Activity Calendar for March 2011

I wanted to post my calendar for March a little early in case anyone wanted to get their supplies in advance, so, here it is!

You should be able to click on the calendar to enlarge it and then click it one more time for easier viewing.

I'm planning on posting each activity individually as I complete them so you can see how they were done, but a little explanation might still be needed for a few of the things you see on here. For instance, if you do not know who King Mosiah is, he is a historical figure from the Book of Mormon. I am LDS (a Mormon) so I am trying to use my Sundays to teach my children the principles that my church teaches. If you are not LDS than you can use this time to teach your kids about your own religion, or if you are not religious, it would be a great day to teach your children about the nature that surrounds them.

You might also notice that I have the Library on my calendar every other week. That is because the Library is FREE and it has a little area for my kids to play. They get to explore new toys, find new books, and check out FREE movies every time we go, so I am trying to take advantage of my resources.

I also have preschool and the Children's Museum listed on this calendar. That is really just for my own purposes. My 3 year old attends a small preschool every Monday and I don't want to forget to drop her off so I highlighted it on the calendar. The Children's Museum is on there so often because we bought a pass for the Museum last year and March is the last month we can use it. I just want to make sure I am getting my money's worth! Anyway, I hope you find this calendar helpful. Happy planning!

Activity Calendar for February 2011

All these activities are centered around children between the ages of 2-4 but you can easily adapt the themes and activities to work for your own children, whatever age they might be.

You should be able to click on the calendar to enlarge it and then click it one more time for easier viewing.

Activity Calendar for January 2011

This is an example of my monthly calendar. All my activities are centered around children between the ages of 2-4 but you can easily adapt the themes and activities to work for your own children, whatever age they might be.

You should be able to click on the calendar to enlarge it and then click it one more time for easier viewing.

Consolidating Your Preparation Time

(Image from http://www.life123.com)

To ensure that you don't find yourself running out the door last minute to pick up supplies, or losing motivation because you can't think of an activity for the day, I find it best to pick one day a week to do all your preparation.

I know many mothers who do this with their weekly menus. They plan all their meals for the week in advance, and then do the shopping in one trip. After that, they pick one day to chop all their veggies, boil their chicken, etc. Then, when it finally comes time to prepare dinner, its only a matter of pulling the right containers out of the freezer and following the baking instructions.

So why not apply this concept to play time. Pick a day of the week that you have a little extra free time, make a weekly calendar of events, shop for the art supplies or other things you might need, and then get all the cutting, printing, and so forth done. Wallah! Now when the kiddies come begging mommy to play, all you have to do is pull out the right containers and follow instructions!

Organizing Your Week

(Image from http://jdorganizer.blogspot.com)

I find it easiest to think of things to do when I 'm working with a theme. So, for 2011, I assigned a theme for each day of the week:

Sunday-Gospel Learning
Monday-Arts, Crafts, and Music
Tuesday-Math and Science
Wednesday-Discovering the English Language
Thursday-Social Studies
Friday-PE/Dance
Saturday-Family Time

From there, I created sub-themes that will change each month. For example, in January the Gospel Learning theme is Father Lehi and the Social Studies theme is Discovering Russia. This way your children will have an entire month to focus on a subject and permanently log the information into their memories, but at the same time, things change each month so they don't get bored.

On top of my weekly themes, I also assigned letter themes to each month to help me stay creative with activities. They are as follows:

January- A,B,C
February- D,E
March- F,G
April- H,I
May- J,K
June- L,M
July- N,O
August- P,Q
September- R,S
October- T,U
November- V,W
December- X,Y,Z

Knowing what you are going to do ahead of time is key to actually getting out and doing things, so make sure to plan at least a week in advance, or a month in advance if you are feeling VERY motivated!