Calm tools for hard moments.
TinyRoots is a free library of emotional regulation activities for children ages 2 to 12. It helps parents, teachers, and school counselors find the right tool for the right moment — by age and by what the child is feeling — and deliver it as a printable, ready-to-use resource.
The mission
Make evidence-informed emotional support tools accessible to every child, regardless of income, geography, or access to mental health professionals.
No accounts. No data collection. No AI features. No ads. No premium tier. Free forever — sustained by people who believe in it.
Who made this
TinyRoots is built by one person who believes that the gap between what children need and what adults have access to is solvable — not with more apps or subscriptions, but with well-organized, evidence-based tools that are free and always available.
Every activity is grounded in established child psychology frameworks, written in plain language, and designed to be used in the middle of a hard moment — not studied in advance.
What these activities are built on
Every activity in TinyRoots is grounded in at least one of four evidence-based frameworks. Here is what each one means, in plain English.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT helps children notice the connection between thoughts, feelings, and actions. When a child learns to say "my worry is telling me something that isn't true," they're using CBT. Many of our activities — thought records, worry windows, facts-vs-fears — come from this tradition.
Trauma-Informed Care
Trauma-informed practice starts with safety. It assumes a child's behavior makes sense given what they've experienced, and it never forces disclosure. Activities like memory jars, comfort objects, and unsent letters are designed so the child leads and the adult witnesses.
Zones of Regulation
The Zones framework teaches children to recognize which zone they're in — blue (low energy), green (calm), yellow (heightened), red (extreme) — and to build a personal toolkit for returning to green. Feelings thermometers, cool-down menus, and red-zone checks all come from this approach.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness for children is simple: notice what's happening in your body right now, without judging it. Bear breathing, body scans, and wiggle-and-freeze all use this principle. The goal isn't to empty the mind — it's to feel what's actually there.