Hi! Quick little project today that's pretty easy - and a good source of entertainment for the little ones. Last week, I shared our little busy pouch, which includes this small calendar.

There wasn't anything special about this particular calendar except for its size. In fact, it was all pictures of books at Bret's undergrad library. Really. Closeups. Of books. So I got permission from him to spice it up a tad, and used my huge arsenal of scrap paper to make simple, month-appropriate pages. Lou helped, choosing patterns and dictating some scenes.

That was just the set up, which while fun, wasn't really the point. The point is having something to go through time with Lou. We have a big calendar on the chalkboard wall, and that's been really cool to keep track of big dates. But I liked the idea of something that showed all the months together, and going through the special events with Lou. When I was little, my mom would read a book to me about a little girl going through the whole year. After each big event, she would say, "What comes next?" and then would come the next holiday. I loved the illustrations and can vividly remember some of the scenes. But I've never been able to find the book for Lou, even though I've looked. (Anyone know what I'm talking about? And have I already talked about this book? It's like my children's literature white whale). But I figure we can get the same effect with a calendar, and in some ways make it even better by personalizing the events.

I want it to be interactive, and to serve as source of amusement, so I didn't populate the events. Instead, I pulled together a bunch of stickers (and I'm on the lookout for a few more), with the plan that we can use them together to mark special dates and days in our lives.

Here we are, starting with February.

This is only halfway through. Lou added in Aunt Brandy's Birthday and President's Day, which has strangely really stuck with her as a February holiday.

Seriously, a lot of fun for Lou, and a cool way for her to both put stickers on things - still a favorite activity - and see how things relate to each other. Yes, I had a Chinese food sticker, which reminds me: Happy New Year! Xin Nian Kuai Le! Gong Xi Fa Cai and Gong Hey Fat Choy! (I'm trying to cover all my bases here). Amazing timing, actually, because we're out of food, and going out for Chinese tonight seems like the right call.

I'm digressing.

The point is: I love this idea. You obviously don't have to go crazy with customizing a calendar; I only did that because we had one the right size, and waste not want not and all that. You can just buy one. They're nice and cheap this time of year. Then use stickers or markers to commemorate special days. Even once we've finished going through the months together, I think of this as a pretty dynamic thing - we'll add in vacations and big events (like, I don't know, maybe a baby brother arriving?) and so forth, and then just be able to use it as something to look at at restaurants. Eventually, it'll be little time capsule.

So, super quick, a look into the busy pouch calendar, which I realize I didn't explain really well last week. Do you have any special ways of helping kids learn about time and seasons and months and all that? Hope your week is going well, and I'll see you tomorrow.