Classic Children’s Book Series: Where The Wild Things Are
Here at Thrive Therapy Houston, we know just how overwhelming things can feel—especially for parents navigating challenging times at home with kids. One of our favorite ways to support emotional growth and resilience from the comfort of your own home is through the power of books and play-based learning.
Here at Thrive Therapy Houston, we are really big readers. We love books! Since we love books and many of you already have reading incorporated in your daily routines at home, we figured books were a great place to start. In therapy, we call using books and their accompanying activities in a therapeutic way – bibliotherapy.
Since reading is already part of many families’ daily routines, we wanted to share easy-to-use, therapeutic activities inspired by classic children’s books you might already have at home. This practice—called bibliotherapy—uses books and guided reflection to help children explore their thoughts and emotions in a safe and creative way.
First up in our Classic Children’s Book Series is the beloved story, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.
If you don’t have a copy at home, no worries—there are many free read-alouds available on YouTube. And if you’d like to buy your own, you can get it here.
How to Use This Book for Connection & Growth
As you read together, consider what you’d like to focus on with your child: building emotional vocabulary, processing worries, getting the wiggles out, or practicing calming strategies. This can be a one-on-one bonding activity or something the whole family does together. Feel free to pick and choose what works best for your unique family.
With everything going on in the world, we have been trying to find ways to support everyone from the comfort of their own home. One way we can do this is to is to give you ideas for activities you can do at home with your own kiddos to help guide them through this challenging time and help them get an age-appropriate understanding of the world right now. Our goal at Thrive Therapy Houston is to put parents in the leading role through our work together. To that end, what better way to accomplish that than to use this time at home to begin leading your kiddos through some therapeutic activities created for you as a family.
As you read the book together, have an idea of what you would like to focus on with your kiddos. This can absolutely be done as a full family activity or a one-on-one time activity. Feel free to pick and chose what may be helpful for you and yours. There are many activities or ideas that fit across different categories.
Themes & Topics Explored
✅ Understanding Emotions
Help your child identify and express their feelings through Max’s journey.
- Building Emotional Vocabulary: Pause during key moments—when Max is sent to his room, during the rumpus, or when he returns home—and ask how he might be feeling. Then, explore how your child might feel in similar situations.
- Identifying Emotions in Self & Others: Encourage your child to reflect on times when they’ve felt similarly. Ask them to “name it to tame it”—a principle from Dr. Dan Siegel that shows how putting feelings into words helps us regulate emotions.
- Recognizing Facial Expressions: Use the story’s illustrations to point out character expressions and discuss the emotions they represent.
- Understanding Through Storytelling: Children often recreate emotional experiences through stories and play. Use Max’s story to better understand how your child is processing current stressors.
😟 Worries or Negative Thoughts
For kids feeling anxious, relate the “wild things” to their own internal worries or negative thoughts.
- Discussion Prompts:
- What do the wild things represent—worries, stress, or something else?
- How do you tame your wild things? (Try breathing, talking it out, drawing, etc.)
- What happens when we spend too much time with our wild things?
- How does it feel when you gain control over them?
- What would your child’s “wild thing” safe container look like? Help them draw and imagine it.
- Container Exercise: Create a special place for your child’s wild things—just like Max did. Draw it together and make it imaginative and safe. Giving worries a “home” can provide emotional distance and comfort.
🕺 Movement & Behavior
For high-energy kiddos stuck indoors, channel that energy into structured movement activities.
- Discussion Prompts:
- Why do you think Max’s mom called him a “Wild Thing”?
- How do you act when you feel wild?
- What’s your version of the “rumpus”? Dance? Jumping? Rocking?
- Rumpus Movement Game:
- Turn “roar their terrible roar, gnash their terrible teeth…” into a fun, physical game.
- Pause at each line and act it out together—roaring, baring teeth, rolling your head, and showing claws.
- Add movement to the blank “rumpus” pages—jump, dance, roll, whatever feels fun!
- Tone & Volume Awareness: Use your own voice to help kids regulate. Get louder and more playful during the rumpus, then softer and calmer as Max returns home to down-regulate energy.
- Expressive Play: Ask, “What would you be like as a Wild Thing?” Act it out or draw it together. Add fun scenarios to role-play based on your child’s feelings or current experiences.
🧘 Calm-Down Strategies & Co-Regulation
Introduce soothing tools your child can use during moments of stress, worry, or dysregulation.
- Connection & Mirroring: Try eye contact or fingertip-touching games. Use reciprocal movements like mirroring or call-and-response to help them feel seen and safe.
- Visualization & Imagery: Talk about Max’s return to “where someone loved him best of all.” Ask your child where they feel most loved. Draw it, imagine it, or even act it out.
- Mindfulness & Stillness: Use Max’s “Be still!” moment to create a freeze or mindfulness game.
