USA, Eva from Venezuela, Sophia from England, and Lucy and Emaline from Scotland take an imagina...