Your Defence © 2008-
Kimochi
Feelings Dolls
Kimochi which means ‘feeling’ in Japanese are plush, loveable toys, designed to help children get in touch with and manage their feelings in a fun, comfortable way.
Kimochis® are small soft pillows that come inside cuddly characters, Cloud, Huggtopus, Cat, Lovey Dove and Bug, who have feelings just like kids.
Designed as non-gender specific and multicultural, they help promote strong parent-child connections. Kimochis® help children identify and express emotions, one feeling at a time, while parents are better able to understand what their kids are trying to communicate. Being able to talk about feelings helps build confidence, self esteem and character.
Each Kimochis® pillow has a facial expression that represents an emotion on one side, and on the other, the name of that emotion. These emotions range from angry, jealous, hurt, left out, frustrated, sad, to happy, friendly, kind, brave, silly, loved etc. There are 24 emotional cushions available.
The plush characters are Kimochi Cloud, who can be happy or sad by turning his head to display a grey sad face, or white happy face. Kimochi Bug is a rather timid caterpillar who is afraid of change, and tucks his wings away when uncertain. Kimochi Cat a born leader is somewhat bossy and is known to get into a few cat fights! She comes with a set of her own replaceable bandages to heal physical and emotional wounds. Kimochi Huggtopus is very loveable. Each character has a special pouch in front into which feelings are placed.
Each Kimochis® character comes in its own box with three feelings (which vary per character) and a detailed Feel Guide - an instructional booklet. The booklet provides fun, easy lessons and activities for mums and dads. Parents, use the characters and their Kimochis® to help their kids get in touch with their emotions in a fun way, using puppetry, play, role play, etc. Together they learn to recognise ‘feeling patterns’ and situations that trigger emotional reactions. They are shown how to use positive words, gestures and signals, to help a child experience or act out a feeling in a better way, whilst acquiring a vocabulary that describes the feeling, making it easier to communicate about that emotion, and acquire skills to manage feelings.
