DIY Children’s Calendar – Free Calendar Printables for Kids!

Create a DIY Children’s Calendar using free printables! Calendar printables include days of the week, weather and more and are available in five languages with lots of fun ways to personalize the calendar to make it your own! 

*This post was originally published August 24th, 2015. 

This DIY Children’s Calendar is a fun DIY and a great way for little ones to start their day. I created this calendar when my son was just a toddler and I have since enjoyed using it with both of my kids over the years. 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. 

The calendar is made with my free calendar printables including the days of the week, months, calendar pages, seasons, weather printables plus the cute bunnies kids can dress for the weather. There are calendar add-ons available in my Etsy shop including holiday cards, daily activity cards, preschool learning cards and more that all coordinate with the calendar.

This calendar started as a little project for my kids but has grown to include five languages! English, Spanish, French, Italian and now Hawaiian! These calendar printables were created in collaboration with parents and caregivers who speak these languages and helped translate the calendar. It has been a pleasure working with them and learning new things. 

Below is the tutorial to create a DIY Children’s Calendar. There are so many different ways you can assemble your calendar and use the free printables. Here are a few examples – you can make your calendar as big or small, and as simple or intricate as you want! I have included details for each calendar pictured in this post. 

Examples of Calendars

How to Make the DIY Children’s Calendar

Supplies Needed

• Calendar Printables from my Free Resource Library
• White paper – I use 110 lb white paper  or colored cardstock like AstroBright Paper
• Paper Trimmer 
• Scissors
  • For Magnetic Calendar: 
    • Self-Laminating Sheets
    • Magnetic Adhesive Sheets
    • Magnetic Clips
    • Magnetic Dry Erase Board.
      • (This Magnetic Dry-Erase Board  is close to the one I used from Board Dudes with the cork border but is larger than mine.)
  • For Board Calendar:
    • Foam Board, tri-fold board, or Chalkboard. 
    • Laminator and Thermal Laminating Pouches
    • Stikki Clips
    • Velcro Dots – 3/8″ Thin Clear Fasteners
    • Double-Sided Tape – I used 1/2″ Scor-Tape 

Step-by-Step Tutorial

Step One: Print the calendar printables. You’ll find the main part of the calendar in my free Resource Library. There are a lot of options:

• Full Color in English, Spanish, French, Italian and Hawaiian
• Full color dual language in Spanish and Hawaiian 
• Color-you-own in English
• Black and White in English for printing on colored cardstock

You’ll also find the bunnies, extra bunny clothing, calendar pages, extra weather printables and headers you can customize with your child’s name all available for free in my Resource Library.

Step Two: Laminate! If you are making the printables magnetic, I recommend you use the self-laminating sheets and only laminate the top of the printable pages. Since the back will be attached to magnetic sheets this helps keep the magnets strong. If you using the printables with Stikki-clips and Velcro Dots, use a laminator to make them durable.

Step Three: Cut out the calendar pieces. After laminating the pages, cut out all of the pieces using a paper trimmer and scissors. 

Step Four: If making the pieces magnetic, cut the magnet sheets. This is when you would now arrange the cut calendar pieces on a magnet sheet and then cut the pieces out again with a small sharp scissors. Cutting the pieces out before placing them on the magnet sheets allows me to fit more pieces on each magnet sheet. It is also easier to cut through just the magnet sheet instead of through both the paper and magnet sheet.

Step Five: Assemble the calendar! Arrange the pieces until you like how your calendar is laid out. 

If your calendar is magnetic, the pieces will be ready to use on a magnetic board. Add magnet clips to hold calendar add-ons like holiday and daily activity cards.

If using a foam board, tri-fold board or chalkboard, you can use things like Stikki-clips and Velcro Fasteners to attach your calendar pieces. First tape down anything that does not need to change (like the thermometer, question about the weather, “Today is” card) with tape. Next use Stikki-clips to hold the days of the week, months, year and weather cards. 

Step 6: Don’t forget the bunnies! The bunnies kids can dress for the weather can be created with magnet sheets or without. If you make them out of magnet sheets make sure to just laminate the top with self-laminating sheets, this will help the clothing hold to the bunnies!

To make the bunnies without magnet sheets, you can use Velcro Brand Thin Clear Fasteners. They work great! Start by placing Velcro dots (the rough side) on the bunnies – one on the head, one on the feet, and three in the shirt area.

Cover those dots with the matching dots (the soft side), then place a piece of clothing on top of the bunny and hold down. Lift the piece of clothing off and the soft dots will be stuck to it. Repeat for all the pieces of clothing you want to use.

Step Seven: Add a customized header to your calendar! Use the file (from my free Resource Library) with Adobe Reader to customize any header for your calendar. You may already have Adobe Reader installed on your computer but if not, the software can be downloaded for free from Adobe. 

Step Eight: Add some fun calendar extras! More Calendar add-ons are available in my Etsy shop including holiday cards, daily activity cards, preschool learning cards, animal holiday cards and much more! They coordinate with the rest of my calendar printables. 

Want more ideas on how to set up your calendar?

Visit my Calendar Idea Page for more ways you can set up your calendar and ideas for cards you can use with it! 

Where are all of the DIY Children’s Calendar files located?

Download the free calendar files from my Resource Library! Visit my Resource Library to download the free calendar printables. There is a entire section of my Library dedicated to my calendar printables. You’ll find the main calendar in five languages, calendar pages for 2021, bunnies plus additional bunny clothing and more!

Download calendar extras from my Etsy shop! Visit my Etsy shop to shop calendar extras like Holiday Cards, Daily Activity Cards, Preschool Learning Cards, Fun National Day Cards and more!