The Krewe ▸ The Self-Awareness Emotions
The Self-Awareness Emotions
It’s okay to feel what you feel!
Distraction, surprise, drama, sleepiness — these are the states a child is swept into before they have any idea it’s happening. That’s the frustrating part, for kids and grown-ups both: by the time anyone notices, the mind has already galloped off, or the feeling has already gone too big, or the whole body has gone heavy and slow. You can’t ask a child to manage a state they can’t even see they’re in — and most young children genuinely can’t see it yet. That’s not a discipline problem. It’s a skill every one of us has had to struggle toward — some of us more than others, and that’s okay too.
That skill — the quiet trick of catching yourself in the moment, oh, my mind wandered off again — is one of the most powerful things a young child can learn, and it’s the entire reason these four characters exist. Ziggy’s mind gallops off mid-sentence. Chili meets a brand-new world with eyes-wide whoa. Lexi feels everything at full volume. Sage moves at the speed of a long afternoon. None of them is doing anything wrong — they’re just feeling it out loud, the way kids do, and learning to notice it as it happens. Naming the state is what gives a child the sliver of distance they need to work with it instead of being swept away by it.
That progression — notice it, then do something about it — is the heart of the CASEL framework the Krewelings are built on, and it’s no accident self-awareness is where it starts: it’s the first of CASEL’s five core competencies. So each character gives a child a real, kid-sized way to come back — to refocus, to ride out the bigness, to wake the body up or let it rest — plus separate guidance for the parent at home and the teacher in the classroom. Noticing comes first. These characters make it easy, and they make it normal.
Meet the four below. Each one shows a state your child or your classroom slips into all the time — and the first move toward working with it.
Ziggy
Ziggy means to listen, truly — and then a stripe of sunlight shifts, or a bird says something interesting, and off the whole mind gallops. By the time anybody finishes the sentence, Ziggy is three pastures away.
From Ziggy’s card
“I can make a pretend telescope to focus on my work.”
Chili
Everything is brand-new when you’ve only just hatched, so Chili lives in a more-or-less permanent state of whoa. Eyes wide, little heart going fast — surprised isn’t quite scared; it’s the jolt right before you decide whether something’s wonderful.
From Chili’s card
“I can hop hop hop on one foot to get my surprise out!”
Lexi
When Lexi feels a thing, the whole world is going to feel it too — at full volume, with flourishes. It isn’t fake and it isn’t too much; it’s every feeling turned up to its biggest, brightest setting, because that’s honestly how big the feelings are.
From Lexi’s card
“I can look in the mirror and whisper, ‘It will be okay!'”
Sage
Sage moves at the speed of a long afternoon and sees no reason to apologize for it. Some feelings are loud and fast — sleepy is the slow one, the heavy-eyed hum that says the world can wait, and so can everything in it.
From Sage’s card
“I can stretch big and yawn wide to wake up my body.”
How to Use the Krewe(it’s easier than you’d think)
You don’t need a perfect moment, a special supply list, or extra time you don’t have. The Krewelings work in the small spaces of a real day — in the car line, on the couch, in the three minutes before lights out, or the first five minutes of a classroom morning. Pick what feels natural, use it when it fits, and let the rest go. Even one of these, now and then, makes a difference.
- Use the names. When something’s off, try “are you feeling a little like Hux today?” A character is often easier for a child to reach for than a feeling is — and you may be surprised what opens up.
- Name it before you fix it. Before the correction, before the consequence: “I can see you’re really feeling like Hux right now.” Naming the feeling first lands better than almost anything else you could say in that moment.
- Don’t rush the hard ones — and celebrate the good ones too. “Tell me more about that” is enough when a feeling is big. And “you seem like Gumbo today — what happened?” teaches a child that good feelings are worth naming, not just hard ones.
- Let them be the expert. Ask which Krewe member is their favorite, and why. Kids love being the one who knows.
- Keep the Krewe where you’ll see it. The fridge, the car visor, the classroom wall — the more familiar the characters are, the easier they are to reach for when things get hard.
There’s no wrong way to do this. Once a week is plenty; every day is wonderful. Meet your child where they are — that’s the whole idea.
A note from us: The Krewelings are an educational tool for building emotional skills — a wonderful support, but not a substitute for the care of a doctor or therapist when a child needs one. Every child learns at their own pace, and some need more support than others. That isn’t failure. That’s just being human — and there’s room for every kind of kid in this Krewe.