Free printable · 7 pages · ages 3–8
The 5-Minute Meltdown Plan
What to do when a big feeling hits and you can't think: five steps for the fridge, the exact words to say, cards a child can follow, and a calm corner you can set up tonight.
- One page to read when the meltdown starts and your mind goes blank
- Six things to say instead of “calm down”, “you're fine” and “use your words”
- Four reset cards a child who can't read yet can follow on their own
- A classroom version, so the teacher and you are saying the same thing
- Free — the PDF is emailed in about a minute
- Plain paper, black and white is fine
- No card, no account, nothing that renews
- Made for ages 3–8
Where should we send it?
The PDF link goes to your inbox, so it is always there when you need another copy. Nothing to pay.
Trusted by 35,000+ customers worldwide
Free means free. No card, no handling fee, no catch. You get one email with the PDF, then an occasional one about our books, and you can stop those with one click. If the free pages are all you ever wanted from us, that is fine.
How it works
Three steps, about ten minutes
- 1
Email it to yourself
Enter your address, tick the box, and the PDF link is in your inbox in about a minute. Print it on plain paper.
- 2
Put page 2 on the fridge
Read it once on a calm day. Steps 1 and 4 are the ones most of us skip: get low, and wait.
- 3
Use it when it happens
Point at the wheel, say what you see, hand them a reset card, wait. The talking comes after, not during.
What's inside
Everything in the plan
The 5-Minute Meltdown Plan
Five steps on one page: get low and close, say what you see, give the feeling a job, wait, repair after. Drawn, not written, so it reads from across the kitchen.
The feelings wheel
Eight feelings with faces your child can point to when the words run out: happy, excited, angry, scared, sad, worried, tired and calm.
Say this instead
Six swaps for the hardest minute, each with the line we all reach for crossed out and the line that works beside it.
Four reset cards
Cut-out cards a child can follow without reading: push the wall, blow out five candles, squeeze yourself, find five things.
A calm corner in 5 minutes
A five-item checklist. You already own everything on it; the page just tells you where to put it.
The classroom version
The same five steps with fewer words, for teachers, daycare, Sunday school and the babysitter.
Reviews
What parents say
Trusted by 35,000+ customers worldwide
This plan is new, so there are no reviews yet. When parents tell us how it went, their words go here: theirs, not ours.
Why this one
More than another list of tips
How we made it
Built on research, not guesswork
We read the published work of child psychologists, pediatricians and early-childhood researchers first, then wrote and drew the pages to put it into practice at home.
Who it's for
- Parents of children aged 3–8 who want one page to read when a meltdown starts
- Grandparents and babysitters who need the plan on the fridge
- Teachers, daycare and Sunday school: the classroom version is page 7
What it puts into practice
- Get low and close first: a child settles faster with a calm adult beside them
- Name the feeling before trying to fix it: say what you see, point at the wheel
- Give the feeling a job: push the wall, blow out five candles, squeeze yourself, find five things
- Wait: the feeling has to pass before the talking can start
- Repair after, on both sides, so the day does not end on the meltdown
An educational tool for everyday parenting and teaching, not therapy or medical advice.
Questions
Still curious?
Enter your email address on this page and tick the box. The PDF link is in your inbox in about a minute, and the link keeps working, so you can print it again whenever you need a fresh copy. Nothing ships and there is nothing to pay.
Free means free
No card, no handling fee, no catch. You get one email with the PDF, then an occasional one about our books, and you can stop those with one click. If the free pages are all you ever wanted from us, that is fine.