The federal Department of Justice has published a book for 9- to 12-year-olds called ''[http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/pi/fcy-fea/lib-bib/pub/cal/2013/index.html What Happens Next?]'', available online and in print. The print version is a lot friendlier and what I'd suggest giving to a child.

The terms the legislation uses to describe the arrangements that are made by parents, arbitrators and judges are a bit of a mess. Under the provincial ''Family Law Act'', ''parenting arrangements'' are arrangements about parental responsibilities and parenting time made after separation, whether those arrangements are in an agreement or in an order. "Parenting arrangements" doesn't include agreements and orders about contact. I suppose those would be called ''contact agreements'' and ''contact orders'', although the legislation doesn't say so. Under the federal ''Divorce Act'', a ''parenting order'' is an order about decision-making responsibility and parenting time, and a ''contact order'' is an order about contact like you'd expect. A ''parenting plan'', on the other hand, is the part of a written agreement about decision-making responsibility, parenting time, or contact. "Parenting plan" doesn't include arbitrator's awards and judge's orders.

There's nothing wrong with taking things like this into account when you're planning a parenting schedule. It's important to think about how the schedule will work in real life and whether it's actually doable. You probably don't want a schedule that requires you to make a round trip drive from Surrey to North Vancouver, or from Kamloops to Kelowna, four times a week — and the children probably wouldn't like it either — or a schedule that will see the children in daycare when the other parent is a good parent and otherwise available to care for them.

There's really no limit to the ways that children's parenting schedules can be arranged, as long as the schedule is in children's best interests and practical from the parents' perspective. A search online will give you dozens of parenting schedule templates that you might want to think about out. What's important is that the schedule works for the children and for their parents.