Create A Calm-Down Kit
The first step to helping kids know how to calm themselves is to teach them to understand what to watch for when they become angry. Anger causes physical things to happen in our bodies. As children’s anger rises, their bodies respond in specific ways.
Examples include:
- Shaking hands
- Breathing more quickly or heavily
- Raising their voices
- Desiring to scream
- Wanting to hit something
- Pacing
- Narrowing their gazes
- Clenching fists
- Tightening muscles
- Feeling hot
- Desiring to escape
- Faces heating up and turning red
- Feeling sick to their stomachs
- Experiencing aggressiveness
- Longing to cry
Knowing these body cues—in addition to understanding negative thought patterns—can sharpen your child’s awareness of what’s happening inside. Your child can then work to pause long enough to understand his or her emotions and choose ways to calm him or herself, instead of getting mad.
Create a Calm Down Kit of your own:
- Bubbles
- Play Dough
- Stress ball
- A small notebook and colored pens
- Chewing gum
- A spinning top
- A liquid or sand timer
Click here to get the list on Amazon.
Talk to your child about things that help him or her calm down and add to the calm bag. Also, make a list of other things that help like taking slow, deep breaths or counting to twenty. Items or techniques can be added to the calming bag over time.
Thank you for joining us for the Calming Angry Kids series. Pre-order your copy today and prepare your hearts for when anger strikes.
More on Calming Angry Kids blog series
Introduction
Day 1: What’s Causing My Child’s Anger?
Day 2: Relationship Over Rules
Day 3: A Parent’s Response to Anger
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