Big FeelingsYour child and the Feelings Chart
↗On Monday morning Sharma Ma'am pins a chart of ten faces beside the blackboard, from a wide grin to a wobbly frown. Every child must move a clothes peg to a face. Your child holds the peg for a long time. Not happy, not sad. Ma'am kneels down and says, 'Is it the mixed one?' There is a face with one eyebrow up. Your child clips the peg there and feels suddenly lighter, because somebody already drew it.
Lesson: A feeling with a name is easier to carry
Big FeelingsYour child and the Feelings Jar
↗Mumma keeps an empty pickle jar on the kitchen shelf with a box of coloured paper beside it. Yellow for happy, blue for sad, red for cross, green for jealous. Every evening Your child drops in a colour. This week the jar is mostly blue. Mumma does not ask why straight away. She tips the jar onto the table, counts the blues with Your child, and says, 'Five blues. Tell me about one.' Your child tells her about all five.
Lesson: Counting the blues is the first step to fewer of them
Big FeelingsYour child and the Green-Eyed Feeling
↗Cousin Ishaan arrives at Bua's house with a shiny red cycle with a bell. Your child has a cycle too, an old blue one. Suddenly the blue one looks terrible. Your child goes quiet and prickly. Bua sits on the step and says, 'That prickly thing is called jealous. Everyone gets it. It goes faster if you say it out loud.' Your child whispers, 'I am jealous.' Bua nods. Then Ishaan rings the bell and asks, 'Race?'
Lesson: Saying jealous out loud shrinks it to cycle size
Big FeelingsYour child and the Proud Feeling
↗ Dadi lets Your child roll the first roti alone. It comes out shaped like Australia. Then Dadi puts it on the tawa and it puffs up like a balloon, and something warm rises in Your child's chest along with it. 'What is this feeling?' asks Your child. Dadi says, 'That is proud. It is allowed. Just do not let it float away to the ceiling.' Your child eats the map of Australia with ghee and it is the best roti ever.
Lesson: Proud is a warm feeling you are allowed to keep
Big FeelingsYour child Talks to Mumma at Bedtime
↗ All day something heavy sits in Your child's tummy, but there is no time to say it between school, tuition and dinner. At bedtime Mumma switches off the big light and lies down for two minutes, like always. In the dark Your child finally says it. Priya did not save a seat on the bus. Mumma does not fix it. She just says, 'That hurt, hmm?' and strokes Your child's hair. The heavy thing melts into the pillow.
Lesson: Two minutes in the dark can hold a whole day's feelings
Big FeelingsYour child and the Frustrated Shoelace
↗ The school shoelace will not tie. Loop, cross, pull, and it slides open again. Your child's face goes hot and the shoe gets thrown at the wall. Papa picks it up without a word and sits on the floor. 'That is frustrated,' he says. 'It means you are close but not there yet.' He shows Your child the bunny-ears way, slowly, three times. On the fourth try the bow holds. Your child wears the shoes to bed, just to check.
Lesson: Frustrated means you are close, so try once more
Big FeelingsYour child and the Excited Morning
↗ The train to Nana's village leaves at nine and Your child has been awake since five, bouncing on the bed, checking the bag, asking the time. Mumma is getting cross. At the station Nana is waiting on the platform, and he sees Your child jumping. 'Excited?' he says. 'Good. Put it in your feet and walk fast to the compartment.' Your child walks so fast that Nana has to jog, laughing, with the bag.
Lesson: Excitement is best used in your feet
Big FeelingsYour child and the Sad Rainy Day
↗ The picnic to the park is cancelled because the rain will not stop. Your child sits at the window and refuses the pakoras. Didi comes and sits too. 'It is okay to be sad about it,' she says. 'Want to be sad together for ten minutes and then do something?' They watch the rain for ten minutes. Then Didi fetches the picnic basket, spreads the mat on the living room floor, and they eat the pakoras there, under an umbrella.
