Working Towards: Spending time with the kids & Black and White planner

I spent today with my nephew, niece, and daughter. Let me start this post off first by introducing them.

Nephew:

My nephew is about 9 years old and special needs. Though he is a challenge sometimes, he makes every bit of effort you put into raising him worth it. His life started off pretty rough but with the support of his family, he has made it through a lot. He is currently doing cyber schooling and receiving physical, speech and occupational therapy at home. He can say a few words out loud but mostly communicates with sign language. 

Niece#1:

My oldest niece is a goofball. She is about 7 years old and is like a little mini-me. The only thing that I can really say about her is that she's growing up way too fast, they all are! When she was a lot smaller she used to follow me around the house and we would do our make up together. We have always had a lot of fun!

Niece#2:

My youngest niece wasn't here today, but I thought I would introduce her anyways! She's a little munchkin with a munchkin voice! Hahaha. She's 4 years old and about to start school next year! I'm so proud of her. My nieces and nephew all try to act like parents to my daughter which is absolutely adorable. 

On to today!:

 We had a lot of fun but I realized we don't really spend that much quality time together because of all of the electronics we have. Luckily my daughter is young enough to not have to worry about cellphones and computers with her, but my niece and nephew are always glued to some kind of electronic. And yes I will admit that so am I! When I realized this, I felt awful. I used to be so close to my nieces and nephew and now we've all let our electronics get in the way of spending quality time together. I've decided that after today I'm going to make sure I set aside time with the kids that doesn't include TV, cellphones or tablets. I'm going to find a different activity for every time they come and visit, even if it only lasts 15-30 minutes.

The challenge is on and I'm up for it. Are you?

What can you do with your kids?

• Arts and crafts
• Toys
• Games
• Make believe
• Bake a snack or cook dinner
• Go play at the park
• Go to the beach
• Take a walk

You can do anything! Just remember to have fun and let them have fun too. When I babysit I'll post a new fun activity that I'm doing with the kids that day, how fun!

Freebie Black & White Planner!

So I made this planner a little while ago for myself but ended up improving it for you guys and even added a blog post planner to it! I made it originally because I never seem to have enough colored ink to be able to print whenever I want to, but I always seem to have black ink. I'm sure that I'm not the only one in this boat. 

The first page in the planner is the calendar. It's a monthly calendar in a one page layout with a notes section at the bottom of the page. There is a space at the top of the page to write the month of.

The second page is a 2 week planner from Sunday to Saturday. Also in a one page layout, I found this planner to be very helpful for writing down any important detailed notes for the week of and week ahead. I suggest to add washi tape or use colored pens or pencils if you want color!

The third page offered is a blog post planner. This page features a spot for your blog title, the posting date, where to post to, a notes/brainstorming area and a spot for which pictures you want to include in your post.

 You can get the planner here! I have it so you can fill in all of the dates and months yourself so you can use it for how ever long you would like.

Thanks for reading!

-Working Towards