Helping Your Child Feel Safe, Strong and Connected
Parenting young children is both rewarding and challenging. There are times when you feel joyful and grateful and can’t imagine life without them, and times when you feel exhausted and hopeless and wonder what life would be like without them.
If you are here, it is likely you care deeply about your child’s wellbeing. You might also feel unsure, tired, hopeful, curious, or overwhelmed. All of that is completely normal.
Sparky and Shady is a gentle, practical wellbeing program for children aged 3 – 8, and for the grownups who love them. It helps families understand what’s happening beneath behaviour and respond with calm, confidence and connection.
When Behaviour Gets Tricky
Behaviour is communication.
When young children are overwhelmed, tired, anxious, or disconnected, their behaviour changes. Most of the time, they’re not purposely being difficult – their nervous system is under stress.
Sparky and Shady gives families a simple, child friendly way to understand what’s happening inside and what to do next.
Why Families Choose Sparky and Shady
For children
Gives children language for what’s happening inside them.
Supports emotional regulation without shaming or punishment.
For parents and carers
Helps parents stay calmer and more confident in tricky moments.
Reduces self-doubt about parenting decisions.
Made for Connection
Reduces power struggles.
Helps families work together to solve problems.
Builds skills for healthy relationships.
Meet Sparky and Shady
Sparky
Sparky represents the calm, loving, wise part of us.
It’s the part that helps us feel safe, connected, and able to think clearly.
Research in psychology and neuroscience shows that connection, compassion, and calm nervous system states support learning, behaviour, and wellbeing. This is what Sparky helps children access.
Children often experience Sparky as a feeling of warmth, reassurance, or “everything’s going to be okay”. When Sparky is present, children are more able to listen, learn, recover after mistakes, and solve problems calmly.
Shady
Shady represents the protective, reactive part of us.
It’s driven by stress, fear, overwhelm, or unmet needs.
Shady can show up as:
tantrums, yelling, crying, hitting, pushing, kicking, pinching, shutting down, refusing, running away, and “I don’t care” behaviour.
Shady isn’t bad. Shady is trying to keep us safe.
Children rarely choose Shady on purpose — it’s an automatic stress response. While children are in Shady, they can’t “think their way out” of it, they need calm and connection first.
When Big Feelings Show Up
Sparky and Shady explains behaviour and shows you what to do in the moment.
Families learn a clear, repeatable response for tricky situations:
Safety – Boundary – Connection – Support
- Safety
Help everyone be physically and emotionally safe. - Boundary
Calmly name the limit.
“It is okay to be angry, it is not okay to hit.” - Connection
Regulate yourself first.
Bring calm, and connect with your child. - Support
Help your child’s body and emotions settle, then problem solve and repair.
This approach helps children move out of Shady (stress response) and back to Sparky (calm, connected, able to think). Over time, children begin to recognise these patterns themselves and strengthen their emotional regulation skills.
What's Included
You’ll receive 12 months access to the Families program which includes five core lessons and nine short videos, plus practical tools you can return to again and again.
Each lesson includes:
- Short, child friendly videos (easy to watch together).
- A story to help children understand the idea through imagination.
- Printable summary and strategy posters.
- Grownup Notes (the “why”)
- Tricky Tips for Grownups (the “how”, with real life examples)
Morning, daytime and bedtime audio meditations to support calm, confidence and sleep.
The Five Lessons
1. Connect with Sparky
Meet the loving, brave and kind part of you. Sparky helps you make wise choices.
2. Train Shady
Get to know the protective part of you. Learn how to train Shady when Shady overreacts or gets too loud.
3. Look After Your Body
When you feel bad your body might need something. Are you hungry? Thirsty? Tired?
4. Feel Your Feelings
It’s human to feel bad. You can learn to handle your BIG feelings in kind ways with help.
5. Love Yourself
You are the only you in the whole wide world! Learn how to speak kindly to yourself and be your own best friend.
How It Works
There’s no “right” way or pace.
Some families do one lesson a week. Others move more slowly, revisit lessons, or dip in when they need support. Learning Sparky and Shady is a lot like learning to swim, it takes time and consistency. The program is designed to be revisited, repeated, and gently applied in everyday life.
You can:
- watch the videos together
- talk about what comes up
- read or watch the story
- display the posters
- practise the strategies in real moments
This program works through repetition, familiarity, and loving consistency — not pressure or perfection.
$440 - 12 months access
14-Day Guarantee
If Sparky and Shady doesn’t feel right for your family, contact us within 14 days and we’ll happily refund your purchase.
Testimonial
“The earlier we develop emotional intelligence and awareness in our children, the less mental health issues they will experience in later life. I highly recommend ‘Sparky and Shady’ to all parents looking for strategies to build resilience in their young children.”
Dr Nicola Holmes
GP Specialising in Mental Health