DIY Children’s Calendar

Create a DIY Children’s Calendar with the Crafting Cheerfully free calendar printables!

** This post has been updated August 2019 to include new and updated printables. 2020 Calendar Pages are now available! Free printables are located at the end of this post along with links to the supplies I used and the add-on cards available in my Etsy shop:) 

**My blog name recently changed from BugabooCity to Crafting Cheerfully – the BugabooCity logo is still on some of the printables and pictures :) 

This DIY Children’s Calendar is a fun DIY and a great way to start each day with your little ones! I created this calendar when my son was just a toddler and I have enjoyed using it with both of my kids. It has been an excellent way for my kids to learn their days of the week, months, and the weather, and it has also given them a chance to be a part of planning our day. 

Since creating the calendar I have continued to add on to it and some of the pieces have evolved as I learned what worked best with my kids. I use this post as a central hub for all of the parts of the calendar. Any updates I have made will still work with previous versions of this calendar! I am continuing to add new calendar pages for each year – the 2020 calendar pages are now available.

The best part of this DIY Children’s Calendar is how much you can customize it to fit the needs of your kids and family! You can set your calendar up exactly as I have or grab bits and pieces of it and create your own. The main parts of the calendar are all available for FREE in three languages – English, Spanish and French. These include the days of the week, months, calendar pages, and the cute bunnies your kids can dress each day for the weather! Calendar extras like activity cards and holiday cards are available in my shop. Many of you have asked for activity cards in Spanish and French and those are now available in my shop! I hope you and your kids enjoy this calendar as much as we have!

Freebies are located at the end of this post :) 

One of the best things about this children’s calendar is you can customize it to work for you and your kids. I chose to make my calendar magnetic by adhering the printables to magnetic sheets of paper found at my local craft store. This has worked really well for us and is a great option! Depending on how old your children are, you may want to avoid magnets. This calendar can work well using velcro dots, sticky clips, or you can laminate the printables and use regular tape!

*Links to supplies I used are at the end of the post :)

To adhere the calendar printables to magnets like I did follow these steps! I recently re-made our magnets and this time I laminated the printables first. This isn’t necessary but our last set got a bit dirty with the kids using them so I wanted to try this out!

First thing you need to do is download and print everything. I printed on 110lb Neenah white paper but you can print on regular printer paper as well. Next laminate the printables. I used the Avery Self-Laminating sheets and just laminated the front side of each printable. Then cut out the printables! My paper trimmer worked fine with the paper already being laminated.

Lay the printables on the sticky side of a magnet sheet, then cut around each piece. I always cut my pieces out prior to laying them on the magnet sheets just so I can fit as many things on each sheet or roll as possible! I used Craftopia Magnetic Adhesive Sheets Pack off Amazon. It came with ten 8″x10″ sheets which was enough to make all of the magnets for one calendar including days of the week, months, years, days, weather plus four bunnies and their clothing basic clothing. If you want to make all 8 bunnies available plus their extra clothing, you will need more magnet sheets.

The magnets will be all ready for the calendar!

There are some small parts to this calendar (the daily numbers and some of the bunny’s clothing accessories), so I suggest only using the printable pieces that are appropriate for your child’s age. We keep our calendar out of reach in our craft room so the kids only use the calendar when we are doing “calendar time”. When my youngest was born, we switched to using stickers to mark off days on our calendar rather than using the small shark magnet we were using before. This has been a lot of fun and works well with themed stickers for each month! My kids love stickers so it works out well :) 

Another fun option is to create the calendar with Stikki-clips and Velco Dots. The Stikki-clips are reusable and will work on foam board. The board pictured below is from the Target Dollar Spot and I taped a piece of orange construction paper on it.

The free printable PDF packets include all the days of the week, months and daily numbers. The days of the weeks, Sunday – Saturday, color coordinate with the calendar pages.

The weather printables have helped my kids think about what is happening outside, the temperature, and how to dress appropriately for the weather. You can create a board just for the weather like the one below!

We dress our bunnies each day depending on what the weather is like outside. The bunnies are now available in four different fur colors. The packet includes a boy and girl bunny in each fur color.  I printed the bunnies, their clothes and their accessories and adhered them to sheets of magnet – you can read more about how I did that in this post. These bunnies really are a fun part of this calendar and give kids a chance to apply what they are learning about the weather and temperature. 

Velcro-Dots are a great alternative to magnets!

The bunnies are also available in a Color-Your-Own version. Download this packet and let your kids color in their own bunnies and accessories to use with their calendar.

This calendar comes with a lot of pieces! When I first created this calendar I decided to make a fabric magnet holder. We are still using the same holder years later and it works so well. It rolls up and keeps all of our magnets separated and in one place. You can find the complete tutorial for making your own fabric magnet holder here! Of course there are other ways to store the magnets that don’t involve sewing – plastic baggies, pencil cases or even a fun box your child could decorate will all work. 

A fun addition to the basic calendar are the activity and holiday cards I have created! These all feature hand drawn and digitally colored illustrations with bright, vibrant colors that coordinate with all of my free printables. These are all available in my Etsy shop and include US Holidays, UK Holidays, Canadian Holidays, Fun National Days Cards, Christmas Cards, School Days Cards, and Activity Cards in English, Spanish and French. We use these to help plan our day and it helps my kids know what the day will be like. I laminated these cards using self adhesive laminating sheets I found on Amazon (link at the end of this post) and we use little magnet clips to hold the cards to our board.

And now the good stuff! FREEBIES! I hope you and your little ones enjoy using this calendar! If you create the calendar, I would love to see! Send me a picture at [email protected] or tag me on Instagram with @craftingcheerfully or the hashtag #craftingcheerfullycalendar

Here is a little disclaimer about some small parts included in the free printable packets. This is especially important if you plan to create magnets.

** CAUTION**: There are small pieces included in the printable pdf packet that may not be appropriate for children under 3 years old. I am sharing the calendar as we use it in our home. Always use your own discretion on what is safe and appropriate for your child. This calendar is intended to be used as a learning tool with adult supervision. Always follow the directions on the products you are purchasing for this calendar.

This post includes affiliate links under the “Shop the supplies I used”. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers.