Lately, our lives have been the antonym of planned and structured; more of a spontaneous outburst of actions and reactions, with all the glory and downfalls. Not chaotic, but, just not planned in advance.
Recently, Zoe (7) asked me to help her prepare a monthly planner for our family activities. She wanted to know in advance what we’ll be doing every day of the month, including play dates, trips, birthdays and craft activities; she even wanted to know when we’ll be baking and what’s for dinner.
I looked at her a bit puzzled, thinking “I can hardly plan tomorrow”!
We have been moving quite frequently and this perhaps was her way of asking for a little peace of mind and a sense of stability.
So, I went out and brought her a weekly erasable planning board and we’ve started a weekly family meeting (following Amily’s advice). In these meetings we bring up different issues we’ve encountered during the week, and find ways to resolve them. We also take time to mark in our planning board our plans for the coming week.
Some weeks we slack, and skip our meetings and planning all together, until Zoe reminds us and we all go back to our routine.
Some of the advantages of having a weekly family plan are:
- I know what to plan for (get the right supplies)
- The girls have something too look forward to
- We get to do many projects we have wanted to do but forgot about
- It promotes independence
- Increase a sense of stability
- We have more quality time together
This experience helped us so much to bond as a family, that I’ve decided to create an actual calendar that can be used as a family activity planner, and promote creativity at the same time (2 birds in 1). I have included a drawing assigment relevant for each month with referances as needed. please downlaod the 2011 activity calendar and Use it with your family to plan activities and promote creativity while spending time together (one step closer to living in a perfect world)
How-to get the calendar:
- Click on this link - 2011 ACTIVITY CALENDAR
- Select print and set up your printer. I have edited the calendar for a letter size but you may print to scale to different sizes. I recommend card stock paper.
- To bind the calendar together you can use a clip, punch a hole and tie a string, or use a spiral bound
- Hang it in a central place so everyone can see it
- USE IT
- Enjoy it
- Any problems, you know where to find me.
Downloading the calendar is free, I have added a 'tip jar' PayPal button for those of you who want to support growing up creative. No amount is too little.
Thank you for your support
tali
