Teaching Children Emotions

Teaching children about emotions — and to talk to God about feelings — can be hard. Here’s a children’s book to help kids with feelings.

Kids have feelings (so many feelings).

As parents, sometimes teaching children about emotions — and how to handle them in a godly way — can be tough. In fact, as a mom of four kids, I think the majority of my active parenting has been spent helping my kids with their feelings.

King David (of biblical fame) also had a lot of emotions to work through. He did live through a lot–betrayal, the consequences of his own sin, more betrayal, sadness, anxiety, frustration, more betrayal, a deep love for God, and a whole lot of joy.

We can help kids with their feelings by pointing them to the psalms, and specifically to some of the psalms of David that pour out deep emotions to God.

Teaching children emotions are meant to be given to the Lord in prayer works best through the example of biblical heroes.

Love the Bible for Kids | A resource you'll love!

Children and Emotions Book for Christian Parents

Christina Fox, author of Idols of a Mother’s Heart, has written a book to help kids bring feelings to God.

Tell God How You Feel: Helping Kids with Hard Emotions is an excellent 84-page picture book aimed at 4-9 year olds.

Five chapters tell the story of two siblings, Jack and Mia, who brave fear, sadness, rejection, loneliness, and gratitude as their parents take them to the Psalms and then to God in prayer.

The chapters are:

A Scary Thunderstorm
A Friend Moves Away
A Friend’s Rejection
Feeling Lonely
Thankful for a Good Grade

I love that in each chapter of the book, Jack and Mia’s parents take them to a psalm, read it with them, and teach them about bringing their emotions to God.

The book is an excellent tool to aid Christian parents in teaching kids to pray when confronted with emotions, whether they are good or bad feelings.

Four of the stories directly relate in some way to school. I know that for many homeschool parents, school out-of-the-house in books is a big deal, so I mention this. Our kids read such a wide variety of books from different cultures and time periods, seeing kids go to school didn’t bother them. They were able to substitute their own experiences–like going to Bible memory club–for school and still empathize with fictional characters.

Things I really like about Tell God How You Feel:

This is a really well written book with great lessons that don’t feel moralistic or preachy.
You essentially get five stories in one book, each story focusing on a different emotion.
Each chapter has questions for discussion that a parent can take their child through.
The focus of Tell God How You Feel is very biblical.
Characters illustrated in the book are multi-ethnic and there is a girl in a wheelchair. I feel this has been largely missing from children’s literature, and I’m always happy to see it.
(My siblings are multi-ethnic, and my sister spent her life in a wheelchair, so I’ve been looking for these things for a while–though there have been anomalies, I’m happy to see this becoming more common.)
The illustrations are really nice.
The book doesn’t downplay emotions children have. Rather it directs children to deal with feelings in a biblical way.

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Tell God How You Feel is an excellent resource for parents, and I recommend it!

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A Resource to Help Teach Kids About Life in the Womb

Wonderfully Made: God’s Story of Life from Conception to Birth

Your kids will love learning about life inside the womb with Wonderfully Made: God’s Story of Life from Conception to Birth, published by Christian Focus 4 Kids.

Wonderfully Made is a science- and Scripture-filled picture book for kids ages 5-11. The book is told from the perspective of a mother telling her child about his or her development in the womb week-by-week. In fact, Wonderfully Made is written to help parents meet the theological, scientific, and relational purposes of teaching kids about life in the womb.

Wonderfully Made: God's Story of Life from Conception of Birth is a lovely story of life for kids from ages 5-11, told from the perspective of a mom with science and Scripture.

**You can also learn more about Wonderfully Made over at the book page.**

Head over to the Thinking Kids Press store for your free Wonderfully Made posters, Bible memory verse cards, and lapbook!
They’re a great companion to the book Wonderfully Made, and the perfect way to teach your kids about life in the womb!