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Your Emotional Regulation Journey
Every small moment of connection and calm builds lifelong emotional resilience.
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SAMMY 1 — UNDERSTANDING MY FEELINGS
Supporting children to recognise, name, and understand sensations and emotions with warmth and safety.
Noticing What My Body Feels
Children learn to notice physical sensations in their bodies and begin connecting those sensations with how they feel.
How is your Child's Body Budget Today?
Check in with your child's body energy. No zone is good or bad — each zone is simply helpful information.
My body feels ready
Calm, steady, and ready to learn, play, and connect.
My body is getting busy
Restless, silly, fluttery, or feeling a little spark rising.
My body needs help
Overwhelmed, stormy, upset, or needing safe comfort.
12 Practical Guides for Calm, Connected Parenting
From Co-regulation and Body Budget to Connection Before Correction and Big Feelings.
SAMMY 1 — UNDERSTANDING MY FEELINGS
Four weeks of playful, parent-supported learning designed to help children notice, understand and communicate their feelings.
Noticing What My Body Feels
Begin by helping your child notice the physical sensations that can happen in their body.
Naming My Feelings
Build emotional vocabulary by helping your child notice, identify and use feeling words.
Feelings in Motion & Rest
Explore how movement, pauses and connection can support children as they experience different feelings.
Connecting & Sharing My World
Help your child bring their growing emotional understanding into connection, communication and everyday life.
Week 1: Noticing What My Body Feels
This week is about helping your child slow down, notice their body and begin recognising that bodies can give us useful information about how we are feeling.
What Your Child Is Learning
Children experience emotions through their whole bodies. Before they can always explain a feeling with words, they may notice changes such as a fast heartbeat, a tight tummy, warm cheeks, wiggly hands or a heavy body.
Notice these moments alongside your child without needing to fix, stop or change the feeling immediately.
Sammy Notices His Body
Introduce Sammy as a friend who is learning to notice what his body is telling him.
“Sammy is wondering what his body is telling him. I wonder what your body is telling you?”
Keep the conversation playful and curious. There is no right or wrong answer.
The Body Weather Map
Help your child imagine their body as a weather map. Different parts of the body can feel different things at different times.
Ask your child to choose a body part to notice.
Ask, “What does it feel like there?”
Invite them to imagine the sensation as sunshine, clouds, rain, wind or a storm.
Ask, “I wonder what was happening when your body started feeling that way?”
You do not need to identify an emotion every time. The goal is noticing.
Tension & Release
Invite your child to notice the difference between a body that feels tight and a body that feels loose.
Move slowly and softly like a jellyfish floating through water.
Stand tall and steady like a tree.
What Is Your Body Telling You?
During an everyday moment, gently pause and ask:
“What do you notice in your body?”
“Does your body feel busy or steady?”
“Where do you notice it?”
“What might your body be telling you?”
Notice It in Real Life
Look for natural opportunities throughout the day.
Sammy's Sensation Detective
Become sensation detectives together.
Notice three different body sensations during the day.
Your child can tell you where they noticed it and describe it in their own words.
Pause & Reflect
Take a moment to think about your child's week.
Week 2: Naming My Feelings
This week helps children build a growing vocabulary for feelings and discover that having a name for a feeling can help us communicate it.
Why Feeling Words Matter
Children need repeated opportunities to hear, practise and use feeling words in everyday situations.
Start with familiar words such as happy, sad, angry, worried, excited, frustrated, calm and tired.
Sammy's Feeling Words
Sammy is learning that different feelings can have different names.
“Sammy is wondering which feeling word matches what is happening.”
Feeling Word Hunt
Look around your home, books or everyday experiences for moments that could connect with different feeling words.
Move Like a Feeling
Invite your child to use their body to act out different feeling words.
What's the Feeling Word?
Use everyday moments to practise putting words to feelings.
“I wonder what feeling word fits?”
“Could it be frustrated?”
“Is there another word that might fit better?”
If your child chooses a different word, accept their answer and stay curious.
Add Feeling Words to Your Day
Feeling Word Detective
Find five opportunities during the week to name a feeling together.
You can use real-life moments, stories, pictures or pretend play.
Pause & Reflect
Week 3: Feelings in Motion & Rest
This week explores how feelings can show up differently in our bodies and how movement, pauses and connection can help children notice what they need.
Feelings Can Change
Feelings are not fixed. They can grow, become smaller, change direction or pass with time.
The goal is not to make a feeling disappear. The goal is to help your child notice what is happening and experience support while it is happening.
Sammy's Feelings Can Move
Sammy notices that his feelings can change from one moment to another.
“Your feeling changed. What do you notice now?”
Feelings Traffic Lights
Use three simple ideas to talk about how feelings can change.
Remind your child that no colour is “bad”.
Move, Pause, Notice
Keep this playful rather than performance-based.
What Changed?
Help your child compare two moments without judging either one.
“What did your body feel like before?”
“What feels different now?”
“What helped you feel supported?”
Notice the Changes
Sammy's Change Detective
Notice one moment each day when your child's body or feeling changes.
Simply notice it together. There is no need to solve it.
Pause & Reflect
Week 4: Connecting & Sharing My World
This week brings together noticing, naming and sharing feelings through everyday connection.
Connection Helps Children Communicate
Children often communicate feelings through behaviour, movement, words, facial expressions and actions. Connection gives them a safe place to practise communicating what is happening inside.
Listen, notice and stay curious.
Sammy Shares His World
Sammy is learning that he can tell someone what he is feeling and what he might need.
“You can tell me. I'm listening.”
My Feelings Story
Create a simple story together about a character who experiences a feeling.
Show It, Say It
Invite your child to show a feeling through movement and then choose a word that matches.
Tell Me About It
Use open-ended questions when your child is ready to talk.
“What happened?”
“How did you feel?”
“What did your body notice?”
“What would help right now?”
Connection Before Correction
When a big feeling happens, begin with connection before moving into problem-solving.
Sammy's Connection Mission
Look for three opportunities this week to pause and genuinely connect with your child's emotional experience.
Listen before trying to solve.
Pause & Reflect
You've reached the end of SAMMY 1. 🎉
Complete Your Certificate →12 Practical Guides for Calm, Connected Parenting
Simple ideas you can use in everyday moments to support connection, emotional understanding and regulation.