I am a pre-planner. I plan our day based on what phase/personality type each of my gremlins are in. If it is a throwing kind of week we have Nerf and cardboard.... If I have a biter the room will have lots of temporary dividers.. If I have a book worm I will have lots of quiet activities and free reading times, etc, etc..... When pre-planning and redirection do not work I move to time outs.
I use "time out" about once a day. Usually late afternoon since the majority of my kids are here 10 hours a day and get a little moody (don't blame them, just the facts). Time out is 1 minute sitting alone per year of age in a "cool-down" chair in the same room with everyone else. It is
horribly ineffective but all I am allowed to do legally anymore.
Mostly I use it to give
myself a couple minutes to rearrange the room or get out a new activity since we obviously must be "finished" with whatever we were doing....
I also have a screaming corner for temper tantrums (older kids controlling screaming,
not crying...totally different animals)..When they start I just point to it, they walk themselves over and simply rejoin the group when they are done. I give zero attention to "screamers".