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Update: Especially now during the pandemic, we find ourselves seeking more ways to spend time with our children in meaningful ways while balancing work and other day-to-day responsibilities. We hope you find this kids activity schedule helpful and fun to try out with your kids.
One day, my daughter asked me if she could paint. I told her not today, but that she could leave her paint tin in the living room so that we wouldn’t forget tomorrow. The next day, of course, by the time she saw it and reminded me, it was already late and I told her that we could tomorrow.
This went on for four days in a row until my daughter had given up on asking (does this sound familiar to anyone?!). Later that week, I came upon the paint tin myself. It had been there for so many days that it had become a part of the normal setting and no longer served as a reminder.
It pained me to see it. It guiltily reminded me that I slowly but surely, discouraged my daughter from painting, an activity she loves and looks forward to. All because the thought of prep and clean up was enough to deter me from happily making it a possibility when there was time.
As a serial problem solver in all areas of my life, I made a commitment to figure out how to make this process easier for everyone involved.
I used the 5 Why’s technique and realized that ultimately, what it came down to was learning to better manage my own expectations. It wasn’t that I didn’t think it wasn’t a wholesome activity, or as I always told myself, that my daughter never asked with enough advanced notice. It was about managing myself and making sure that I felt prepared.
If my daughter had asked to draw or color, I almost always say yes because the kids can grab their own supplies and have at it with no supervision. With painting, I felt it always snuck up on me, and I was reluctant to say yes when I thought about all the work involved with set up, supervision and cleanup.
Even with no-spill paint cups** and no mess “Paint with water” activity books**, the kids always managed to somehow make a mess, staining the table or the floor (my younger son somehow manages to do this with stamps too). So painting in our house is an activity that requires a lot of prep and supervision!
Not only was it messy but I also feared they’d ask to do it more often. Which led to “What if they ask to do it everyday?” …I know, first world problems… but it was truly a dilemma for me, and I’m sure I’m not alone!
So what is a mama to do?
Me? I asked my kids if they’d like to work on a fun project with me: creating a weekly activity schedule where we decided together, what activities we’d do each day of the week and when.
This involved:
- Creating a chart for each day of the week (the kids got to write in the day of the week) and then laminating it
- Listing out all the activities they like to do
- Drawing something that represents each activity. We recommend using pencil and colored pencils but any drawing/coloring utensils will do.
- Laminating and cutting out each activity. Laminating is optional, but we highly recommend it for durability reasons and a side benefit is that the lamination process makes the drawings and color more vibrant.
- Adding velcro strips to the back of each activity and to each square slot of each day. Tip: Make sure you put the softer “loop” side” on the back of all the activities and the harder “hook” side on the schedule. If you accidentally swap, that is OK. Just make sure that you keep it straight. If you end of putting the same side on both pieces, they won’t stick together.
- Selecting and assigning activities to each day of the week. We recommend doing this on a Sunday so that you can discuss as a family, the activities you plan on doing for the rest of the week. Allow your kid(s) to choose some of the activities. It’s good to also designate which are independent activities they can do on their own, and which are supervised ones.
- Hanging up or organizing our weekly activity schedule in a binder so everyone can see it and what we committed to.
Our kids had a lot of fun making it, drawing, coloring and learning how to use the laminator** and velcro strips**/velcro dots**.
What activities do you and your kids enjoy together? Share your ideas with us in the comments section below. We love hearing from you!
If you’re interested in a printable version of our weekly activity chart that you can print and customize for your child, send us a note and let us know. We have one in the works, and we can notify you once it’s ready. We are working on creating various family resources and are constantly prioritizing and re-prioritizing our projects based on what our community needs. We love hearing from you so don’t be shy!
If you’re looking for recommendations on arts & crafts supplies to have on hand, check out our blog post here.
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