Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/moving-children-from-time-out-to-win-win/5008438/
Sandra and Leo just built an enclosure with walls in the block area. After enthusiastically agreeing they have successfully "filled in all the holes," Leo gets a container of plastic farm animals, starts putting them into the enclosure, and says, "This is a farm." Sandra disagrees, "No! It's a house!" As Leo repeats more emphatically that it's a farm, Sandra runs to get a container of miniature people and furniture. She returns to find Leo continuing to arrange animals. Sandra knocks the animals over and yells, "It's a house!" Leo starts to cry and takes a swing at Sandra. As she is about to retaliate, an adult comes over.Leo and Sandra's cooperative play has quickly degenerated into a fighting match. What started out as a shared vision (making an enclosure with the blocks) has become a conflict as they both try to impose their differing ideas on each other and experience the frustration and anger which results when two points of view clash.
Short-Term Solutions
When the adult arrives on the scene, an immediate goal needs to be to stop the conflict from accelerating further. There are several common ways of doing this. ...