Day 26 - A Safe Place

Tonight was another night with the kids. I can take no credit for the actual creativity - I just helped. The youngest (9) enlisted my help decorating her "safe place." She had a whole vision worked out for what it would look like. She explained that when she got angry (as someone with 3 older brothers is bound to do sometimes), she could go to her room and close the door. She can sit in front of the closed door and use that time to calm down. And she calls it her "safe place." She wants to decorate it with things that will help her calm down. She also had a special notebook she plans to write out why she is angry. She has another notebook that will be for images that help her calm down - like happy pictures of herself. There is an area of the door for games. She explained that the game she wanted was one they did at school to practice their drills for calming down. You turn over a card that says "go forward one space" and one that space would be instructions like "Take a deep, slow breath." She said that by the time you reach the end of the board, you're calm. It seems like a neat tool. Hopefully I can continue to be a part of creating her vision.