Mom, what’s for dinner?

“Mom, what’s for dinner? What are we doing this week?” Do these questions sound familiar? If your kids are similar to mine, you have probably heard these questions countless times. Today, I am going to share with you how two charts have answered these questions for my kids.

Meal & Snack Calendar

Each week, I plan out meals for the week. It has saved me a lot of time and hassle to prepare a week in advance. My kids, especially our son Nathan, would ask quite often “Mom, what’s for dinner? What’s for snack?” Since I planned ahead, I knew the answer. But I needed a visual for the kids. (It actually helped me too!) I found this menu board on Amazon.

Each day has the afternoon snack listed and the dinner for the day below. The snacks generally stay the same unless we run out of an item. It’s amazing how much planning the snacks for the week has given me energy too.

Everyone has a job to get the snack ready. They just need to look at the board for what it is. Each Sunday, I fill out this board for the upcoming week. I also fill out the weekly schedule board.

Weekly Board

My kids love knowing what is happening in each week. I am a very visual person so this weekly dry erase board has been a blessing for me too. It gives a clear picture of what our week looks like.

I love that the kids can go to the weekly board and check out the daily happenings. Every Sunday, we read over this board as a family. It’s a great way to look ahead at the week and make sure we are all on the same page. Again, this board has saved a lot of questions.

Questions

The questions about dinner and plans for the week are almost non-existent in my house now. It has been so helpful because my energy can go towards spending quality time with my kids. Planning ahead also helps me to be more relaxed.

Do you think these ideas could be helpful in your home? What are some other ways you plan ahead? Please respond in the comments. I would love to hear your ideas! Wherever you are at, I encourage you to start small and do what works for your family.

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