2 years slipped by unnoticed...

You know how bad I am at posting the kids' birthdays up here? Like two years late kind of bad? Well, it appears I've decided not to reserve that for birthday posts anymore. Ha.

See, a long while ago, I decided I needed a little something like a "kitchen command center" to keep us on track during the day, record our chores and our weekly to-do's, sort our mail and hold our "family binder", maybe a little storage, that kind of thing. But there were some issues.

I have only one wall in the kitchen/dining area. One. And it's like a quarter of a wall because it's between the counter/cupboards and the patio door. Also, I didn't want to spend any money on it because I wasn't entirely certain it would stay there (and not just because I knew we were going to be painting these walls.) Also, I really want hardwood floors through my dining/kitchen/living room, but I'm stuck with these ucky grayish brownish tiles that look like their perpetually stained even when I clean them with a toothbrush - but that's neither here nor there. This photo just reminded me of that, since you can see it in the corner.

So, anyway, I had to brainstorm. I wanted this to be something that was easy to change, that the kids would like, that they'd be able to handle on their own if they wanted to, that kind of thing. After looking on pinterest and thinking a whole lot, I finally came up with:

(Yep, ok. I see the date there. Here's the deal. I was waiting to post this until I finished the WHOLE kitchen command center. I got partway through. And then it just sat. It never fully got finished. And then I changed it to something totally different anyway. And finally I saw these photos waiting to be posted and I figured I should do that before like, TWO WHOLE YEARS had past. And then I edited these photos and realized, whoa. Has it really been two whole years?? And apparently, yes, it has. So now you know the whole story. And we shall not mention my procrastination problem for the rest of this post, agreed? Thank you.)

Here's a close up in case you missed the date on which this was completed.

To make this daily schedule chart, you'll need:
the printables at the end of the post
clear contact paper laminate
velcro tape
hot glue gun
clipboard
something to stick it all to the wall
something to store your parts in

First, let me address the contact paper thing. I would LOVE a laminator. Love it. Alas I don't have one. So I use contact paper when I want something to last. Usually. Sometimes I ask my mom to laminate. Anyway, this time I used the Contact paper that was clear LAMINATE. Not just clear. I didn't know if there would be a difference, but after I used it I was pretty sure it worked much better. I don't know. You tell me. Onward!

Print out the printables. Use a scissors or a circle punch to punch out the activities and a scissors to cut out the months and days.

1. Cover the chart with contact paper. When working with contact paper I've found it's easiest to go from top corner diagonally to bottom corner, moving slowly and pressing down with one hand as you go.
2. Place the circle pieces and small rectangles on the contact paper, cover them and cut them out.
3. Hot glue long pieces of velcro - two pieces vertically next to the times and one piece horizontally under the title.
4. Hot glue small pieces of the opposite side of velcro to the back of the circles and rectangles.
5. Figure out how to put it on the wall. I wanted something non permanent, but not a command strip since those things always fall off.
6. And put it up!

I used jars to store the pieces. I found this awesome metal milk bottle holder thingy in great shape at the thrift store. I fell in love. The end.

It's a super simple fix and the kids love pulling the pieces off and figuring out where to put all of them.

The printables are below. I made one with the times on it and one that's blank so you can fill in your own times (since I doubt your schedule is identical to this one).
The picture activities are pretty self-explanatory. The cleaning supplies are for chores, the food items for going grocery shopping. The pen and pencil are for "school work" which we practice at home. There's two with books - one with the kids reading and one for me to read to them. I found a picture of a car like mine and that's for "field trips" or outings. The swing set is for playing in the backyard, not to be confused with the park picture. The kid with the microphone is singing time, because they love it when we all sing together. And the gold star is "free choice time." They're all free clipart.

(and though they look gray, they're actually white.)