Sometimes I Have Big Feelings: A Child’s Guide to Understanding and Expressing Emotions

Does your child struggle to control their emotions? Perhaps they get upset easily and find it difficult to calm down? Do they feel out-of-control at times and want to understand why? These are signs that your child is ready to learn more about big feelings and the physical sensations they experience as a result.

This practical guide combines cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness methods with simple activities to help your child develop the skills to articulate their feelings and regulate their moods. It’s aimed at children ages 8 to 12 because a lot happens in these years that can impact a child’s emotional well-being, not just now but for years to come.

Sometimes I Have Big Feelings is full of great information, fun activities, and top tips to help your child feel happy and balanced. Activities include:

• A whole rainbow of feelings
• Match the feelings to the faces
• Mood tracker
• Draw your feelings
• Flip your thoughts
• Mindful meditation
• When someone else is feeling big feelings
• Seeing the other side
• Five senses check-in
• Positivity word search
• and more!

Your child will be guided, with the help of Pop--a friendly and supportive character they can identify with--through fun and engaging activities interspersed with useful tips, inspirational affirmations, and practical information for parents, grandparents, teachers, and caregivers of all sorts.

Poppy O’Neill runs a writers’ retreat in Portsmouth. Her short stories and nonfiction have appeared in various literary magazines and anthologies, and her flash fiction has been long-listed for the Bath Flash Fiction Award and the Bristol Prize. She is the author of Sometimes I’m Anxious, Believing in Me, I Love Being Me, I Can Be Brave, Sometimes I’m Shy, and Sometimes I’m Sad. She resides in Chichester, England.