In My Heart: A Story About Children’s Feelings
“In My Heart” is a book by Jo Witek that gives voice to our children’s feelings. Its beautiful illustrations and the simplicity of its words make it a wonderful tool for children to learn to recognize their emotions in many ways and with many colors.
The joy, the sadness, the calm, the anger, the fear. All the emotions that children 3 years and older already recognize and can express are considered in this beautiful story.
In the video we can hear phrases like “My heart is like a house. So many things are happening inside… And they are all mixed up! There are rainy days and noisy laughter, big angry people and fun and games. Today I will open the door of my heart and invite you in ”.
As you can see, this is a great tool for teaching our children to express their emotions. Here is the story in video version that you can enjoy… And also your kids of course!
Children’s feelings need to be expressed
In order for children to play, express and verbalize their emotions at the same time, the first and most crucial task for them is to build their interpersonal skills. We may think that this is too difficult a task because we are not good at managing our own emotions. The truth is, however, that by working with children, we also have the opportunity to improve our own emotional control.
The first step is to become aware of our children’s feelings. To do this, we can use images that have multiple children in them. We then have to ask the children what they think the children in pictures feel. We can also ask them to draw faces that represent a person experiencing a certain emotion. Telling stories related to these different emotions is also beneficial.
When children become aware of how and when they and other people express emotions, we can help them distinguish different ways of expressing their emotions correctly. We can also teach them to avoid additional negative emotions in addition to those that already exist. We can help the children by showing them how to keep a diary of their emotions, identify with a balloon when they get angry, relax through breathing, think positively and stop their negative thoughts.
Indispensable skills
Other indispensable skills associated with children’s emotions are those that enable children to relate to other people and strengthen their self-esteem. Children need to know that they have the right to say no when they do not like something, that it is not good to spread rumors, and that they should always try to put themselves in the other person’s shoes.
When we think of children’s emotions, we must not forget personal autonomous skills. This is what will enable children to manage their lives for themselves. A child needs to know how to highlight their good points and identify the ones they need to improve. In addition, they need to know how to pamper, love and take care of themselves.
That is why diaries, memory boxes and role-playing games are so useful and many will say crucial. They help children learn to respect themselves and understand why friendship is like a flower that should be handled by both parties.
This will enable our children to become full of self-understanding and with a proactive attitude to the tasks they have to do. They should live with their minds full of pleasant memories and their lives full of wonderful people. That way, they can not fail to enjoy life. And all this begins with understanding what is “in their heart”.