Lesson: Be sad for a little while, then let a sister in
Big FeelingsYour child and the Mixed-Up Feeling
↗ Bhaiya has got into the hostel school in Dehradun. Everyone is clapping and there is kheer. Your child claps too, but wants to cry, and does not know which one is the real feeling. Papa notices and takes Your child to the balcony. 'Two feelings at once is normal,' he says. 'Happy for him, sad for you. Both are true.' Your child goes back in, hugs Bhaiya hard, and eats two bowls of kheer.
Lesson: Two true feelings can sit together
Big FeelingsYour child and the Feeling Faces at the Market
↗ At the Sunday sabzi mandi, Chacha gives Your child a game. Look at faces and guess the feeling. The tomato seller is cross because a cat knocked over a basket. A grandmother is happy because her grandson is carrying her bag. A little boy is scared of the goat. Your child guesses ten faces right. 'Now,' says Chacha, 'what is your face?' Your child thinks and says, 'Hungry.' Chacha buys two bhuttas.
Lesson: Faces tell feelings if you look kindly
Big FeelingsYour child and the Happy That Spilled Over
↗ The first mango of the season is ripe on Nani's tree and Your child is so happy the shouting wakes the whole village lane. The neighbour's baby starts crying. Nani does not scold. She says, 'Your happy is too big for one lane. Go and share it.' Your child cuts the mango into eight pieces and takes a plate to every house, including the baby's. Everyone smiles. The happy is still big, but now it fits.
Lesson: A happy that is too big is meant for sharing
Big FeelingsYour child and the Feelings Weather Report
↗ At breakfast Papa reads the newspaper weather, then asks for the feelings weather. Mumma says partly cloudy because of a work call. Didi says sunny. Your child thinks and says, 'Thunder inside. Because of the maths test.' Papa nods like a proper news reader. 'Thunder expected till ten, then clearing.' At ten the test is over. It was not so bad. On the way home Your child thinks, clearing, just like the report said.
Lesson: Report your inside weather and watch it change
Big FeelingsYour child and the Grumpy Morning
↗ Nothing happened, but Your child wakes up grumpy. The toothpaste is wrong, the milk is wrong, the socks are wrong. Nana watches from his chair, then says, 'Some mornings are just grumpy. Nobody did it. Come, help me water the plants.' Your child stomps to the balcony with the mug. By the fourth pot the stomping has stopped. By the money plant Your child is humming. Nana does not say anything at all.
Lesson: Some grumpy mornings need a job, not a reason
Big FeelingsYour child and the Scared-Happy on the Giant Wheel
↗ At the Dussehra mela the giant wheel is taller than the temple. Chacha buys two tickets. As the seat swings up, Your child's stomach goes one way and the wheel goes the other. 'I am scared,' says Your child. 'And?' asks Chacha. The lights of the whole mela spread out below. 'And happy!' Chacha laughs and says that is the best feeling there is, and they go round twice more.
Lesson: Scared and happy together is called an adventure
Big FeelingsYour child Paints the Feelings
↗ Bua is an art teacher, and on Saturday she gives Your child one sheet and every colour. 'Paint how the week felt. No faces, just colour.' Your child paints a big yellow patch for the birthday party, a grey streak for the fight with Rehan, a red dot for the shouting, and a soft pink corner for making up. Bua pins it on the wall. 'A whole week,' she says. Your child thinks it looks like a rainbow after rain.
Lesson: Every feeling has a colour and together they make a week
Big FeelingsManaging Emotions
↗ Your child takes a magical journey into the Feelings Factory tucked inside their own heart, where big emotions, Anger, Sadness, Fear, and Joy, all work together as a team. When bustling Anger accidentally takes over the control room, Your child practices gentle calming techniques to bring back balance, discovering that every single feeling is valid, important, and can be understood and managed with care.
Lesson: All emotions are valid and have a purpose, expressing feelings is healthy and important, there are helpful ways to handle big emotions, and understanding your feelings helps you understand yourself and others better.