Why a calm corner
Big feelings arrive fast in small bodies. A calm corner is a place a child can go, on purpose, to slow down: breathe, squeeze and relax the body, then name the feeling. Sesame Workshop teaches it as "Breathe, Think, Do"; classroom programmes such as Second Step use a belly-breath every day. This page is that corner, on a screen, with Golu doing it alongside your child.
How to use it
- Breathe: the bubble grows for four counts (breathe in) and shrinks for four (breathe out), five times.
- Squeeze: make fists and scrunch your shoulders, then let everything go soft, like Golu.
- Name it: tap the face that matches how you feel now.
Use it before Golu's Day when a child arrives cross or sleepy, after a fall-out with a sibling, or at bedtime. Do it with them the first few times; children copy calm better than they are told it.
How to use this page at home
Say it, then find it
Play for a few minutes, then look for the same thing away from the screen: calm corner on the shelf, in the kitchen, on the way to school. A child learns a word properly when they meet it twice, once on the screen and once in their hand.
Ten minutes is enough
Short and happy beats long and tired. Stop while your child still wants more, and come back tomorrow: the same page on five short days teaches far more than one long sitting. Nothing here is scored, so there is no reason to push.
Use both languages
Tap the language button at the top to hear the words in your home language first and the second language after. Hearing the same picture named in two languages is one of the few things research agrees builds attention as well as vocabulary.