Toddler calendar

My BFF's daughter is of the same age as my son. They are so cute together! They really enjoy each other's company which is quite amazing since my son is usually very competitive with all his friends. However, her daddy has gone to Afghanistan for 4 months. This little toddler is particularly smart for her age so her parents were very open with her and prepared her for 3 weeks ahead of the big goodbye. When it was time for the last hugs, she bravely waved daddy goodbye.
For her 2nd birthday, her mum - my BFF - asked me to create a calendar for her to understand when her daddy would be back.
My BFF has always had a lot of confidence into my creative and crafty skills when I personally wouldn't have considered myself out of the ordinary. It's partly thanks to her that I took the decision to step into the creative world of healthcare advertising!
Here is what I came up with: an interactive and educational toddler calendar whereby each day's task is to decorate daddy's pix with today's sticker and each day's learning lesson is to practice 1 colour and 1 shape. The top line is L M M J V S D which are the initials of the weekdays' names in French. Each line is therefore 1 week. There are no numbers so Mum can start anytime 12 weeks ahead of as yet unplanned daddy's return. Within the calendar is a hidden message to stick on the photo. The overall aim is for her to visualize how time works and understand how long she has to wait until daddy's return

A 'French' interactive and educational toddler calendar

Daddy didn't go by himself, his daughter gave him her Maya soft toy

To do this, I used all crafty material from my Tesco: A pack of shiny coloured soft cardboards, stickers, letters, felt decoration, craft glue.

I'm quite happy with my work although you can never be 100% satisfied, a project remains a project forever!!. I could have gone simpler with a simple calendar and golden stars stickers but there was nothing exciting in that project and I was thinking that just sticking a sticker might not be enough activity for a toddler and she might want to stick them all in one go hoping it would bring daddy home sooner. With this calendar, there are 3 actions: unstick a sticker from the right place, decorate daddy with it and learn 1 colour and 1 shape.
I think it will also be useful for Mummy, I'm pretty sure she knows colours and shapes but it will help her visualising when her hubby is coming home!!

Update October 2014 - And here is job done, daddy is now back with baby!:)