Understand How You Feel: My Kind of Family

My Kind of Family is about helping children better understand their emotions, develop self esteem and learn good values. This book series asks children and their caregivers to fill in names, select pronouns and color the details of illustrations in order to create books reflective of their own families. Through customization, the series offers a sense of comfort and familiarity as they allow a child and their caregiver to become party of the story.

For age 0-2: It is suggested the parent completes the story by adding appropriate names and selecting appropriate pronouns. Customization is not necessary but can be completed if desired. Read just like any other story to your child.

For age 3-5: It is suggested that the parent input the caregiver names and select appropriate pronouns with the child’s help. Share responsibilities of customizing the characters. For fun, let your child complete you and you the child. You can begin using the questions in the back for this age group.

For age 6-8: Let the child complete the book on their own and share it with you. Discuss how and why they chose to customize the characters the way they did. Use the questions in the back to encourage communication. This age is great to help younger siblings customize and read their book.

The first installment in the series, Understand How You Feel, presents the concepts of feelings and emotions, and encourages children to better understand how they feel and to talk about their feelings with their caregivers, whoever they may be.

As the face of "family" changes in the US to look more non-traditional, it is increasingly important that the children who belong in those families feel accepted, included and loved. I was inspired to write this series by the many facets of my personal life. As a survivor of an unfortunate childhood trauma, I understand the value and need for open communication with your child.

When my daughter asked why her family didn't look like the families in her favorite books, I decided it was time to follow my heart.  I took my years of experience, journals, and creativity and created My Kind of Family. A series where the child and caregiver are gender, skin tone, eye color and hair neutral, allowing YOUR child to create a family that is just like YOURS.