The Power of the Family Toolbox
Family Toolbox builds on over 30 years of research-based practice from the Toolbox Project, bringing the same proven 12 Tools framework that has transformed school communities worldwide into the heart of your home. Using an inquiry-based approach, Family Toolbox helps parents and children discover these powerful tools together—not through lectures, but through meaningful conversations and shared exploration.
What Family Toolbox Offers:
- Transformed Communication Dynamics — An inquiry-based method that naturally shifts how parents, children, and teens talk and listen to one another, creating space for genuine connection
- Engaging Family Activities — Thoughtfully designed experiences that weave the 12 Tools into everyday family life
- Family Meetings & Councils — Guidance for establishing regular gatherings where families can introduce and explore the Tools together, with flexibility to teach them before or during these meetings
- Age-Appropriate Suggestions — Tailored recommendations based on your children’s developmental stages, from young ones building their emotional vocabulary to teens navigating more complex social landscapes
- Journaling Practice — Encouragement for reflective writing that deepens each family member’s self-awareness and growth
- Hopes & Dreams Exploration — Opportunities for every family member to share what matters most to them, so the whole family can support one another’s aspirations
Because close connected families aren’t built on one person having all the answers—they’re built on everyone having the tools to grow together.
Discover the Heart of The Family Toolbox
Discover the 12 Tools for Connection and Emotional Growth
The 12 Tools give families a shared language for honoring emotions, resolving conflict, and strengthening relationships. Easy to learn and practical to use, these Tools help every family member—from the youngest to the oldest—grow together.
The Family Toolbox Package
The Family Toolbox package includes everything you need to get started: a comprehensive implementation guide, a colorful 12 Tools poster for your home, and a manila Toolbox with tool cards that children can personalize and make their own.
Testimonials About Toolbox Project Here is what
The Dalai Lama
“… our inner development, our sense of human values and our ability to manage our destructive emotions in particular, has not kept up with our material development… the Toolbox Project … (is) a source of great optimism.”
— The Dalai Lama
Bonnie Bernard
Author and Resilience Expert
Toolbox and the Toolbox Project is a gift to both children and adults. It helps everyone,of all ages, recognize that we really do possess within us all the Tools we need to express our innate resilience and live productive, meaningful, and healthy lives, empowered with agency, optimism, and hope.
Mother
Parent of a Kindergartner at Toolbox Project School
“I wanted to let you know that Alex has been using all the tools in his toolbox. He talks about them often and applies them on several occasions. He even asks my husband and I when we are having small arguments if it’s a “big problem or a little problem?” Then suggests we just “throw it away.”
The other day his little brother was having a meltdown (over the bowl his oatmeal was in) and I looked over to see Alex closing his eyes and holding his little heart. I knew exactly what he was doing because the day before he explained to us what the headphone tool was about… He told me that his quiet, happy place is the jungle.”
Rebecca
SPARK, South Africa,
The Toolbox Project has helped SPARK Schools achieve its vision of
providing excellent character development in conjunction with rigorous
academics. Since introducing the twelve tools to our staff, students, and
families in October 2013, SPARK has seen a remarkable positive
transformation in school culture and student’s emotional intelligence.
Teachers report that the tools allow them to empower students to solve
their own conflicts. “There is no Mr. Mhlanga tool!”, remarks one grade R
maths teacher, who explains that tools such as the “Using Our Words
Tool”, “Personal Space Tool”, and “Breathing Tool” have allowed his five
year-olds to work collaboratively while he pulls small groups. SPARK has
integrated the Toolbox Project into our daily assemblies, class lessons,
common space procedures and community meetings with great success.
Says one parent,”[the Toolbox Community meeting] really opened my
eyes, not only to the way I have been parenting my children, but also to the
way I deal with things all around. I believe Toolbox will change our lives
for the better, both at home as a unit and individually as we tackle our
everyday lives.