Creating & using our toddler "time in" calming corner
Disclaimer: Generation Mindful was kind enough to send me the Time-In Toolkit. I reached out to them! I’ve been eying their products and am thrilled to partner with them on this post. This post contains affiliate links.
Memphis has a new “time in” corner (or calming corner, whatever name you want to give it) and I’m so excited!
When we use the time in corner
We’ve only had the time in corner set up for a few days, but we’ve been practicing. I like to sit in the corner with him a few times a day, both when he’s in a good mood and when he’s upset. My thought is that he won’t see it as a negative experience that way.
Obviously the benefit to us as parents will be to use it when he’s having a tantrum or is mad/sad/upset to help him pause and process, but I feel like he needs to learn about all his feelings, not just the ones that cause tears.
How we use the time in corner
I sit with Memphis in the time in corner and we look at the “My Feelings” chart together. I ask him if he can point to how he’s feeling. Right now he needs a little more guidance than that, so I’ll narrow it down to a few for him. I know that as he gets the hang of it and learns he will be able to do this on his own.
This seems like such a simple activity, but it’s what we need right now. My first goal is to help him learn to identify and label his feelings.
Then we look at the “My Calming Strategies” poster, and talk about some things we can do. (Excuse the glare, his corner is right by windows!)
I wish I could say it’s like magic and he immediately calms down. He doesn’t. But I feel good about the practice we are getting and have confidence that in time he will grow his social-emotional intelligence and learn positive coping strategies.
I’m also super excited to introduce him to “The Peacemakers.” If you study the chakras, you’ll notice that this is basically an introduction to the chakras! I’m waiting on that because I want to start simple so he doesn’t get overwhelmed.
How we set up the time in calming corner
Here’s a quick tutorial, although it’s really self explanatory. We chose to put it in a corner in our living room. I considered his bedroom or play room, but his play room is upstairs away from the rest of the house and he’s going to be sharing his bedroom with his sibling soon. I wanted to make sure his corner was always easily accessible. He won’t be able to go in the bedroom if his sibling is napping.
What we used:
2 IKEA 12X16” FISKBO frames
2 IKEA 19¾ x 27½" FISKBO frames
Floor cushion (we used one we already had)
The large posters are 20 x 30”. You can certainly find poster frames this size, but I opted for the IKEA ones, which are slightly smaller, because they are uber cheap. I just trimmed the edges of the posters and they look fine!
Side note: You absolutely don’t need frames. The posters are high quality and they even sent poster hangers. I just wanted it to look a little more polished since it was in our living room.
Overall I’m pleased with how it turned out!
I’m really happy with the Generation Mindful Time-In Toolkit and am glad we chose it. I looked into some other preschool posters about emotions and couldn’t find anything as comprehensive or as attractive. Especially since this was going in our living room, I wanted something that didn’t look super cheesy. :) The fact that it came with so many tools that we can use as he continues to learn and grow, and that it incorporated the chakras, really sold me.
Memphis has been having some big feelings and my hope is that by having some help identifying and labeling his emotions, we can help him work through them. Social-emotional skills are learned, just like math and science. As parents, we can teach our children skills that will help them through life — skills I am learning as an adult!
I love this question posed by Generation Mindful: What if "Stop crying" turned into "I'm listening" for an entire generation?