I work early mornings and my husband takes the girls to school most days. We have been forgetting to send things to school with my daughter because between our two girls, snow gear and lunches it is hectic in the morning. I just made my own monthly calendar in word with daily appointments, notes to bring library books back and homework due, etc. but do you have any particular products you use to remind you of your daily activities, etc? I though a weekly dry erase board for the fridge might be nice. We have a monthly calendar but it is in the pantry and my husband never looks at it. Ideally I would like to incorporate the morning duties like brushing teeth, brushing hair and getting dressed on it for the girls to check off themselves but it seems like both calenders in one is too much. Any ideas? Do I need two separate calendars?
I put a big dry-erase calendar on the wall in my kitchen. Is it pretty? Not really, but it is SO functional, and everyone sees it every day. I hang a regular wall calendar next to it so I can write upcoming events/appts in the months to come.
For the daily tasks I just wrote them on construction paper & put it up on the wall, and my kids award themselves stickers as they complete their tasks.
Yes - after many years of trying to keep four kids and two adults on track, here's what works for me. First, you need to separate out Routines from Chores from the Calendar.
Routines: basic self care and things you want the kids to do automatically, every day. When the kids were smaller, I made laminated morning, afternoon and night routines with pictures. Morning was things like eat breakfast, get dressed, brush teeth, make bed, pack lunch/snack/water, check backpack. Afternoon including things like hanging up jackets, emptying lunchboxes, putting notices on my desk and homework. Night has the bedtime routine, which includes things like locating hats & gloves in the winter or packing a swimsuit and towel in the summer so there are no surprises in the morning.
Chores: these are additional things that they do in addition to self-care routine tasks like making their beds or putting dirty clothes in the hamper. Things like setting the table, vacuuming, weeding, etc.
Finally, the Calendar: I use a paper monthly calendar from Fly Lady. It's on the wall in my kitchen in a place that can't be missed. Here is where things like Monday is library day or Wednesday is gym go, as well as sports and activities schedule, working late or travel days, dentist and doctor appointments, play dates...basically who need to be what and where and when. I also put things like spelling test days or project due dates for the younger kids. We each have a color in which I write everyone's appointments. My little guys can look for blue or green items and see what's going on that week. I also replicate this calendar electronically via Cozi, a free web-based calendar. This way, those appointments can synch with my Outlook so I see things at work and can go to our phones (me, husband and older kids) so that we can get text reminders of things that we're tagged in.
It sounds like a lot of work but once you get everyone in the habit of checking the wall calendar, leaving all papers for you in one place, planning the morning the night before, and syncing up your paper and e-calendars twice a week, it runs pretty smoothly.
We keep a standard paper calendar in our kitchen. When the kids get old enough, let them put things up there. We also keep all papers, reminders, etc. pinned to the board next to it. DH uses his phone's calendar option and I occasionally use the Google Calendar to ping me about my upcoming meetings, etc.
I would put chores and responsibilities on a different chart, one per kid.
I keep a monthly calendar on the side of the fridge (regular paper type), but in our dining room visible to all (yes our home will never be featured in Architectural Digest...It's very 'lived in' LOL) I have a dry erase weekly calendar. I use the monthly calendar to fill the weekly calendar each week. The weekly calendar has two extra spots. Sometimes I will use one to note the week ahead. Sometimes I just write other information on there.
We've been using this system for years and it seems to work for the whole family. Everyone sees it, reads it, and is on the same page.
We use a dry erase calendar now, it's about 2'x3' and easy to read. I find it cathartic to 'wipe away" each month, too. But we also used to use one that had a column for each household member, and when my kids were in a lot of activities it was great. This is very close to, if not the one, we had: http://compare.ebay.com/like/150891543082?var=lv&ltyp...
You'll see on that page a lot of others similar to it.
Oh that's right, we stopped using it when we had our 4th kid, since it only had 5 columns :)
I use Cozi... it's online and I set it up so it syncs between my computer, cell phone and kindle. It also sends texts to remind family members of appointments, etc.
I like the calendar feature and also use it for appointments, grocery lists, to do lists, recipes, and the journal. It has a feature that will download the school calendar too if your school participates. It was free which was nice!
We use the Cozi family calendar app, too. It's great because each family member can have his/her own calendar, and the app syncs all of the calendars together. Because I am a bit 'old school' too, I have a 'paper-based/hard copy' personal organizer - the Erin Condren Life Planner. I absolutely can't live without it! (erincondren.com) It's a bit pricey as far as day planners go, but it's worth every penny to me!
Now that I am an empty nester, I use my cell phone. When I was active parenting, I had an old fashioned monthly blank calender print out that I put my sons baseball games, my sorority functions and my hubby's camping trips.
I painted a big chalkboard on our back door to the garage. It's for those odds and ends that are forgotten if we don't see it going out the door.
