Interactive Preschooler Calendar

My little preschooler is CONSTANTLY asking what we are doing on any particular day in addition to what we are eating for lunch. Then he repeats the questions for tomorrow, then the next day, and the next and...you get the point!  The poor little guy just wants to know what the heck is going on in his life!  As he probably should want to know!

So I came up with this interactive calendar to help him {and me} out!  This gives him a little more know about the upcoming events in his "busy" little life.  Some things he can choose to add to the calendar and others, I will choose for obvious reasons (he's only allowed one day a week to have chicken nuggets - otherwise it would be EVERY day or we always go to Story Time at the library on Thursdays).  He can move items all around, move the arrow so he knows what day is today, and it also teaches him a little about the days of the week.

Download this document HERE.  Note that this prints on LEGAL paper so be warned!  Designing the calendar on letter sized paper just didn't fit quite right, but I wanted everything to fit on a single sheet of paper.  Legal size was my compromise.  I then laminated mine for durability (with legal sized laminating sheets).  Your preschooler can write their name on the line either before or after you laminate it.  I went for after so I can re-use it with the next child.

Here are the various calendar activities:

These print on regular paper.  Download them HERE.  I printed mine on white card stock and laminated.  There are duplicates of some of the images for obvious reasons - like in case you go to the gym more than once a week ;).  Then I cut out all the circles. **I have more circle options coming - toys, zoo, soccer, dance, pizza night, babysitter - if you can think of more that you would like, let me know!**

I adhered sticky velcro to the calendar as pictured above and the opposite sides of the velcro to the back sides of the circles.  The arrow moves along the bottom row of velcro so the child knows what the current day is.

So far, my little guy is enjoying planning out his little schedule.  An added bonus is he's becoming better acquainted with the days of the week!

Kids' Daily Goals

My kids do "goals" every weekday (Saturdays are for family outings or projects and Sunday is a day of rest!).  It's our family's version of chores.  To me, chores seem to be more of a drudgery, something everyone loathes and cries about when they have to be done!  Where goals are something we aspire to get accomplished that make us feel good about ourselves after they are completed.  So the term "goals" is here to stay in our family!

To help my kids remember all their goals, I created this one-sheet "Daily Goals" list... 

You can download the list HERE.  I printed ours on white card stock and placed in a plastic sheet protector for durability.  It hangs on our magnetic board for easy viewing.

Here's a breakdown of the pictures:

First column (morning goals):

eat breakfast

get dressed

brush hair and teeth

prayers

make bed

computer reward

Second column  (after school goals):

eat snack or lunch

unload backpack

homework (which always includes 20 minutes of reading)

cleaning job*

piano practicing

electronic reward

Third column (night goals):

eat dinner

bath and pj's

brush teeth and hair

prayers

read books reward

I like to introduce goals when I have a child starting pre-school (and that's why there are only pictures and no words).  Any earlier and it's just unnecessary work for me!  This one-page goal chart serves my 3, 5 and 7 year olds.  The 3-year old must do the yellow boxes.  The 5-year old must complete the yellow and green, and the 7-year olds (I have twins!) must complete the yellow, green and blue boxes.  I guess as they grow, I'll continue to add more but this is what works  for my ages right now.

The red boxes are the reward for completing each column which are divided by morning, afternoon and nightly rewards.  Once morning goals are completed, the kids can do, what I call "educational media" on the computer if they have time before school.  My twins love a program introduced to them at school called REFLEX math.  My 5-year old loves PDSKids.org and my 3-year old loves starfall.com.  When after school goals are completed, everyone is entitled to some down-time (I think it's important to be able to rest after a long day of working).  This is when they can turn on a movie, play the Wii, or any other electronic device until dinner.  Then after dinner and night time goals are completed, we all wind down for bed with books.  My husband and I split up and read chapter books to the older kids and picture books to the younger ones.

During the school year, if my kids complete their morning goals and still have time before they must leave for school, they can get on the computer (I'll be honest, this is rare - but it does occasionally happen!).  However, this changes a bit in the summer.  When there is no school, the morning and after school goals are to be completed before any playing with friends, screen time, or swimming is allowed (we swim A LOT in our family during the summer!).

During the summer, I also allow the kids 3 free days (this does not include weekends, family vacations or sick days - I'm not a total task master!!) where they can choose to not do their goals for any 3 week days throughout the summer.  HOWEVER.  If they use more than 3 free days, they don't get to go to our local amusement park which we as a family go to the last week of summer.  It's a highly anticipated event in our family and no member wants to miss it!

So, if you are looking for a simple organizational system for your kids, I'd highly recommend a chart like this one!  If you have different "goals" for your family, I'd highly recommend purchasing this chore clip art from Susan Fitch's Etsy shop HERE.  She has some great work!!  She also has a few free ones on her website HERE.

*I rotate a simple cleaning job for each of my kids.  It coincides with my cleaning job I have assigned for myself HERE on any given day.  My 5-year old on Mondays cleans a mirror, Tuesday cleans the inside of the toilet, Wednesday wipes something (walls, light switches, food containers, etc.), Thursday dusts and Friday vacuums something simple - ususally the stairs where I help).  As the children grow, I give them a little harder task in the same areas each day.

My Weekly Schedule

My Weekly Schedule is the backbone to my home and time organization.  It's fairly simple, and it has to be...otherwise, I wouldn't do it.  Over the course of the next few weeks, I'll go into more detail of each item and how I incorporate my children into this schedule so they learn the importance of working too.

I've altered this schedule throughout the years to accommodate changes (more kids, bigger home, volunteering at the school, etc.)

I know everyone's schedule cannot be the same as mine, so here's a blank one that you can fill in as you need:

Download either of these documents HERE.

I'll be honest, I'm constantly tweaking my schedule as life changes!  But for the most part, the schedule is a definite constant.  

Most of my deep cleaning happens in the morning, after I've worked out (if I'm lucky!) and still in grubby clothes.  It's assumed with this list that cleaning up after meals and tidying up are done throughout the day.

It's actually too overwhelming for me to clean the whole house in a week.  I have 3 bathrooms and I can't manage to clean all 3 of them in 2 days so what I do is one week is the main floor and the next week is the basement with the exception of the kitchen (since I don't have a kitchen in the basement), I work on cleaning the kitchen every week.  Then alternate.  It's seemed to work with our family.  The kids help me clean the level of the house that I don't clean that week so if I'm cleaning the main floor, they will be assigned jobs in the basement (bathroom, dusting and vacuuming, etc.).

For laundry, I try to get it all washed and dried all morning, then it gets folded and put away when I help kids with homework after school.  On bad days it will get folded when my husband and I sit down to watch something on Netflix after the kids go to bed :).  Then I'll just put it away the next morning!

My "other" category always happens during afternoon naptime.  This is my downtime, even though I'm still technically working.