December 2009 - Elaine

Mommy of Three and Wife, & Burnaby Elementary School Teacher, My name is Elaine (Tan) Comeau. I am married to a wonderful man named Ron. He is the kindest and smartest man I know and he just makes me want to be a better person. Before we met, I had completed an honours degree in Biomedical Ethics and Physiology and then a Bachelor of Education. Although I love children, I never thought I'd be a teacher! But I am and I love it!

We have been blessed with three children who just light up our world. Abigail is six years old, Justin is three, and Naomi is one years old. Abigail was born 19 days early and quickly arrived 13 minutes after we got to the hospital.

I was scared and yet we were hoping to have a second baby close in age to the first. After being told that I possibly had two miscarriages and an ovarian cyst, we were blessed to be pregnant 3 years later with Justin. Then we were blessed with our third child, Naomi. I love children and had my Grade Two Class sing at our wedding. My class and I then sponsored a child (a seven year old little girl) through Compassion International, whom we wrote to every month. When we were engaged, my husband sponsored a little boy as a Christmas gift to me. We still have both sponsor children and they are now teenagers! It is such a humbling and blessed experience to be a part of their lives even though we live so far away. In our busy and hectic lives here, it gives us opportunities to share with own our children empathy, love, and kindness.

With three children under six years old, our days get pretty crazy. I love photography, cooking, baking, organizing bake exchanges, entertaining, having play dates, doing “homework” with Abigail, wrestling with Justin, snuggling with Naomi, and scrapbooking. Occasionally I get the opportunity to teach scrapbooking classes too. I taught a class called, “Busy Moms Can Get It Done!” My last class was creating an entire Birthday Scrapbook for the First Ten Birthdays for your child in 3 hours. Sometimes that is the only way to get it done – all at once!

I have taught Kindergarten up to Grade 5 (while coaching Grade 7 Boys and Girls Basketball and Volleyball for years), and I have always had a visual daily schedule up in front of my classroom showing the children the shape of the day. It might say something like: Snack Time/Recess, Quiet Book Time, Math, Clean Up Time, etc. No matter what age my students were they really loved knowing what was going to happen that day. It made them feel safe, confident, and in control of their day, which resulted in having happy, independent, and organized kids.

Having a visual indicator of what was going to happen next made event transition easier for all my students; it was especially effective for my students with special needs too. It was so effective that over my years of teaching, I have had many parents ask me if I could make something like that for their child at home. "Of course!" I would say! I started making visual schedules for parents to help their kids at home to help them get organized at home. I've made visual schedules for Bed Time, Morning Routines, etc.!

It wasn’t until I had my own children that I realized the true value of such a visual schedule at home! It worked wonderfully in my classroom and no wonder parents wanted something like this at home!

My daughter is very inquisitive and always asks, "What are we going to do today mommy?" I started drawing her a sequence of pictures of what we were going to do that day. She was only 3 and a half. Then I started writing the word beside the pictures I drew. Before I knew it I had made a magnetic prototype daily schedule that we kept on our fridge door.

I knew I just had to try making these schedules to help other parents help their kids have easier days. This is how my visual daily schedules got the name Easy Daysies. I launched this product, www.EasyDaysies.com, about two days after Naomi was born. So,they are both one years old! Easy Daysies has recently been on Global Noon Hour News and is now in over 25 stores across Canada and just entering into the United States.

My wonderful husband and I do it all from our home. I even package each and every kit on our kitchen table. I drew every single illustration on our products so that even a child who cannot read knows what their routine is! It can't get more mommy/teacher created than that! Sometimes when I am packaging at 3AM, almost at the verge of tears, I wonder why? Why am I doing this? Then, I am amazed and humbled by the regular emails I get from parents with children with special needs or foster parents who write to me thanking me for creating a product that has made their child's day easier or has made their child more confident or successful or has brought calm into their home. I am truly humbled.

The goal of Easy Daysies is to help kids have easier days, not only at home but around the world. 5% of the profits from every Easy Daysies kit goes to help free children from terrible bondage and suffering like slavery and child-sex trade through International Justice Mission. All our magnets are also made in Canada from 70% recycled material.

No matter how busy life gets, with or without a schedule, I think that we need to plan and set time aside for family time… yes, I even created a magnet for that! My daughter will point to it and pull me off the computer to say it is family time…our favourite time!

Blessings and Smiles From our crazy & happy home to yours,
Elaine Tan Comeau
Founder and Creator of Easy Daysies-
the Magnetic Daily Schedule for Kids
www.EasyDaysies.com