Positive Parenting Tools: Calm Down Travel Bag

We have our calm down box at home, but sometimes (okay, fairly often) my kids get upset when we’re out. So, today I made a trip to the dollar store and bought a small jar, balloons, and Play Doh.

I made a small I Spy jar, which is the travel version of our calm down jar. I figure if they focus their minds on looking for things in the jar, it’s the same as focusing on the swirling glitter. I just added some colored rice and a few little items to spy.

Then, I just had to make the cute little stress ball balloons I saw here. Just fill balloons with Play Doh and draw faces on them.  I made 2 for our calm down box at home, and 2 for the travel bag.

I put the small I spy jar, a stress balloon ball, and a small paper tablet inside a Ziploc bag and tossed the bag in my purse. Now I have tools to help my kids calm down no matter where we are.