Quote Originally Posted by daycaremum View Post
This also would never happen at my daycare with a child I had in my care for so long. Regardless, I would remove the child from the play space to be alone until she could calm down. I would tell her that she was behaving badly and myself and her friends don't need to hear her doing it so she can be by herself until she's ready to behave nicely. She would stay there until she was calm, quiet and ready to apologize. Yes, at 2.5 years she should be able to do all this.
I also reinforce that it is okay to have whatever feelings she is having but not okay to scream, kick, hit and encourage her to use words to tell me how she is feeling. (after she has calmed down)

To be clear, I have had children have a tantrum at my home when they have started at an older age and are learning the ropes at my house. I say this would "never happen with a child I had in my care for so long" because it wouldn't. They may get upset and need to have a big cry, but never a full out flailing tantrum. Maybe I have been lucky. I have clear expectations around behaviour. The children know that their feelings are okay, they learn the best way to express their emotions, they learn to come to me for help with their feelings, etc... They also know what behaviours are acceptable and unacceptable. I would be shocked if any of my daycare kids had a falling down, flailing tantrum, because it just doesn't happen here. I'm not trying to sound like I'm judging anybody, it's just the truth.
What leads up to these tantrums? Is it a new thing or if you look back has she slowly been moving towards this behaviour happening?
Our day is just so predictable there would be nothing to really set a child off like that.