Make an Extracurricular Mobile

Creating an extracurricular mobile is a wonderful way to promote your child's independence! This fun activity will enlist your child's creativity to help her keep track of her own daily schedule and extracurricular activities. Watch your child's pride swell at her new level of responsibility, while she also learns time management, math, and creative art skills.

What You Need:

• Cardboard paper towel tube
• Wire hanger
• Wrapping paper
• Transparent tape
• Hole punch
• Yarn
• Plain scrap paper
• Scissors
• Pen and pencil
• Ruler

What to Do:

1. Before starting the project, talk with your child about where the items would go if they were being recycled. This is a perfect opportunity to explain the importance of recycling.
2. To start the project, hold the paper towel tube vertically so that the hole faces up. Have your child draw a line on either side of the tube and use scissors to cut the tube in half.
3. Have your child wrap half of the paper towel tube with patterned wrapping paper and tape.
4. Now, it's time for a math lesson! Measure how long the piece of tube is, and encourage your child to figure out how far apart the holes should be if he needs to make eight of them. Using a hole punch, have your child make eight evenly-spaced holes on one curved side of the tube.
5. Let him wrap the entire hanger in yarn and, at the end, tie it off with a big bow. Hold the hanger hook side up, placing the curved tube over the flat part of the hanger. Tape the tube to the bottom part of the hanger. The hole-punched holes should face outward.
6. Cut eight pieces of paper that are of equal size, and punch a hole in the top center of each piece. On each piece of paper, have your child write the day of the week, the date, and which activity she is participating in that day. The eighth paper can be used to write special notes.
7. With yarn, have her tie each piece of paper to the cardboard through the holes.
8. Encourage your child to create a nameplate on the top of her mobile.
9. At the end of each week, invite your child to replace the paper with new pieces of paper bearing the upcoming week's schedule.

Your child can add other decorations as the with the changing seasons and holidays, such as silk leaves for fall or red ribbon for Christmas!