Calm-Down Time Author: Elizabeth Verdick | Language: English | ISBN:
B00658PWSG | Format: PDF
Calm-Down Time Description
This gentle, reassuring book offers toddlers simple tools to release strong feelings, express them, and calm themselves down. Children learn to use their calm-down place—a quiet space where they can take time out to cry, ask for a hug, sing to themselves or be rocked in a grown-up’s arms, talk about feelings, and breathe: “One, two, three . . . I’m calm as can be. I’m taking care of me.”
- File Size: 1563 KB
- Print Length: 24 pages
- Publisher: Free Spirit Publishing; Board Book edition (November 14, 2011)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00658PWSG
- Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #226,803 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #58
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Children's Nonfiction > People & Places > Social Situations
- #58
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Children's Nonfiction > People & Places > Social Situations
I love these books!
We've taken a cue from the books and differentiated nap time, bed time, and "calm down time". My son still naps in the morning, but has given up his afternoon sleep. However, he still gets tired and needs to rest in the afternoons. The "calm down time" book has helped demonstrate what it means, to have alone time and rest (without having it be punishment or "time out".
Somehow, my 2 year old takes the lessons less personally when we read about it in the books. We have the sharing, calm down time, hands are not for hitting and nap time. The books are simply stated so that a 2 year old can understand. They are vague enough that they apply to most children and situations. A bonus, the colors and patterns are vintage/nostalgic and fun to look at.
When I tell him it's calm down time, he gets very defensive and argumentative. So, my strategy has changed. Now, we sit down to read this book. The mommy in the book tells the boy calm down time. My son can see how the little boy in the book responds and sits or plays nicely. I can then leave him on the floor of his room to play solo for a bit. It may only last 5 minutes, but it's a positive start! I like the idea of teaching him to recognize when he needs to take a break and how to handle that. "1, 2, 3, taking care of me." (Mommies can learn from this lesson, too:)
By Cheryl Hill
My son is particularly sensitive and gets worked up and overstimulated easily. I bought this book in an effort to teach self-calming techniques to a toddler. The words and pictures are clear and simple - ideal for toddler comprehension - and the key calming phrase is easy. He loves this book and has me read it to him several times during Book Time before bed. He even recites the calming phrase with me: "1-2-3, I'm taking care of me," and it does seem to calm and relax him. (Now let's see if it works in the thick of the battle.)
It loses a star because I really can't figure out what they were doing in terms of rhyme scheme or rhythm. Your average toddler-targeted book has a rhyme scheme or at least a sing-songy rhythm. This book does too, but only in fits and starts. The opening two pages rhyme just fine. The third and fourth pages rhyme, but with a longer phrasing. I *think* the fifth/sixth pages are *supposed to* rhyme, but it's a stretch. Eventually you get down into the part about the child finding a calm down space and the rhyming/rhythm is completely haphazard - sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not. This may seem like a silly thing to yank a star over, but it makes reading aloud a bit stilted, jerky, and more complicated than it needs to be.
Regardless of my hang-ups over rhythm, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone with a young child with temper management difficulties (heh - I guess that means everyone). It's accessible to them and makes sense to them, teaches them a real-life calming technique, and best of all, it actually does calm them down.
By S. Zinn
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