In My Little Heart: A Children’s Story About Emotions
In mijn kleine hart ( In my heart in English) is a book by Jo Witek. It is a children’s story about emotions, in which the different emotions and feelings of children are articulated. The beautiful illustrations and the simplicity of the words make it a wonderful tool for children to learn to recognize their feelings in many ways and with many colors.
There is joy, sadness, calmness, anger, and fear. These are the emotions that children of three years and older already recognize and are able to express. They are all included in this beautiful story.
In the video we hear phrases like “My heart is like a house. So many things happen inside… And they’re all mixed up! There are rainy days and loud laughter, big angry people and fun and games. Today I open the door of my heart and invite you to come inside.”
As you can see, the story In My Little Heart is a great tool for teaching our children how to express their emotions and feelings. Here’s the story in video form for you to enjoy… And of course for your kids too! This video is from the English version of the book.
In my little heart shows how important it is for children to express their emotions
In order to teach children to play with, express and articulate their emotions at the same time, it is important for them to build their interpersonal skills. We may think this is difficult because we are not good at expressing our own emotions. However, the truth is that by working with children we also learn to better express our own emotions.
The first step is to become aware of our children’s emotions. For this we can make drawings depicting several children. Then we ask the children how they think the children in the drawings are feeling. We can also ask them to draw the face of a person experiencing a particular emotion. Telling stories about these different emotions is also helpful.
Once the children become aware of how and when they and other people express emotions, we can help them discern different ways of expressing their emotions correctly. We can also teach them how to avoid multiple negative emotions in addition to those already existing . We can help the children by showing them how to keep a journal of their emotions. They can also identify with a balloon when they get angry, relax by breathing, think positively and stop their negative thoughts.
Essential Skills
Other indispensable skills related to children’s emotions are skills 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 if they don’t want something, that it is not right to spread gossip and that they should always try to put themselves in someone else’s shoes.
When thinking about children’s emotions, we should not forget personal autonomy skills. These enable children to live a life for themselves. Children need to know how to highlight their good points and identify areas to improve upon. In addition, they need to know how to pamper, care for and love themselves.
That’s why diaries, reminder boxes and compliments are so useful, many would even say vital. These help children learn to respect themselves and understand why friendship is a flower that must be cared for by both parties.
In this way, our children can grow up understanding themselves, with a proactive attitude towards the tasks they have to perform. They have to live with their thoughts full of pleasant memories and their lives full of beautiful people. They should enjoy life this way. And all this starts with understanding what exactly is ‘In their little heart’.
