Learned Tot: Feelings

 Discussions about feelings are just too squishy for my taste, too imprecise and smacking of self indulgence. It came as a surprise that one ought to educate tots about feelings much like teaching letters and counting. Telling one's offspring to 'get over it and carry on' would be considered callous and so here are some resources for the parents of my ilk.

First come Kimochis. In the little dolls we found a hip way to compartmentalize and, truth be told, open conversations that do not come naturally. Kimochis is Japanese for feelings and are possibly the only emotional-education toy in the market that actually looks fun.

Kimochis characters have a little pouch to hold their feelings. Meet cloud. Sometimes he is happy. And when he is happy the world is happy with him.

Parent Involvement: VARIES, just depends on you and the tot.

And sometimes cloud is sad - presto, quick spin of the head and he is frowning. Admittedly rotating happy/sad head reminded me of the Voldermort scene in the first Harry Potter movie.

Get it? It's the same dolly as above just with his head spun around.

If happy/sad doesn't cover it, there are options, from curious to loved and everything in between.

There is no shortage of books on feelings. Here are two we like. First, My Many Colored Days from Seuss because it relates feelings to colors.

And who doesn't love the crabby pigeon? Especially since he is no goody-goody.

You might also like:

• Learned Tot Astronomy
• Learned Tot Human Body
• Learned Tot Geography