Focus and Calm - Explorers (K to 2)

Eight short adventures about wriggles, big feelings and getting started, for children still learning to write. Mostly drawing and trying things out, with a grown up reading along.

Who it is for

Kindergarten to grade 2, roughly ages five to eight. For the child who cannot sit still, the one who goes blank when something feels hard, or the one whose feelings get very big very fast.

The eight adventures

• What Makes You Wiggle? Noticing when it happens, with no telling off attached
• Starting Is Hard Two minutes on a timer, with permission to stop
• Little Bursts Work a bit, stop a bit, and finding a break that actually helps
• My Special Spot Setting up where they work so it helps rather than hinders
• Big Feelings Drawing the feeling and noticing where in the body it sits
• Breathing Like A Bear Six calming things tried properly, keeping the two that work
• When I Get Stuck Three kinds of stuck, and telling them apart
• My Calm Kit Everything that worked, in one place, shown to the family

A note on what this is

It treats wriggles and big feelings as ordinary things to practise handling. It is not an assessment and it is not treatment, and the book says so plainly to the adult on the first page.

How it works

No schedule and no start date. Each adventure takes about twenty minutes. Instructions are written for you to read aloud, and there is a box on every drawing page for what your child said about it.

The details

• 28 pages, instant PDF download
• Letter size, prints clearly in black and white
• Crayons or pencils is the entire materials list
• Ends with their own calm kit and a certificate