October 1, 2021
By: Phil Derkson, MD
We have some wonderful updates to share with you about My Starry Chart and its use in our family.
With the return of school and regular activities, we felt it was necessary to have a calendar for our kids to use and be visually reminded of the upcoming events in our lives. Fortunately, My Starry Chart is a reusable calendar for kids that comes with reusable holiday and activity stickers to mark many of the events that are happening in October. And instead of trying to remember the schedule, or having our children continuously ask “is it time yet?”, “when is Halloween?”, or “when is school closed”?, we can now reference the My Starry Chart calendar.
We thought it would be a good idea for us to share the setup of our October 2021 My Starry Chart calendar so that other families can visualize the benefit of having a kid’s calendar. And what better timing than the beginning of the month?
As you can see, My Starry Chart’s calendar comes with reusable stickers (also known as “clings”) so that the calendar can change every month. We have added the activity and holiday stickers based on upcoming events, such as our school’s Pumpkin Drive, Halloween and other sports and school activities. For this month, we decided to try out the responsibilities in a different way by setting up different ones on various days. We may not accomplish them all, however they will be discussed and encouraged on a daily basis.
The October setup was a fun activity for our family. It involved some education on the calendar format – counting, days of the week, and also helped to promote our fine motor skills when placing each sticker each day. Keep in mind, children may want to place the stickers where they want or they may want to put all the stickers on at once. This is normal and actually encouraged at times. Calm parental instructions and guidance help maneuver around this creativity. And if it is not going as designed or scheduled, that is ok. It is meant to be a positive, engaging activity with your children. We can always rearrange the stickers in the proper order after the child is done with the activity (which could be a quick as 5-15 minutes, depending on age). One aspect to this activity, by encouraging children to participate in their own (and their family’s) schedule, this helps promote personal responsibility so that they will be cooperative and mindful about upcoming events.
Once the calendar setup is done, you can grab a star to place on the current day and consider adding one for when the day is complete. Or, you can decide other ways to set up the calendar and track your child’s progress over time.
Regardless of use, having a kid’s calendar for your child helps to encourage routine and structure, which is known to help reduce anxiety and stress. And included in our October calendar schedule are positive affirmations that help build self-esteem and confidence. We all want our children to succeed, and it can be very satisfying as a parent, when this is accomplished in a positive environment.
