Looking for a sidebar?

Since 1979 Parenting Press has been committed to offering "Parenting Classics," books of enduring value and relevance in this ever-changing world. Our goal is to offer useful books that teach practical life skills to children and parents, as well as those who care for children.

An important part of this goal is teaching Emotional Literacy because all too often kids' feelings get ignored. Helping children acknowledge their feelings, and then distinguish between these feelings and actions, will help them to better express who they are now and later in life.

Sidebar

4 Tips to Encourage Emotional Literacy

(Excerpted from The Way I Feel)

• Ask your child what circumstances make him or her feel happy, sad, jealous, and so on.
   
• Discuss how to deal with emotions. ("If you're angry, it's not okay to hit or throw things, but it is okay to stomp your feet.")
   
• Talk about what actions or steps could be taken to change the circumstances leading to a feeling your child doesn't like.
   
• Practice noticing and naming feelings by asking your child how he or she feels at different times throughout the day. Discuss the differences in feelings that may seem similar, such as sad and bored, or jealous and angry.

Other Parenting Press titles that promote awareness of feelings:

Ages birth to 8: What Am I Feeling? Explains how parents can use five important steps to "emotion coach" their children.

Ages 1 to 3: The Feelings for Little Children Series, colorful board books, help young children understand emotions like anger and silliness.

Ages 2 to 10: The Self-Calming Cards show and describe dozens of ways kids can soothe themselves when they're angry, frustrated or anxious.

Ages 3 to 9: What Is a Feeling? and All My Feelings at Preschool: Nathan's Day, encourage children to recognize their feelings and those of others, in all situations. The Dealing with Feelings Series is designed to help children deal with intense emotions. Six different titles allow children to work through six different emotions in a choose-your-own-ending format.

Ages 2 to 12: Dealing with Disappointment: Helping Kids Cope When Things Don't Go Their Way is a practical, easy-to-use guide that helps parents teach children to manage their emotions with problem-solving tools and self-calming techniques.

Ages 2 and older: The Feeling Elf Cards & Games can be used in traditional card games or as flash cards to teach children to identify and express such different feelings as pride, anger, excitement and disappointment.

For 24/7 ideas, see the short downloadable/printable books and information sheets listed on our QWIK Book web site page. Available whenever you need them, these publications include such titles as 24 Simple Self-Calming Tools.