For grown-ups
For parents and teachers
Everything here is free to use at home, in the classroom and at the library: questions to talk about after reading, activities, and a chart of the feelings colors from the books.
A Light for Tavi: questions and activities
Questions for before, during and after reading, plus five activities, from “Watch, don’t guess” to ideas for a new big brother or sister. Printable.
The feelings colors
In Lumingrove, pendants glow with how you feel: gold for happy, blue for sad, red for angry, pink for love, and five more. A simple way for small children to name a feeling.
Free printables
The feelings colors chart, coloring pages and activity sheets, as PDFs. No sign-up.
About Jonathan Seal
Who writes the books, and who runs this website.
Guides
Feelings and empathy
Naming feelings, and noticing how someone else feels.
- Feelings colors: a free feelings chart for kidsA free printable feelings chart for ages 2 to 8, using the pendant colors from Niko and Lira’s world, with simple ways to use it at home and in class.
- Empathy activities for kids, ages 2 to 8Seven short empathy activities for toddlers to second graders, from Watch, don’t guess to Spot the helper, with a free printable set of cards.
- Picture books about empathy, for ages 2 to 8Picture books that help children notice how someone else feels, from a board book for toddlers to stories for second graders, with a question for each.
- How to teach empathy to toddlers and preschoolersWhat empathy looks like at 2, 3, 4 and 5, from the CDC’s milestones, and simple ways to help it grow, from Zero to Three and Harvard’s Making Caring Common.
- Feelings activities and games for preschoolersShort feelings games for ages 3 to 5, from Make a Face to a homemade feelings book, mostly from Vanderbilt’s CSEFEL, plus a printable and a game.
A new baby and big siblings
Getting ready for a new brother or sister, and the weeks after.
- How to prepare a toddler for a new babyWhat helps a toddler get ready for a new brother or sister, and what helps once the baby is home, from the AAP and UNICEF, plus small jobs a 2-year-old can do.
- Books for new big brothers and sisters, by agePicture books for a child about to become a big brother or sister, sorted by age, with a line on why each one works and how to read them together.
- When a toddler is jealous of the new babyWhy jealousy of a new baby is normal, what it can look like in a 2- or 3-year-old, what the AAP and UNICEF suggest, and words to try when it comes out.
Bedtime and the first star
Calm evenings, and a light to look for together.
- Star light, star bright: the first-star poem and a bedtime ritualThe words to Star Light, Star Bright, why the first star is often not a star at all, and a two-minute bedtime ritual for finding it together.
- A toddler bedtime routine, with a free picture chartA five-step toddler bedtime routine built on the AAP’s Brush, Book, Bed, how much sleep toddlers need, bedtime with a new baby, and a free chart to print.
Reading aloud at bedtime
- Let your child turn the pages, and slow down at the pictures they want to look at.
- Ask “What do you notice?” more than “What happened?”
- Give Niko and Lira their own voices. You don’t need to be good at it.
- Read a favorite again. Little ones love knowing what comes next.
- Before lights out, look for the first star together.
About the kids’ side of the site
- The games run in the browser and save nothing. There are no accounts, chat, uploads or anything to type.
- There are no ads and no advertising trackers anywhere on the site.
- Sound stays off until someone taps the sound button.
- Buy buttons and the newsletter are only on the grown-ups’ pages.
The details are in our privacy policy.