One of the most influential things we can do for our children is to nurture and encourage their social emotional development. These foundational tools will help them understand and express their own feelings, accurately read and respond to other people’s emotional state, manage their own expressions, show empathy to others and be able to maintain relationships as they grow.
Social emotional development plays a huge role in who we are, how we feel about ourselves and how we react to the world around us.
When I was teaching preschool I always made it a point to nurture the emotional development of the children in my class and as I’ve transitioned into motherhood and nurturing my own children, I can see the fruits of my labor unfolding before my eyes. Books have a huge impact on children and I use them often to teach life skills. My first born child went through a stage where he would get incredibly frustrated and kick things (oh, the joys of parenting). I immediately went to our book stash and grabbed the books Calm Down Time and Feet Are Not For Kicking and we WORE.THEM.OUT on a regular basis to help reinforce positive skills. By reading these books we learned as a family that we can take deep breaths when we are frustrated, count to ten, or even remove ourselves from social situations until we have cooled off. Now, I’m not saying books are an end all, BE ALL to solve all parenting and personal problems, but I do think they are an underused resource that could be helping so many children and families.
I hope that you use the FREE PRINTABLE below as a resource — you might not need to teach about these feelings now, but if the time comes, you will have some great books at your fingertips!
Click links below to download book lists:
Book List- Page 1
Book List- Page 2
Book List- Page 3
