Books to Help Kids Develop Emotional Intelligence
Children love reading with their parents. Many kids have definite ideas about what they want to read -- some love books about how things work, like dump trucks or trains. Others love storybooks about people or animals.
But all small children seem to be fascinated by books about emotion. I suspect this is because mastering their emotions is one of the big challenges of their young lives, and they want all the help they can get.
Think about it -- did the adults in your life help you to feel good about your emotions and learn to manage them productively? Sending you to your room to calm down doesn't count; that just taught you that you're alone with your scary feelings and that they're unacceptable, and made it more likely you would manage your emotions with food or other destructive habits later in life.
We teach children about emotion every day, when we help them understand what they're feeling and express it constructively. (Of course, what constructive means will evolve as kids get older.) But we can give ourselves, and our child, a lot of help by reading them books about emotion. Here are some I'd recommend. If you have a book you think I should add to this list, please email me!
PLEASE NOTE: These books are Amazon links with photos of the books. If you are not seeing them on your page, it may be that your browser is not picking them up. Please try a different browser. Enjoy!