Planning it Out

One of my goals for the new year is to plan my days better. I have always been a pretty good planner, but lately I have been getting a little lazy with my planning and I have let the days just rush by. One thing I quickly learned about staying home with my babes is that I have to have structure. It keeps everyone a little more sane in the Gale household. So, fridays are my days to plan Eden's schooling, crafts, outings, playdates for the upcoming week, menu for the next week, dates with Eden and Owen and family nights for the next week. Sounds like a lot when I write it down, but it really doesn't take long. Here is a short breakdown of it all

1. Eden's schooling: I bought the preschool curriculum called Character Concepts. It has been ok. I could write a review and maybe I will, but not today. I look over the week's lessons and figure out what we are going to do on what day. The curriculum specifies things, but I have learned what works best for Eden, so I change it up a bit. For instance, they have a writing book, but Eden doesn't like it. It's very repetitive of the same letters over and over, so we will just write letters together on the chalkboard or play a game with flashcards.

2. Crafts: I LOVE crafts! And I love doing them with my kids. This week we made cards for grandma (it was her last treatment!!) and we made masks. I had planned for us to make snowmen, but it just didn't seem appropriate with the warm weather, so we ran and played outside instead. There are craft suggestions in the back of my mom's guide in the preschool curriculum, I also have this book called the The Toddler's Busy Book and it has some ideas. And there is always Pinterest or I just make them up. Eden is easy to please. I do the crafts with Owen too and just prepare myself for a huge mess. On days that we don't do crafts I usually try and have some kind of game planned. Eden got some games for Christmas, so we have been playing those.

3. Outing: this typically includes the Children's Museum, the Zoo or the Botanic Gardens. Those are our go to places because we have memberships thanks to grandma :) Other fun places we enjoy are the play area at Wolfchase, of course the park and storytime at Central Library. Right now I have to be selective with my places because of the age that Owen is at. He is into everything!! And he hates being in a stroller for a long time, so some weeks we may only have 1 or 2 outings.

4. Playdates: pretty easy. I just try and get together with a friend on Fridays. This may not happen every week, but that is my goal. I do accountability with 2 of my sweet friends every week and between the 3 of us there are 6 children all around the same age so my kiddos def. get their playtime in.

5. Dates: We just started doing dates with our kids. Tomorrow Don is taking Eden out for breakfast and whatever else he has planned. So next week I will plan something with her. I will have time with Owen tomorrow morning and I think we are going to some major coloring and building some really tall towers. (all his faves)

6. Family Nights: We hope to make this a weekly thing, some will be bigger nights than others. Tonight was our first official Gale Family Night. We are made individuals pizzas and sugar cookies and some impromptu dance time. Yes, my calm laid back hubs will bust a move, but only for us. It's amazing!

We practiced colors and counting with M&Ms. I had her attention with those


The mask Eden made. She was camera shy that day

Chalkboard fun

Planning is good for me and our family, but I do not plan every minute or hour of our day. It's more that I just make sure we have things to do throughout the day. The kids play on their own at times while I do housework. I like structure, but we also have a lot of flexibility. I believe it is all in balance and there are definitely days that all the plans go out the window. I love my "job" and I want to make the most of educating, playing and training our children.