Calendar Time!

Silas has been showing a lot of interest in the date, the day of the week, the events of the day and even the month of the year.  So I figure it's time to start up a calendar.  As usual, I did some research: consulted all my favorite blogs (such as this one, this one and this one), checked out a few teacher supply stores, and looked up a few early childhood resources.  And then, as usual, I kinda just made up my own thing.  I'm having trouble finding time to get these things set up - especially as I'm currently printerless.  And unlike a city dweller, I'm afraid there's no teacher supply store to run to every time I want to try something new.  That's probably a good thing!  So, I went into my basement and had a look around, then spent some quality time with some foam sheets, scissors and a black sharpie marker.

This is what I came up with:

Not very inspiring, right?  I mean, compared to the beautiful, exactly straight, perfectly co-ordinated and professionally done works of art I listed above, it's pretty ho-hum.  But darn it, it works!  Silas and Oliver both enjoy it.  A lot!  And Silas is already helping me count whereas before he couldn't go past 12 (except for randomnly inserting 16 four or five times lol!).  He knows what month it is, what month is coming up and which month his birthday is in.  Yesterday, today and tomorrow concepts? We're still working on those!  

Surprisingly, the aspect of this that he enjoys most is the daily posted routine.  He loves knowing what's coming up and when.  He used to always ask, "What's today mom?" and I say, "Tuesday is swimming day" or "Thursday is town day".  Now he looks it up himself every morning, we talk about our day after the date has been established and he steps me through it.  This is yesterday's list posted in the picture, and we were out of the house for a play date in the morning and a hockey game (to watch) in the afternoon, so there are quite a few little activities around the house that aren't listed.  Often, I plan on pulling out the play dough or the sensory bin or sitting down and playing train tracks with them, but often fail to follow through.  And since it was all posted privately in my head, or at best, my iPad, it didn't really matter.  Now I'm accountable to my plan!  Silas knows!  It's really been working out really well.  

Another aspect of the calendar that I didn't suspect was the kick start it would give our day.  Often, after breakfast, we'd sit down and go over our calendar and our day.  The first thing listed in our routine is always "Get Ready".  I have made Silas a checklist of things to do every morning so we're ready for the day.  It's a simple little list and he does his thing while I do mine and then we really are ready for a new day!  No more lolling about in the mornings, it's been great!  Anyhow, I digress!

The reason I chose to share this less-than-stellar little calendar was to show you that simple is better than none.  Inspired to Action is a blog that, oddly enough, really inspires me, and I especially identified with this post.  It's so true!  And I'm so glad I made this little calendar for my family as it's already done big things for us.  Not only that, but I'm hoping to build on it.  Not only to ease us into the whole thing - Silas is only three, after all, and I'm in no rush - but also to give me time to prepare it.  Spending hours and hours all at once is a tall order for me around here.  One little thing a month, though,  I can handle that, right?  

I'll share as I go!