Friday, October 28, 2016

DIY Toddler or Preschool Activity Calendar Magnets




I made an amazing little activity board for my 2.5 year old this week and so far I'm loving it! Also, now I'm kind of addicted to creating these little magnets and coming up with new activities or events to include on his board.




Right now, I've created all his standard daily and weekly activities: school, gym, laundry, shopping, family outing, family night in, etc; and magnets for Today, Tomorrow, and Yesterday as well as weather icons, holidays, doctor and dentist appointment icons AND stars to use for a star/behavior chart.

Click here to see how I made my activity board.

I am in love with some of these little magnets.


I mean, how cute are these?!

*Please disregard the dog hair in the star magnet... no one is perfect! :P

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Tuesday, October 25, 2016

$10 DIY Magnetic Activity Calendar




I saw the cutest activity calendar on Pinterest and was inspired to create my own. I didn't do it exactly the same way, though.

My son is now 2 1/2 years old, and we love planning different things to do. He goes to daycare 5 days a week and a fun little gym on Saturdays. We always talk about what we're doing and what's coming up, but it's a hard concept for little ones to grasp! Visuals always help. And of course, toddlers love to help and do things themselves, so what's better than little magnets for all the different activities that they can help put onto a magnetic calendar?




I started with a 14"x14" dry erase board that I found for less than $7 at Walmart. It's similar to this one pictured here:


Then I used my Silhouette Cameo and some scrap vinyl to cut out letters for the days of the week, a thin stripe, and the words "This Week" and "Coming up..." I hate measuring (*gasp!*) so just eyeballed the placement of all my vinyl lettering, and placed my little stripe approximately halfway down the board. (If you don't have a vinyl cutter, you can get alphabet stickers or make magnets with your days of the week and phrases on them to match the icons!)

I thought it'd be nice to have activities for the current week and then for next week and the near future. I didn't want to limit ourselves to only showing activities for the next week, because sometimes we talk about events a few weeks in advance - like for holidays or birthdays. I like to get the excitement started early!

I drew various little icons and colored them, then cut them out and "laminated" them. Each icon is about 1/2" to 3/4" - I figured for a 14x14" board and 7 days of the week, I needed to allot slightly less than 2 inches per week, so there would be space between. I thought about putting grid lines down between each weekday but liked the openness of the board without.




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Monday, October 24, 2016

Full-Time Mom, Full-Time Employed and FULL-TIME PREGNANT




I'M BAAACK!
I know my blogging has been slow. (Understatement). I've just been out-of-my-mind busy with my now 2.5 year old, with being a part-time grad student pursuing my MLIS (Master of Library and Information Studies), working full-time at a University Library (and prior to that at a public library and at a daycare), and with our recent move. PLUS, being pregnant of course is exhausting enough on its own.
That's right!! We're expecting baby number two! This wee one is a girl and she is due 2 days before her big brother's birthday! That means that as of this writing, I am about 20 weeks along. Half-way there! This pregnancy is going by so much faster!

Well, I plan to get back into the blogging thing - I have a few posts in mind. To give you some clues and some heads up...

  • How to take 6 weeks of leave when you don't qualify for paid maternity leave. (stressful and a lot of planning, to say the least!)
  • DIY activity calendar for toddlers, kids, or the whole family. Plus I'd like to have downloadables available...
  • Daily routine for a 2-year-old
  • Planning for DISNEY WORLD - with a 3-year-old and 8-month-old (next November - I'm so excited!)
  • Crock-pot meals and one-pot meals (I've been doing a lot of these since I work nights and am not home for dinner most days. I try and start something before I go to work so that my DH - that's Darling Husband - can just serve it up, or throw everything I've prepped into a pan to make dinner easier on them)
So hopefully, I'll get back into a routine posting schedule soon - so keep on the lookout for some new content! :)
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