Have you ever had one of those days where your mood seems to swing all over the place? One moment you are happy as a lark, and a few minutes later you angrier than you’ve ever been before. Sometimes, we adults forget that we are not the only ones who may experience this wild pendulum ride from time to time. And, even when our moods are not swinging wildly, they will likely fluctuate to some degree throughout the day.
As adults, we are expected to be able to control these feelings. Sometimes, however, this comes across as sounding as though you are not allowed to have any feelings other than being blissfully happy twenty-four hours a day. This simply isn’t true, and it would be naive to think it is possible. We need to let our children know that it is okay to have different feelings, and then we can teach them strategies to deal with them.
Jamie Lee Curtis has written a wonderful book that can help children realize that there are many more feelings than just happy and sad. In Today I Feel Silly, she also lets children know that it is okay experience a wide variety of feelings from day-to-day.
After reading the book with your child, have your child draw a face each day of the following week to express how she feels. Have her make a face for that emotion while looking in a mirror so that she can see what it looks like. Ask your child why she feels that way. Is she excited about a certain activity planned for that way? Is she disappointed in the weather? Maybe she is nervous about a trip to the dentist. Help your child identify her feelings and the reasons for them. Once she is able to do this on her own, you will be able to begin teaching her ways of reacting to her own feelings.
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Written by BRWI Staff on April 15, 2010
Young children often have a difficult identifying specific emotions in themselves and in others. However, this is a skill that can practiced in many ways. One is to simply ask your child how he is feeling when you can see that he is visibly angry, sad, excited, bored or any other feeling. Another activity you can try is to create masks which your child (and you) can put on to help illustrate an
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Written by Laura on June 19, 2009
Have you ever listened to a beginning reader reading a book with which they are not very familiar? It is often choppy and monotone as the child struggles to sound out each word. Although it is obviously important that children learn how to use phonetics and context to read a selection, it is also vital that they learn how to read fluently and with expression. Part of this can be taught through
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Written by BRWI Staff on June 5, 2009
You often see little kids dressed up in outfits that look like miniature versions of adult clothing. Although this can be cute, the effect is not the same when we actually expect our dwarf-sized counterparts to act as though they were our equals. It is tough, sometimes, to remember that our children are not simply little adults. They do not have the same reasoning and communication skills that
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Written by Laura on May 5, 2009
Emotions and feelings are a difficult concept for young children, and even adults, to understand. They are a natural part of being human, and feelings are never wrong to have. However, it is very important for children to learn that we must be able to control our feelings.
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Written by BRWI Staff on April 1, 2009
