Creating a Wall Calendar aka "Map of the Week"

With 3 kids, every day is different! To help my kids feel calm and in control of their days, I put up a wall calendar in our kitchen so they can see what's happening. Here's how I set it up!

We have a great family digital schedule that my husband and I use to make sure everything is running smoothly. There are a lot of activities that happen when you have three kids in a house, and we consistently check our online schedule to make sure we don’t miss anything and to update it when things change. As my kids got older I started to see that while the adults knew what the schedule was and when things would change, the kids did not know. Appointments and events would oftentimes catch my kids off guard or confuse them because they didn’t know what was coming next, which would sometimes result in a struggle to get them out the door to an appointment. So, I realized that we needed a kid schedule that was accessible to them so they could better understand their days!

Thinking back to my movie making days, I remembered that there were different kinds of schedules for a movie shoot. In one instance we would have a shorter schedule called a “Day out of Days” in which there would be a quick one-line explanation for what was happening on each shoot day. I realized that this is what the kids needed – a quick overview of the important things so they can see what affects them each day and prepare for what’s coming. My youngest son calls this our “Map of the Week” and that is precisely what it is - a guide to how we will get through our week!

Every Sunday I sit down and write out this schedule. I use a wall calendar from Sugar Paper (click here to get it on Amazon, or click here to get it on Sugar Paper’s site) that hangs on our bulletin board in our kitchen. The calendar has a hook to hang on the wall, a spiral top to easily flip the calendar to the next week, and it’s organized with the five weekdays across the top and Saturday and Sunday along the bottom. Visually setting up the week that way has proven to be a great way for my kids to understand the school week versus the weekend.

A typical Sunday picture of me filling out the “Map of the Week” wall calendar based off our family digital schedule that’s on our iPhones.

I started doing this wall schedule before all of my kids could read because it felt like this is what they do at school so why not do it at home too? The teachers always have a schedule on the wall that they point to even if the kids can’t read, so I figured I could do that too and walk them through what was going on that week/day.

I show the “Map of the Week” to them on Monday morning and point out what is happening each day. They look for their first initial to see their activities and then ask me questions, and they start to understand the rhythm of the week. Then each weekday I can point to it as needed, and I show them when things have changed or been added. A great benefit to this wall schedule is I have one kid who doesn’t like to be surprised. So, when this kid sees the schedule, they feel comforted knowing what’s coming and what could possibly happen that week (which helps us all😉).

I thought I’d share how I set this up for our family in case you too are looking for a way to help your kids understand their week and their days!

A blank “Map of the Week” - bonus is that the pages tear off easily from the spiral so when we travel I bring enough pages for the length of trip we are on and write down our schedule and tape it up with painters tape - super helpful on discombobulating trip schedules!

How I set up our “Map of the Week”

1. LOOK AT THE OVERALL FAMILY DIGITAL CALENDAR

   1. I look at my phone and use my family digital calendar as a guide for the week. I like choosing a fun marker color that my kids can easily see, and then I begin by adding the dates of the week across the entire calendar.

2. ONLY FOCUS ON APPOINTMENTS & ACTIVITIES THAT CONCERN THE KIDS

   1. The overall point of this calendar is to show my kids what is happening that week in an organized and not overwhelming way – I don’t want to make them anxious about all the things going on! I’ve found that by only adding appointments that affect the kids on this calendar it lessens the overwhelm – for example, there is no need to add my dentist appointment on this calendar unless it affects their day with a different school pickup time etc.

3. ADD IN THE EXTRA ACTIVITIES NOT THE EVERY DAY/TYPICAL ACTIVITIES

   1. I begin filling out the calendar by assuming that the kids are in school their regular hours each week, just like I do with the digital calendar, which means I don’t need to add school hours to this calendar because they know it’s a school day. Then, any activity that is not part of the typical school schedule, I will add to the calendar in ascending order of time, beginning with all day events first.

      1. For example, if it is crazy hair day at school, it affects the kids for the entire day. So for that example, I will write that at the top of the day (and note which school if the kids are at different schools).

      2. Then I add the extracurriculars and their times in ascending order, so earliest time to latest time. I organize this by stating the time, then indent to add the kid’s initial, add a colon, and then write the activity. For example, a Thursday might look like this:

         1. 3-4pm

            N: Soccer practice

         2. 4:30-6pm

            C: Dance class

4. ADD IN PARENT EVENTS THAT AFFECT THE KIDS

   1. Next, I will add my plans if there is something that affects the kids.

      1. For example, every morning I take my youngest kid to preschool and my husband takes our older two to elementary school. But if I have a meeting near or at elementary school in the morning, or my husband has a morning meeting near preschool, we will switch who takes which kids. That is out of the ordinary and will affect the kids, so I will add that to the calendar so everyone knows. For example, if I am taking all of my kids to school on a Thursday morning, I’d add this to the top of the day (since it’s happening at the start of the day):

         1. Mommy takes all 3 kids to school

      2. Another example is that I will add in if my husband and I are going out to dinner and who the sitter will be and what their hours will be so that kids can process that.

5. ADD IN TENTATIVE PLANS

   1. Sometimes I don’t know all the parts of our schedule for the upcoming weekend but I’m thinking about going to a museum or a movie or out to dinner as a family. In that case, I add that idea to the calendar with a question mark so we can all talk about it, and so no one can say they weren’t prepared for that possibility! (I’ve found this to be very helpful with one of my kids who likes a lot of notice to prepare for what’s happening)

6. TO DO LIST

   1. For the “On the List” section I add in things the kids need to do like pick out a birthday gift for a friend, write thank you notes, practice musical instruments, etc.

7. DINNER MEALS

   1. The last entries I add to this calendar are the dinners under the “menu” area at the end of each day. The way I do this is I to take stock of what’s in my fridge/freezer/pantry, then I look at the calendar for how busy each day is and therefore how much time I’ll realistically have to make dinner, and I then write in ideas for each night’s dinner (I usually look through the dinner recipes I’ve assembled in this recipe book since I know my kids love them and they are simple recipes that require no onion chopping or complicated prep!). Then I (or any caregiver) can look at the menu for each day and know what to prepare without wasting time staring into the fridge wondering what to make! Click here for a more detailed explanation for a way to efficiently organize dinner meal planning.

8. FLEXIBLE PLANNING

   1. During the week appointments may cancel or I will need to add in activities. When that happens, I try to use a different color marker to cross off the appointment and then add in the new one so it’s noticeable to the kids.

An example of a completed “Map of the Week”

I have found that hanging up this “Map of the Week” for the kids to see and reference as needes is a great way to keep everyone feeling calm and in control of what’s happening each day (we even bring pages of the Map of the Week on our vacations to keep everyone informed of the schedule!). I hope this idea can help your family too!

❤️, Amanda, your Type A Mom friend

PS - Easter is one week from TODAY! Click here for easter basket filling ideas - order soon so they don’t sell out and so they arrive in time!