Kimochis® Soup At Home!

• Sprinkle all of the feeling pillows around an empty bowl. For children who don’t read yet, name each one as you go. “Happy, Sad, Mad … let’s make Kimochis® soup!”

• Select a positive or negative situation. For example, “Let’s make a soup about how you felt at recess.” Ask children to pick up whatever feelings represent the situation.  Just choose and toss!

• Soups will contain both positive or negative feelings, which is a hard concept for little ones to comprehend. Help your child understand that it is normal and okay to have mixed feelings like this.

“How was your day?” Soup

Making a daily soup is a way for families to go beyond the traditional greeting at end of day where we ask each other, “How was your day” and get one-word answers.

• Invite all to toss feelings in the bowl or basket when they come home from work or school. If someone has already put a feeling in the bowl you had, then two people will be able to discuss how this feeling happened for each of them that day.

• At dinnertime or any other time your family comes together, invite family members to take turns pulling feelings they had that day.  Listening is the key.  When you are seeking more information about a feeling try to ask your child if there is more to the story or more they would like to share rather than asking numerous WH questions.  This communication tip often keeps people feeling heard and comfortable sharing.
• Happy can help you when you can look forward to things that bring happy feelings