DIY Portable Calendar Board

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When our family moved last year, I was heartbroken to have to pack up our school room – for several reasons.  I had worked so hard to get it all set up just a short time before (we had only lived there 6 months before we learned we had to move for my husband’s job), and I wouldn’t have all of our books and supplies readily available.  I also had to take down all of the posters, cork boards, and white boards and figure out a way to make all of this portable or just do without it until we were in our new home (which didn’t end up being for another 2 years after we learned of our move).

There were just some things I didn’t want to give up.  I liked having my bulletin board with our calendar on it.  I had slacked in this area with my two oldest boys (my husband still quizzes them often on the months of the year), and I didn’t want to let this slide with my younger ones.  So I decided to make a calendar board that was portable – one we could move with us, as we were going to have to live in temporary housing for a bit, and one that I could easily put away when we had a house showing.

If you are interested in using a portable calendar in your homeschool due to a move, lack of space, or the need to transport it to co-op, here is how I put ours together.

I started out with a tri-fold display board that is 48″x36″ in size.  You can get these at Walmart or Target or Amazon.

First, I worked on the actual calendar part of the board; this was the most time-intensive part.  You’ll have to break out your rule and pencil and do a little measuring, but it’s really not that hard.  I used white poster board for the calendar and made it so it is 7 squares across and 6 squares down.  Each square is 3″x3″.  The entire calendar is 27″x18″, so be sure you get a large enough piece of poster board.

I adhered the calendar (and the days of the week at the top of the calendar; a link to all of the calendar printables is at the end of the post) to the display board with double-sided tape.  Be sure to leave enough room at the top so you can display the current month.  Then I put a Velcro dot on each calendar square.  After you print out the calendar numbers (and holidays), laminate them for durability, and put the opposite Velcro dot on those.  I store all of the numbers and holidays in a Ziploc freezer bag.

Underneath the calendar I put 3 3M Command Hooks to hang cards for various things we are working on – right now I have scripture cards, skip counting cards, and vocabulary cards hanging.

On the right side of the display board I put all of the months of the year.  I laminated and put Velcro on the backs of them and then Velcro on the actual display board.  This is where we ‘store’ the months of the year, and this also allows your child to take them off and then put them back in the correct order.

On the left side, I put the days of the week in the same fashion as I did the months of the year.  Like the months of the year, your child can take the days off and put them back up in the correct order.  I also made little ‘today,’ ‘tomorrow,’ and ‘yesterday’ labels and stuck them to clothespins with double-sided tape so we could visually work on that concept each day.  Underneath the days of the week, we put a season and weather chart.

And I think that pretty much covers it.  Now that we are in our new home, I am still using this portable calendar board because it can easily be put away or moved to another room.  Sometimes we enjoy sprawling out on the family room floor to do school, so I can just move this along with us.

You can get the calendar printables to make your own calendar board (portable or not) over at My Joy-Filled Life for free.

Do you use a calendar board or have calendar time in your homeschool? If not, what is your favorite way to teach calendar skills?