Children often feel things long before they can say them. Feeling Explorer is a free feelings activity for children that makes finding the words easier, turning “I don’t know” into something you can actually talk about together.
What the activity involves
There are three steps, and each one needs no reading age to speak of. First, your child picks a picture: a set of animal illustrations, each caught in a different moment, a dog bounding past a rainbow, a fox with question marks over its head, a hedgehog sheltering from the rain. They simply choose the one that feels most like them right now; no feeling words needed yet. Next, they choose a colour and paint where they notice that feeling in their body, on a simple outline figure. Last comes a blank page to draw how the feeling feels, in any colours and shapes they like; there’s no wrong way to do it, and the drawing can be saved as an image to keep.
Using it together
The pictures do a lot of the work for you: “what’s happening for that fox?” is a much easier question for a child to answer than “how do you feel?”. This works best side by side rather than handed over like a game to keep a child busy. Your job isn’t to correct or interpret, just to be interested. Questions like “whereabouts in your body is that one?” or “when did that feeling visit today?” go further than “why do you feel that?”, which children often can’t answer. If your child names something difficult, you don’t need to fix it on the spot; being heard is most of what they need.
When it might help
After a wobbly day at school, before something new or worrying, during big changes at home, or simply as a regular check-in at teatime or bedtime. Some families find that once feelings have names, they start appearing in ordinary conversation on their own.
Privacy
Nothing your child enters is saved or sent anywhere; it all stays on your device. The activity is free, with no sign-up and no adverts.
If you’d like support with what comes up, you’re welcome to get in touch. You might also like The Animal Ladder, a guide for parents and children on understanding behaviour through the nervous system, or the full set of free therapeutic tools.