Tips & Support For Parents using Stomp It Out
We are thrilled you have invited Stomp It Out into your home!
You and your child(ren) will have a blast while building some important new skills.
A few notes before you get started…
Stomp It Out needs an adult to facilitate (Enter: mom, dad or caretaker) and an open space.
Quick prep before you play: Explore each mat with your child so that they can identify the feeling depicted on each mat you’d like to play with (For 1st grade +, you’ll want to begin with 5-6 mats. This is your “pre-teaching” moment mentioned in the instructions. Read and choose relevant situation cards for your child, along with a few positive situations to intersperse.
Always start with a positive situation to get your child started.
If your child(ren) are under 6, or if they are easily energized, use just 4 feeling mats (happy, sad, mad, and proud are common starting points).
You (and your child) don’t have the “right” answer. There isn’t one. The goal is for them to learn how to express themselves and for you to validate their feelings (show them you ‘get it’) without trying to change how they feel.
The sillier the movements the better! You can model this yourself.
It’s fun (and helpful) to turn on some of your child’s favorite music on to indicate when your child(ren) should be moving and turning music the off when it’s time for them to land on a mat.
Once your child(ren) land on the respective feeling mat, you can engage in as much or as little dialog as you’d like. *A few ideas for responding to your child are noted below.
Stomp It Out is not a game you win/lose; however if you have a child who really enjoys a competition, tokens are available and can be given to your child(ren) for participation. Therefore, they would ‘win’ by getting the most tokens.
This game is a great way for your child(ren) to learn how vocabulary, learn to comfortably share how they feel, and build the foundational skills for emotional intelligence (EIQ) and resilience.
Please email stomp@feelingsinmotion.com if you have any other questions about using Stomp It Out in your home.
Estimated play duration by age:
Age 5: 10-15 minutes
Age 6-7: 15-20 minutes
Age 8-12: 25-30 minutes
What can you say once your child lands on a mat?
Below is a beginner and an intermediate example:
Beginner ideas: At the beginning, the goal is to let your kids show you how they feel without right or wrong answers.
Intermediate ideas: Once you have played a few times, if you’d like, you can expand your conversation to talk about what various emotions actually feel like. This helps kids get comfortable with the sensation of emotion. When we don’t worry about what it all feels like, we can handle larger emotions better! This is good for the whole house. If this feels like too much, you can go back to the beginner stage.
