National Children's Mental Health Day

Tomorrow, May 3, is National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day!

Sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the day is about awareness of emotional and mental health in children in normally developing kids, as well as kids that have suffered a traumatic experience and/or who have a diagnosed mental health issue.

This day can be a great reminder to check in on the emotional well-being of the kiddos in your life! Below is a list of great books about feelings for kids. These books can help give your child words to describe how they feel so that you as their caregiver can better meet their needs!

• Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
• Andrew's Angry Words by Dorothea Lachner
• The Berenstain Bears and the Bad Dream by Stan and Jan Berenstain
• The Berenstain Bears in the Dark by Stan and Jan Berenstain
• Feelings by Aliki
• The Feelings Book by Todd Parr
• The Grouchies by Debbie Wagenbach
• The Invisible String by Patrice Karst
• I Was So Mad by Mercer Mayer
• My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss
• The Pigeon Has Feelings, Too by Mo Willems
• Sometimes I'm Scared by Jane Annunziata and Marc Nemiroff, Ph.D.
• A Terrible Thing Happened by Margaret M. Holmes and Sasha J. Mudlaff
• Today I Feel Silly by Jamie Lee Curtis
• Understanding Myself by Mary C. Lamia, Ph.D.
• Walter Was Worried by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
• The Way I Feel by Janan Cain
• What Are You So Grumpy About? by Tom Lichtenheld
• When Sophie Gets Angry, Really, Really Angry by Molly Bang
• When You're Happy and You Know It by Elizabeth Crary

This is list is by no means exhaustive, I could (and plan to) write whole blog posts just on books for kids in foster care, dealing with divorce, abuse, etc. These books can hopefully provide a good jumping off point though, especially for normally developing kids, to help them have the words to describe their emotions, feelings and fears. Sometimes just having the words can help immensely! 

Introduction to the 6 Pre-Reading Skills

The focus of pre-reading skills is not on teaching children to read at an early or young age. If your child does learn to read before they get to school, then great! The point of pre-reading skills for parents, caregivers, librarians and early childhood educators is to lay a strong foundation of literacy skills necessary for learning to read successfully once a child reaches school. The 6 Skills we build through singing songs, talking a lot (even before our kids can talk back!) and of course - sharing books together!

These are the 6 skills, with a short description, check back in coming weeks for more books and activities to help foster these skills with the kiddos in your life!

Print Motivation - I like books!

Print Awareness - Those squiggles on the page mean something.

Phonological Awareness - I know the sounds of language.

Narrative Skills - Telling stories is fun!

Letter Knowledge - Now I know my ABCs!

Vocabulary - I know a lot of great words.

Great NPR Feature on Vocabulary Development

Closing The Achievement Gap With Baby Talk

Children from low-income families hear significantly fewer words in childhood on average than children from more well-to-do backgrounds. This disparity often effects their ability to learn to read once school starts and in so doing perpetuates the cycle of poverty.

If the value of reading to your children was never clear, I hope this article will help to highlight the importance!