The Daddy's Away Chart

R recently went away on a week-long trip where he was unable to communicate with us at all- no phone calls or email or anything. I wondered how this would affect the girls and wanted to find a way to keep him in their everyday lives.

I ended up making a chart for them to count down the days until his return. Each night, I let M cross off the day on the x I had sketched in dotted lines, and I asked her what things about our day she wanted to make sure to tell Daddy when he got back. We wrote them down and then counted how many days we had until Saturday. It made for a nice evening ritual while he was away and a fun thing to show him when he returned.