Self awareness – social skills – empathy. All of these are important, the question is how do you teach them to children? Marcelle Waldman, the creator My FeelLinks to the rescue! She created an amazing journal and set of stuffies to help.
The Feellinks journal encourages growth by helping children identify, understand, and manage their feelings. The journal includes four brightly colored feeling dolls, each double-sided to represent eight core feelings, which include Happy/Sad, Proud/Embarrassed, Calm/Excited, and Angry/Scared. They help children with labeling, expressing and regulating their feelings – “If you can name it, you can tame it”.
*Photo Credit Genevieve Kathleen Photography*
Growing up on Mercer Island and after attending the University of Arizona, Marcelle became a teacher here on the Eastside. While working in one on one programs to help kids with special needs such as autism, she realized a lot of things she was learning and teaching could apply to all children.
Gathering as many resources as she could find, she realized she needed a stronger curriculum for her students, so she brought in journals for her kids to write in, and other resources that allowed her students express how they were feeling that they could use in school and at home. Realizing there wasn’t a lot out there she developed her own journal, with her feelings dolls, designed specifically to help articulate kids feelings better.
*Photo Credit Genevieve Kathleen Photography*
Feellinks dolls are designed to help children identify – manage – and understand what they are really feeling, so they can articulate it out loud, and in their journal.
Check out the eight dolls moods below:
- Happy – I feel great pleasure and joy. I have a friendly, infectious smile that is inviting to others.
- Sad – I feel grief and unhappiness. I show my emotions by frowning or crying.
- Proud – I display self-esteem and self-respect. I have a positive sense of value and accomplishment.
- Embarrassed – I feel self-consciously confused and distressed. Sometimes my body temperature feels warm and my cheeks turn pink.
- Calm – I feel free from excitement and disturbance. I feel a lightness in my body and mind.
- Excited – I feel a strong energized feeling. I am often smiling and wide eyed.
- Angry – I feel great annoyance, pain, trouble and displeasure
- Scared – I feel a state of fear, fright and panic. My emotions can show in many ways including, crying, shaking, frowning, wide eyes, fast heart rate, sweaty hands, and running away from something.
*Photo Credit Genevieve Kathleen Photography*
If you or someone you know would like a copy of Marcelle’s Feellinks journal you can visit her website to purchase. Once the journal is full you can purchase and additional journal. Follow her on Facebook for new items and helpful parenting tips.
Cheers!
Nicole
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