- Grounding Through the Senses: Help your child identify a smell or object that brings comfort, like Max’s supper waiting for him. Explore sensory memories that help them feel safe and grounded.
UNDERSTANDING EMOTIONS
Building Emotional Vocabulary: Start the conversation out by checking in about how Max might feel at different times in the story? (When he is sent to his room, during the rumpus, when he tames the wild things, when he becomes king of the wild things, when he leaves the wild things, etc.) Developing an emotional vocabulary can be really important for kiddos and any future work with recognizing and managing emotions.
Identifying Emotions: As you go through the story asking what Max may be feeling, you can also ask what your child may feel in that situation. Depending on your focus, you can also bring this into helping you understand how your child may be experiencing the stressors in the world right now. Dan Siegel’s principal of “name it to tame it” involves putting words to our feelings which allows us to regulate and calm down. Children need our helping learning this process and practicing it.
Recognizing Facial Expressions: Sometimes it can be helpful to point to the characters face and ask what feeling they see? (This can help kiddos to learn to recognize facial expressions and tune into others’ experiences)
Using Storytelling to Understand: In the story, Max send the wild things off to bed without supper, the same way he was sent to bed without supper. Recreating or retelling their experiences is very natural for children. They mirror their experiences often in their play or story telling. This is a great thing to look for to understand your children’s experiences and current understanding of this stressful experience.
Using Storytelling to Explain: Young children use storytelling to make sense of their experiences and communicate them to others. Dan Siegel explains the neuroscience behind the integration of the two sides of the brain through stories in his book Whole Brain Child (Highly recommend!). We can use this idea in helping our children make sense of what is going on in the world and also understanding how they are experiencing it. Don’t be surprised when your child wants to talk through the same story multiple times, it is their little brains trying to put all the pieces together. It can help to offer them a peaceful resolution to the story if they seem stuck.
WORRIES OR NEGATIVE THOUGHTS
If your kiddos are finding themselves more worried or anxious than usual during these times, there are some great ideas for helping kiddos through these feelings. For these ideas, we are relating the “wild things” to our worries or negative thoughts.
Discussion Questions:
- What do the wild things remind you of? What do they represent? Worries? Stressors?
- How would you tame the wild things? (Help the kids come up with different tactics that may be helpful, deep breaths, talking it out, etc.)
- In the story, Max is able to tame the wild things by looking in their eyes. Why do you think that helped to tame them? (Maybe because of the connection, they felt safe, they felt seen, etc.)
- When you spend too much time with you wild things, how does it feel for you? Tired? Lonely? Answer the questions as parents first to model openness and that it is okay and safe to talk about your feelings.
- There is a point in the story when max says “Be Still”. What would it be like if you could tell your wild things to “Be Still”. How would that feel different than usual?
- In the story Max is able to become King of the Wild Things. The wild things are not scary anymore and he is in charge of them. Would you want to be King of your wild things?
- The wild things don’t want Max to leave. Does it ever feel like your wild things don’t want you to leave? Is it hard to leave them sometimes? Can you imagine leaving them in that special place where you can always come back if you need? (see container exercise below)
- When Max tames the wild things, how do you think he feels? It seems like he is celebrating with the rumpus. How would you celebrate getting control over your wild things?
Container Exercise: Max has a special place where his wild things are and they stay there even when he comes back home. What would be the place for your wild things? Let’s create a special place for your Wild Things. This is great to have the children draw out for you with lots of details. Come up with a name for the place and talk through the special steps that separate that place from right here. For Max he had to take his private boat and sails “through the night” and “in and out of weeks”. These degrees of separation will help us to imagine leaving our wild things somewhere away from us, give us some space from those worries or negative thoughts.
MOVEMENT & BEHAVIORS
If your kiddos typically have high energy and are struggling with being stuck in the house, here are some ideas that may help. These are more action-based ideas so make sure they are fitting for the setting you are in. For this one, we are equating “wild” with having a lot of energy.
Discussion Questions:
- Why did Max’s mother call him a “Wild Thing”?
- What do you do when you’re feeling wild? What behaviors do you have? How does it feel in your body?
- What kind of mischief do you make in your family? Answer the questions as parents first to model openness and that it is okay and safe to talk about this. The goal is to increase self-awareness.
- Why does Max get sent to his room? This can lead to a discussion about action and consequences if you wanted.
- How would you tame the wild things? (Help the kids come up with different tactics that may be helpful, deep breaths, talking it out, etc.)
- There is a point in the story when max says “Be Still”. What would it be like if you could tell your wild things to “Be Still”. How would that feel different than usual?
- In the story Max is able to become King of the Wild Things. The wild things are not too much anymore and he is in charge of them. Would you want to be King of your wild things?
- Why do you think Max is happy to leave the wild things?
- The wild things don’t want Max to leave. Does it ever feel like your wild things don’t want you to leave? Is it hard to leave them sometimes?
