You’ve heard of emotional intelligence, right? And how it’s a big predictor of happiness and success in life? Well, I don’t know about you but had no idea how to help my children learn and talk about their feelings. At least not beyond mad and happy.

Over the years, I’ve invested in a lot of books and toys to help my kids learn about emotions. And most didn’t work for kids, such as books written like college texts and weird toys that didn’t capture the range of feelings a person can have. But one product stood out, the Kimochis plush educational toys.

Kimochis became part of our family life last year with the cutest little dude called Cloud. Cloud is like the weather, sometimes stormy angry and sometimes clearly happy and anything in between. Similar to a kangaroo, Cloud’s tummy pouch holds . . . a feeling pillow.

Here are some fun activities we’ve done with Cloud:

• Cloud Feels . . . pick one of the emotion pillows and show your children what it is and put it into cloud’s pouch. Say what cloud feels and why.
• Feelings City . . . pretend the feelings pillows live in a city together. Act out how they behave, talk, and listen. Use this to teach the concept: I can be angry but not mean.
• After School Feelings . . . ask your children to pick an emotions pillow describing a feeling that they felt at school. Share.
• Cloud Uses “I” messages . . . Use Cloud to model how to communicate using “I” messages and how to make things better. You show first and then have your children try.

Example:
Cloud: I feel mad that no one invited me to share. I’m going to make things better to remind my friends and say, “Remember, Everybody can play.”

Watch for extra emotion pillows available soon on Imagine Toys! For now, write the emotions on colorful cut-out paper.