About
The Drizzle Effect®
What does emotional intelligence have to do with the future of learning — even AI? Everything.
Trey loved stories. When his teacher read aloud to the class, he’d call out what he thought was going to happen next, laugh out loud, or punch the air in frustration if he thought the main character was being treated unfairly. He was outgoing and loved to tell his own stories, easily drawing his classmates in. But ask him to write a story? Forget about it. The walls came up, and Trey shut down.
Trey was a 5th grader, with reading and writing skills one to two years below grade level. Despite his natural love for stories, he’d struggled academically too many times to have much confidence in his own storytelling and writing abilities. Take a risk and try again? No thank you.
Trey’s mom signed him up for the Writer’s Workshop with The Drizzle Effect® and a shift began to occur.
"My son's confidence in his writing abilities went from medium before Mary's workshop to very high afterwards. His dedication and enthusiasm towards writing were the greatest outcome!"
- Parent of Writer's Workshop participant
The Path from EI to AI™
At The Drizzle Effect®, we use characters, creativity, and connection to help kids build the skills they need most — like self-awareness, emotional regulation, and resilience. These aren’t just social-emotional skills. They’re life skills.
It’s all part of our PATH Framework: Playful Approaches to Technology and Human Development.
Through this lens, we help kids develop the confidence, curiosity, critical thinking and flexibility they’ll need for the future.
We call it The Path from EI to AI™ — a journey that begins with building a foundation of emotional intelligence and leads to authentic, empowered readiness for a tech-shaped world.
So go ahead—watch the video, get to know Drip, Drop, and Drizzle, and ask yourself:
Which character reminds you of your child? And what about you?
Meet the Team
Which character resonates most with you?
(Spoiler Alert: I'm totally Drip!)
Drip
DRIP'S smile lights up a room, and she shares her happiness with pretty much everyone. She can be shy and is kind of a perfectionist. I bet you're thinking to yourself, "But no one is perfect." I know, right?! We sure do get crazy ideas in our heads sometimes, don't we? And sometimes, this makes Drip timid to try new things because she's afraid she'll get it wrong.
Drop
DROP is so much fun to be around! He will make you laugh out loud - and then cringe in the next minute.
Drop can be impulsive. I mean, sometimes he says things he instantly regrets or makes not-so-good choices without even knowing why he did it! This makes him feel bad because he is really nice, and doesn't meant to hurt anyone.
Drizzle
DRIZZLE is the friend you feel like you've known forever. He seems to get everything right, but Drizzle makes mistakes just like everyone else. Sometimes he gets in trouble. But he's self-confident enough to know he can get through it, so he does. He helps his friends get through stuff too. His friends think, "I want to be like Drizzle." The truth is, they can be. We all have Drizzle within us.
From Stories to
Skills for the Future
Trey’s story shows where it begins — with emotional safety, play, and voice. But the path doesn’t stop there.
Jordan was a high school junior who always second-guessed herself. She hadn’t used AI before, so she couldn’t see how it could help her — until she learned what it could actually do.
Halfway through our AI Ready Bootcamp, something clicked. She used ChatGPT to map out her college essay — her ideas, her draft — then refined it with AI into something clear, bold, and entirely her own.
The look on her face? Complete self-confidence.
What changed?
Jordan realized she could — and should— trust her thinking. The shift wasn’t just about learning a tool. It was a mindset shift. AI became the tool that enhanced her ability, not replaced it. That’s the bridge we’re building: confidence first, then capability.
With the right support, she went from “I don’t know where to start” to “I know what I want to say.”
That shift isn’t just academic — it’s transformational.
A Note from Ms. Mary
I was a child once. I remember what it felt like to hesitate, to hold back, to be afraid of getting something wrong. Now, that memory drives a lot of my work with children.
After 20+ years in education — as a teacher, school leader, preschool owner, and now AI consultant — I’ve seen the magic of learning through play and project-based learning… and I’ve seen what happens when we lose it.
At Weems Creek Nursery School, joy and curiosity guide everything we do. The kids bring it, and the teachers nurture it! But too many older students lose that spark. School becomes about pressure, perfection, and performance — rather than growth.
That’s why I founded The Drizzle Effect®: to keep the spark alive: starting with social-emotional learning, building executive functioning skills, and laying a foundation of emotional intelligence that makes space for essential life skills like AI.
And it’s not just about the kids. Parents deserve that spark too: clarity, confidence, and a renewed sense of joy in walking the path alongside their child’s learning. The Drizzle Effect helps you rediscover it through tools that are practical, rooted in real life, and supported by a community of like-minded parents.
Through DROPLETS, we help families build the life skills kids need most: self-awareness, resilience, time management, and critical thinking. And through my work with Simple Academy, I teach high school and college students (you, too, schools and parents!) how to master AI workflows for the new AI Powered Economy.
We’re on The PATH from EI to AI™ — preparing kids not just to survive the future, but to proudly shape it.
With love,