- When you spend too much time with you wild things, how does it feel for you? Tired? Lonely? Answer the questions as parents first to model openness and that it is okay and safe to talk about your feelings.
- When Max tames the wild things, how do you think he feels? It seems like he is celebrating with the rumpus. How would you celebrate getting control over your wild things?
Regulation Game: Through out the book, the Wild Things “roar their terrible roar, gnash heir terrible teeth, roll their terrible eyes, and show their terrible claws”. Turn this into a game with your kiddos. When you read “roar their terrible roar”, pause and roar together. You can even make it a competition to see who’s is the loudest/scariest/most convincing. Follow with gnashing teeth, rolling eyes, and showing claws. (For gnashing teeth, I don’t think its great to have the kiddos chomping down, so I typically have the bare their teeth instead. For roll there eyes, I prefer more movement so I have them roll their whole head with their eyes.) When I’m reading, if the kids are enjoying it I will add a few extra sets of roaring, gnashing, rolling, and showing claws during the blank pages. This is a great, structured way to let the kiddos get some energy out. Be sure to use the end of the book to down-regulate so they calm back down.
Act Out the “Rumpus”: There are three blank pages of rumpus. For each page, do something movement-based. Structured movement – maybe match the wild things in the book or have the kids come up with their own “Rumpus” moves. You can do a dance party, act crazy, etc. I try to follow the pictures and to me they look like jumping up and down, rocking back and forth (I have them roll on the ground instead of swinging on anything), and dancing.
Utilize Tone and Volume: Our bodies naturally respond to tone and volume. Use your tone and volume throughout the story to up and down regulate the kiddos. As you get to the “rumpus” and the build up, allow your voice to get louder and more excited, you will likely notice the kids’ energy matches. Then, be sure to use the end of the book to down regulate or calm back down with a softer tone and gradually quieter voice.
Expressive Activity: What would you be like as a wild thing? You can turn this question into an activity of some kind, either have the kids draw it, act it out, make their own story about it, etc. I prefer having them act it out. If they are enjoying it and it is helping them get the energy out, I even give them certain scenarios to role play. Ex. “How would you act if you were a wild thing stuck in the house?” or “how would you act if you were a wild thing sent to bed early?”.
Mindfulness: Practice together when max says “Be Still”. (See mindfulness activity below)
CALM DOWN STRATEGIES
These will include various strategies that can be used to help kiddos calm down and regulate, whether they are activated from anxiety, high energy, or just need more strategies to add to their toolbox. These can be great supplements for any other topics.
Connection & Attunement: Find different points in the story to match and mirror each other. Reciprocal movements allow us to tune into each other and coregulate. This can be mirroring, call-and-respond, follow-the-leader, whatever works. Important to not stick too heavily in the verbal world with the young kiddos. Ex. When the Wild Things “roar their terrible roar”, pause and roar together. Follow with gnashing teeth, rolling eyes, and showing claws.
Nurture & Practice Coregulating: Max tames the wild things by “staring into their big yellow eyes”. Practice staring in each other’s eyes. Does that feel taming? Eye contact is a great coregulation strategy to help calm and nurture kiddos. Maybe add a touching component – touch/wiggle fingertips. We can use the sense of safety and security children derive from being in tune and in connection with us to soothe them and bring comfort during hard times.
Imagery/Visualization (Safe/Loved Place): Max wanted to go “where somebody loved him best of all”. Where is the place where people love you best of all? Think physical space or location – for example mom and dad’s room, grandma’s house, when everyone is together for family time. Get as many detail as possible using all five senses. What would you see there? What would you hear and smell there? What would you taste and feel there? For many kids it will help to have them draw this place, make it an art activity. Have them close their eyes and picture place in their mind. Imagine being there in that place. For older kids, try to have them connect to how their body feels. How does it feel when they think about being in that place?
Mindfulness: Max yells “be still” and tames the wild things. Turn this into a mindfulness game, similar to the freeze game. A great time to practice is during the “rumpus” part of the book or after reading throughout the week when the kids start getting a little rowdy.
Sensory Grounding: How did Max feel when he realized his supper was waiting for him? It seems like the smell brings Max back. What is a smell that is so special to you it could bring you back when things get too much? Help the kids come up with something special like grandma’s cookies, or the smell of the swimming pool, etc.
Here are some ideas. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, feel free to get creative and we’d love to hear any extra ideas that you have, please share them with us. Hope this helps some of you out there navigating a tough time at home. We are thinking of you all and you are in our hearts.
You’re Not Alone—We’re Here to Support You ❤️
These ideas are just the beginning. Feel free to get creative and adapt them to your family’s needs. And we’d love to hear what works for you—share your ideas with us!
Parenting is tough, especially during uncertain times. If you’re feeling overwhelmed or unsure how to support your child emotionally, you don’t have to do it alone.
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👉 Contact us today to schedule a consultation or learn more about our services.
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