Tomorrow is New Year’s Day, and we will be having a planner party! Maybe only in our house are we so geeky as to have a planner party, but I love planners and gave my kids some for Christmas (they had been asking!).
Any day in January is a great time to go over the months of the year, days of the week, seasons, holidays, birthday graphing, and so much with your Elementary aged children.
For any age, it is great to go over time management skills, and to learn the art of looking ahead to prepare for what is coming up, as well as setting goals.
For my younger children, I printed out free monthly calendar pages here: https://ebbandflowcc.com/printable-2021-calendar/ . I bound them with my comb-binder, but you could also simply staple the edges and add some pretty washi tape. Cute!
I have been setting out a few things on the table for our planner party tomorrow. Here are some things we will be doing (and don’t forget to add some snacks and drinks to the table later!):
We will begin with a verse of Scripture to memorize: “Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in Your book and planned before a single one of them began.” Psalm 139:16.
What a good thought for us to think on as we begin our new year: God is completely Sovereign over all our plans and choices. Any good work set by Him before us, we can delight in, as He has planned it. Anything of our own that does not succeed? We can rest in knowing that God has planned good for us out of that, too. Knowing our own plans are not ultimate, frees us to pursue our days with joy and peace.
I printed a free birthday graph here: https://theclassroomcreative.com/2013/08/birthday-graph-freebie/ for each child. We will graph the family birthdays as we add them to the months. Math skills!
I set out sticker packs for the seasons of the year and planner stickers on the table. I love the seasonal sticker packs from Happy Planner (you can find them on Amazon or any craft store like Hobby Lobby, JoAnns, Michaels has them as well. Use your 40% off coupon. They are often on sale.)
I set out stamps, ink pads, colored pencils, pens, and pencils.
A few books for us to read:
Chicken Soup with Rice by Maurice Sendak (a very fun way to learn the months of the year!)
The Year at Maple Hill Farm by Alice and Martin Provensen
A Tree for All Seasons by Robin Bernard
Star stickers are great for birthdays. We will mark in our family birthdays throughout the year. Then add holidays with holiday stickers and stamps.
For my older children, I will tell them what things we will be learning about in the coming weeks in history, which they can write in and start thinking about.
We use Exploring Nature with Children for our nature curriculum. We will add to our calendars by writing or drawing, what the topics will be for the coming weeks.
We will mark the seasons, the Spring equinox, Summer solstice, etc..
We will look up the lunar calendar here: https://www.calendar-12.com/moon_phases/2021 and color in the phases of the moon on various days in the month.
We will mark any days that are special to our family, like our anniversary, family vacations, fun days coming up, Friday for family night, Sunday for church, etc..
We eat ice cream sundaes as a treat on, you guessed it: Sunday. We will use a wooden ice cream stamp, too!
We will talk about good habits that we want to practice this month. When their calendars are finished, hang them on the wall and draw a smiley face on each day that a good habit was practiced.
We will talk about God’s faithfulness to our family in the past year and throughout our lives.
You could look up church calendars, days in History, upcoming celestial events, etc. There are so many possibilities for learning with planners and calendars.
Make it lovely. Have a Happy New Year, friends!
