At work, I deal with a 5 year old kid who has the worst frustration. EVER. It makes her cry, hyperventilate, and say gibberish. Gibberish that translates to “I’m completely hopeless. Help me. Do everything for me.” Her brain gets stuck on “I can’t! I can’t! It won’t!” or, “I’m still hungry!” so reasoning with her is ineffective. Today she cried because one of the kids was not playing with her. Any solution suggested to her resulted in a “I can’t!” accompanied with a ton of sobbing and hyperventilating.
When she calmed down, she joined some children at the drawing table where I also sat, of course. Since there was no more scratch paper to draw on, I had pulled out my homemade sketchbook which I normally kept with me in my fanny pack… basically a few sheets of paper bound by string. Well, she noticed this sketchbook and then wanted to make one. I mean, really wanted to make one. First of all, there was no blank paper available to make one. Secondly, we would need string and something to help string it through the pages. Third of all, it was almost time for her to go home anyway. I could tell she was becoming frustrated again as I was trying to convince her that we’ll make it another day, but then her mom arrived to pick her up.
Wow. Even though I’m pretty sure she will have forgotten about the sketchbook when I see her the next day, I think I will make her one anyway. And the cover will be this: 
So whenever she gets overwhelmed with frustration, I can just tell her to read the front of her journal. Yes!
I thought this was an actual quote, but I couldn’t figure out from who. I only found variations that weren’t quite the same. If anyone knows where this one came from, please share!
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