Sleep Spell
For parents of children ages 4–9
Gentle words for the first conversation, and calm bedtimes for the weeks after.
A one-page guide for tonight:
Plus 5 short, gentle emails for the week ahead. Unsubscribe anytime.
A gentle pet loss kit for kids and parents. Everything for the weeks ahead, ready tonight.
$9.99 · instant download
Buying for another family? A gift version is included: a printable card and a note for the giver.
The picture book inside the kit. Read these pages with your child, or on your own first.
Lulu was a scruffy brown dog with one floppy ear and one ear that stood straight up, like it was always listening.
Lulu had been part of the family since before Mia was born. So Mia had never known a single day without her.
Every afternoon, Lulu waited by the front door. And when Mia came home from school, Lulu’s whole body wiggled, from her nose all the way to the tip of her tail.
Lulu loved three things most in the whole world. Chasing leaves in the garden. Stealing socks. And Mia.
The rest of the story is told gently and honestly: an old dog, a kind animal doctor, a hard goodbye, and the love that stays.
Read the whole story · Get the kit · $9.99Real pages from the kit. Calm colors, big spaces to draw and write, and words you can read straight from the page.
Built on what child-grief experts recommend: clear words, and no "went to sleep."
Every bedtime audio keeps sleep warm and safe, and never links it to death.
A guide for you, simple steps, and things to make side by side.
Most grief resources are written for adults and handed to children. This kit was built the other way round: every word, picture and page was checked against one question, how will this feel to a 5-year-old at 8pm in a quiet room?
Soft phrases like “went to sleep” or “we lost her” can make a child afraid of bedtime, or wait at the door for a pet who isn’t coming back. The story that explains death plainly is a daytime audio. The four bedtime audios never mention death at all.
The dog in our story is never drawn lying still or with her eyes closed. At bedtime, the child in the pictures is always sitting up, awake, with the curtains closed and a night-light on. No stars, no moon, no “watching from the sky”, so the night sky stays just the night sky.
Young children can’t picture “calm like the sea at night”. They can picture a turtle walking slowly, a blanket fresh from the dryer, a cup of warm milk. Every image in the audios is something a child has held, seen or felt.
Many young children quietly wonder if the pet died because of something they did. The story answers it before they ask: “It was not your fault. It was not anybody’s fault.”
Children grieve in short bursts. We call happy-and-sad-at-the-same-time a rainbow, so a child who laughs at school doesn’t feel they’ve stopped loving their pet.
Two soft syllables ending in an open vowel, easy for a 4-year-old to say and gentle to hear in a whisper. We avoided names tied to films about the afterlife.
You read the Parent’s Guide first, because children borrow calm from the grown-up beside them. And we never promise to “fix” grief: the guide tells you clearly when to ask for more help.
I cried many times while making this kit. At the line that Mia had never known a single day without Lulu. At the three things Lulu loved most in the whole world: chasing leaves, stealing socks, and Mia. Mom and Dad never had to say it, but they knew the thing Mia loved most was Lulu. And at the autumn Lulu stopped chasing leaves and only watched them blow past: she was losing the thing she loved, and Mia was about to lose the friend she loved most.
I kept those tears in mind as I worked. If a moment still moved me after the tenth read, I knew it was true enough to give to a child. And if a moment felt too heavy, I softened it, because your child will hear this at the end of a long, hard day.
This kit was made slowly, with a lot of feeling, for families going through exactly what you’re going through now.
Sleep Spell · first heard. then healed.
The picture book, the guide, the cards, the audios and the activity pages, in one instant download.