My Perpetual Calendar

Two of my grand children will be moving to our city and I will be looking after them part time.  I have set up my front room as Nana's Preschool.

I have been doing on line story times with them for the past year.  They have been interested in time and counting down the days so I created a calendar that they can use to explore days of the week, months, numbers, seasons and the whole year.

Here was my process.

 I started by painting peg dolls for the days of the week.

I found the holder at a thrift store.  It's for votive candles.  Perfect with seven holes.

I started with a round that was cut out of a table.  The table was used for a sensory bin for the little ones.

I cut the tree from a pressed board using a scroll saw.  I also cut an extra top so I have enough for all the seasons.  I had originally planned on using pegdolls for the months but you'll see later on that I changed my mind.

The round was painted and I sketched on my tree roots.

The round is split into four sections for the seasons of the year and painted with slightly different shades of blue.  Spring being the lightest and winter the darkest.

I painted the tree trunk next.  It will sit in the centre of the board and be able to turn as the month go by.

The tree tops and matching roots were painted next.  I chose pink blossoms for spring, green leaves for summer and coloured leaves for autumn.  The branches are left bare for winter.

I found a big bag of these little door knobs at the thrift store and decided to use them for the months.

Here it is all finished.  Sorry I didn't take any pictures of painting the numbers on the blocks.

The months are held on to the wood with magnets.

My little weather gnomes are placed around the calendar. 

All ready for the little ones to arrive.  Just a few more weeks and they will be living with us for about a month and a half til they can move into their own house.