The Perfect Clock for a Disorganised Family of Pre-schoolers

I'm not the most organised mum, not by a long shot I seem to have an inbuilt rebellion against organisation, despite all my well meaning efforts to change (just ask my mum.) Add that to the fact that like most preschoolers mine are unable to read or tell the time so i can't really rely on them to organise themselves.

We've tried everything: lists, stamp charts, magnetic timetables, whiteboard lists, drawn lists, charts, weekly timetables, daily timetables, rewards and anything else one can find on google. Nothing worked, in short we end up spending all day, 7 days a week nagging each other: "Mum, i want lunch", "Kids, time to pack up now", "mum, is it afternoon tea time yet?" "kids, shower time", "Mum, i'm hungry. it's dinner time!" "Kids, I said its time for bed!, go clean your teeth now!" occasionally the kids nag about something other than food, usually to do something involving mess at 5pm.

But My point still stands NOTHING could organise this family.

Self appointed challange accepted!

I thought, i googled, i thought, i pintrested (is that even a word?) and I made..."the clock"  (not a very original name, i know- but that's what we call "it")

How to make it:

I took a quick trip to spotlight, bought the following:
a square canvas (50cm x 50cm)
coloured paper
clear contact
a clock mechanism set with stick-on numbers
blue tack
food colouring

1. We slightly watered down some food colouring in bowls outside (i don't think there is any reason why you couldn't use ordinary water based paints) and the whole family used sticks, and straws to splatter the coloured water onto the canvas, leaving it to dry slightly between colours.

2. after the canvas dried i measured to find the center of the canvas and the 12 points around it for the hour numbers then attached the clock mechanism using cardboard behind the canvas for reinforcement.

3. I then cut circles out of the coloured paper and the kids drew pictures to match what i had assigned for the 12 hours of the day. I wrote on them and covered them with the contact. Ours was as follows:
7am- wake up
8am- play
9am- drawing
10am- morning tea
11am- clean up
12am- lunch
1pm - computerstuff/DVD
2pm- outside play/writing
3pm- afternoon tea
4pm- craft
5pm- pack up/ shower
6pm- dinner
7pm- opposite to 7am- bed

4.  I stuck on the numbers and bluetacked on the coloured-circle program and explain to the kids what hand is the minute hand and therefore the one they have to watch. (i could have stuck a coloured arrow on the end of the minute hand to make it easier)

and THAT IS IT, a daily "timetable" that everyone can read, the kids love and everyone wants to follow.
                                         and

 IT WORKS!!!!!

What we love about it:

~ The kids day is basically a 12hr day
~ It's flexible the minute hand points to the task for a good part of the hour (we don't have to start a task right on the hour)
~ It's simple, one task an hour is doable for the kids and has plenty of time for play in-between
~ Even my little pre-schoolers can read, understand and follow it.
~ Everyone can understand it independently - no more nagging, If the kids want food, they just have to point out it's time to eat, If i want them to clean up or go to bed, i just show them "the clock".
~ It enables the whole family to work together and remind each other of what should be happening.
~ It is the first thing to WORK in our family. (we don't always stick to every hours activity- but the main things work perfectly!)

PS: as you can see i also added curved coloured card to the outside of the clock. For us this is for the first hour after getting up in the morning because this is where we struggle the most. there are approx 15 mins each for getting dressed, eating breakfast, packing our bags and having a bible story.