Planning for March
Last updated: 1 March 2024
Pinch, punch, first of the month! I’m updating all my monthly planning posts again for this year. In case it helps anyone else be more organised too, I’ll be sharing our monthly list of things to do, plan, remember and celebrate. For those who want to be extra organised there’s a free downloadable printable at the end of this post, to help you make your own monthly list, with both a colour version and a printer friendly B&W version available! The downloads include two sheets each, one with and one without a space for notes on foraging.
To Do
Planting seeds
My favourite thing about spring is planting things. Although we live in the city, we have both a shared garden where we have claimed a small corner, and we do a lot of window sill gardening too. March is the time to get all those little seedlings started off, so that they’ll be ready to go in the ground and the window boxes when the warmer spring weather comes around.
Buy new shoes for the kids
As we head out of winter in to warmer months, the kids will be needing new shoes as even in Scotland it’s getting too warm to keep wearing their winter boots. And of course they’ve grown out of last year’s spring/ summer trainers and walking shoes. It’s always a matter of getting the timing just right – don’t buy too soon in case they have a growth spurt, but don’t leave it too late or the shops won’t have anything decent left in their size. Hand on heart, I hate buying shoes!
Get organised for Easter
Easter is a big celebration for us, and while it doesn’t take as much preparation as Christmas I do like to prepare for it well in advance. Easter falls on 31st March this year, but giving myself plenty of time means less stress when the big day comes. So, make yourself a big Easter ‘to do’ list and start ticking off all those bits and pieces, and before you know it you’ll be all sorted!
We’ll be at home in Edinburgh and my Easter list looks something like this:
- Plan menu for Easter Sunday
- Reserve grocery slot
- Pre-order meat from the butcher
- Check with friends if they want to meet up for Easter – at theirs or ours?
- Organise gifts/ chocolate bunnies/ eggs for the kids, friends, neighbours
- Plan Easter egg hunt
- Check church service times
- Book time off work
- Organise childcare for any days working
Dye Easter eggs
We always dye lots of eggs so pre-planning includes hunting down some white eggs at the shops, and gathering supplies for the dyes. We’ve tried different things in the past, including commercial egg dies, paints, and we’ve experimented with natural dyes from plants and spices. Dying eggs is a bit of a national past time in Germany, with the hard boiled eggs forming a core of any Easter egg hunt, so it’s a good thing we all love to eat them!
- Check out our guide on >> How to dye eggs naturally
Book a summer holiday
If you’ve not sorted your summer holiday already, I recommend doing it soon. We’re not going abroad this year, and have decided to stay local. We booked our week at the seaside last month, and only just got the last available week at our favourite cottage! Once the Easter holidays are out of everyone’s mind, the rest of the summer will book up fast.
Time to Forage For
We’ve really gotten in to foraging over the past couple of years, so in my forward planning I’ve started including a reminder of what plants to forage for each month. This will of course vary hugely depending on which part of the world you live in. For us, it’s what’s ready to forage here in central Scotland (and even here the foraging times sometimes vary depending on what the weather has been like). If you’re not bothered about foraging, the monthly download included two pages – one with, and one without a section for foraging.
In March we’ll be foraging for…
- Dandelions
- Daisies
- Gorse
- Ground Elder
- Nettles
- Wild Garlic
Dates for Our Diary
There are so many dates from different cultures and religions to consider, I’ll just be listing the ones that we ourselves celebrate or commemorate (you can create your own personal list using the download at the end of this post). I’ll also highlight some previous activities from our archives, which will help us to celebrate.
7 March – World Book Day (UK)
- 5 Last Minute World Book Day Costumes
- 9 World Book Day Costumes on a Budget
- How to Celebrate World Book Day at Home
10 March – Mothering Sunday (UK)
31 March – Easter Sunday
- Easter fun with Hama beads
- Paper plate Easter baskets
- Stained glass Easter eggs
- Wire bunny ear table decorations
- Easter bunny treat bags
- Mini eggs & white chocolate cookies
- Mini eggs Easter bark
- Chocolate Easter nests
- Family movies to watch at Easter
- Our favourite pictures books for Easter
Coming Up Next Month
One thing I’ve found with monthly planning, is that the things that happen at the beginning of the month can often take you by surprise (like World Book Day, every single year!) So that’s why at the beginning of each month I’ll also be reminding myself what’s coming up the following month. With Easter Sunday falling in March this years, there’s not any specific dates coming up next month, but there’s two weeks of school holidays to fill!
- School Easter Holidays
>> Download March Planner (full colour)
>> Download March Planner (printer friendly)
As always, all resources and downloads on this blog are free, to make them accessible to everyone. However, if you are able and would like to support me with a small donation, which helps to keep this blog running, it would be much appreciated. Just hit the support button below. Thank you x
