I stumbled across an intriguing toy several months ago at a downtown variety store - Kimochis from Japan. At first glance they appear to be just another stuffed animal, but it's worth looking closer. Each Kimochi (which means "feeling" in Japanese) features a pocket and a handful of little emotions to stuff inside. The idea is to use the Kimochi to help kids understand and communicate feelings.
Genius, right?
Each little feeling figure has an expression on one side and the written out feeling on the other. Kids can hold them, put them inside, play with them, whatever. Sitting with your child, you can discuss how those feeling, well, feel. Or act out feelings. Or show ways to better handle those feelings. Or how to act if a friend is showing those feelings.
Get the idea?
In addition, the Kimochis are just plain adorable, so they're sure to be snuggled and hauled around the house. And that builds love, which by the way, is another emotion to talk about.
We just gave Cat the Kimochi to Ansley, our niece, for her second birthday. She's very talkative for her age, so it seemed like perfect timing.
Kimochis and additional packs of emotions are sold in some specialty stores, but can also be found on Amazon.com.
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