Creating the Ultimate Calm Down Kit: Using the Five Senses to Reset and Regulate

What is a calm down kit you ask? Well, a calm down kit is a tool that can be used to help children self-regulate, center themselves, and reset. Building a calm down kit does not have to be expensive or complicated. You and your child can create a simple and effective calm down kit by focusing on items that engage with the five senses. So, grab a basket, box or bag and let’s begin to curate the ultimate calm down kit!

Below are some ideas for items or activities that your child might enjoy placing in their calm down kit that correlate with each of the five senses: Sight, Touch, Listen, Smell, and Taste.

Sight:

Items to add to your child’s calm down basket that will appeal to the visual senses might include:

-breathing exercise cards

-glitter jar or snow globe

-I Spy book

-family photo album

Touch

Below are some tools to help your child engage with the sense of touch:

-fidget toy, like a Pop-It

-palm or scalp massager

-putty or slime

-stress ball

-sensory bag or pillow

-Rubik’s cube

-soft and cozy blanket

-if younger, a favorite stuffed animal

Listen:

Items that will create a sense of calmness through listening might include:

-headphones to listen to a calming playlist

-rainstick

-sound machine

-music box

-chimes or gentle bells

Smell:

Aromatherapy is a great way to immediately trigger a sense of calm. Here are some objects you can add to your child’s calm kit to ignite the sense of smell:

-essential oils

-nature scents

-lotions

-scented markers

-scratch and sniff stickers

-candles

-diffusers

Taste:

It’s always nice for your child to have a little treat or something appealing to their sense of taste:

-dark chocolate

-mints or gum

-tea

-hard candy or lollipop

-favorite quick snack

Other Items to Include:

Some other items you may want to think about including in your child’s calm down basket might include:

-mindfulness coloring books

-yoga pose cards

-small puzzles or crossword books

-gratitude or regular journal

-bubbles

Depending on your child’s age and general self-regulation needs, invite them to select about 8-12 items to place in their calm basket to start. Objects can be swapped out monthly or seasonally. After selecting items for the kit, set some boundaries about when and how to use it. Your child should find a special place to put their calm down kit, ideally in a quiet and comfortable environment. A good time to use this kit is whenever they are feeling overwhelmed or frustrated or experiencing any other big emotion.

Calm down kits should be used for around 10-15 minutes per session as a quick brain and emotional reset. During this time your child should choose 2-3 items that they are drawn toward and that they feel will help them regulate their emotions and lift their mood.

A calm down kit is a simple and effective tool for social and emotional regulation that can be added to your house today! Here is an example of a calm basket shared on Peak’s Instagram account.

Written by Laine J.

Promoting Student Social and Emotional Wellbeing At Home

Social and emotional wellbeing is such a crucial aspect of student health. As children progress through school, assignments lengthen, activities increase and demands heighten. All of the sudden, your child can find themselves overwhelmed, stressed and struggling to keep up with a heavy workload and tight schedule of extracurricular activities. So, let’s talk about what social and emotional wellbeing is and how you as a parent can promote wellness at home despite all the demands of school and life.

Social and emotional wellness essentially comes down to an individual’s ability to create and foster relationships with others, make responsible decisions, and comprehend and cope with their emotions. One’s ability to develop a healthy and strong sense of identity, manage emotions, achieve personal and academic goals, and adapt to changing circumstances all rely heavily on their social and emotional wellness. Social and emotional wellness also strengthens one’s ability to create healthy boundaries, build a positive social network, navigate conflict, and encourage communication and trust. Clearly, social and emotional wellness is incredibly vital not only to academic performance, but also success throughout all of life’s challenges and twists and turns.

Research shows that when students are explicitly taught social and emotional learning skills and given opportunities for practice and reinforcement that they have better behavioral, social and academic outcomes. So, let’s go through a few simple ways you can encourage social and emotional wellbeing as a family at home:

Coping Skills

Help your child to come up with some self-affirmations that will foster self-confidence and resiliency. Self-affirmations might be phrases like “I can do this,” “I am enough,” or “I can do amazing things.” Another activity which encourages coping skills in students is a daily journaling practice. Reflecting upon the day's events for 5-10 minutes a day can help to achieve goals, track progress, inspire new ideas and build confidence.

Gratitude Practice

Create a gratitude journal that your child can fill out each day. If the idea of a journal is too daunting, try sitting down as a family at dinner, or at the end of the day, and have everyone say three things they are grateful for. Modeling this practice is very helpful for kids. It’s beneficial to have your child share specific people, places and experiences, as well as why they feel gratitude for each.

Self-Care Routine

Incorporating self-care practices into daily life helps to strengthen social and emotional wellness. Finding a way for your child to exercise lightly each day for 15-20 minutes is a great way to encourage self-care. Dancing, yoga, bike riding and a walk around the block are all simple ways to get daily movement in. Apart from exercise, you can encourage your child to create other enjoyable nighttime routines to unwind and relax, like taking a warm bubble bath, coloring mandalas or reading for pleasure!

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is one of the absolute best ways to increase focus and reduce stress. Compiling a list of breathing exercises your child can choose from when they need a break, like the Take 5 breathing, or practicing a daily mindful minute together as a family can be so powerful. Spending time as a family outside listening to the sounds of nature is another great mindfulness activity.

Connection

With our busy schedules, it can be difficult to find opportunities to come together as a family. Though it may be hard to find the time, it’s important to make the effort to connect as a family each day. Enjoying family dinners, baking cookies, playing board games or coming up with a special craft or day-trip can all be fabulous ways to connect.

Written by: Laine J.