Earlier we talked about how many activities work for your family. So once you’ve got that calendar all set, how do you manage the actual logistics?
There are so many tools for this. Big old binders, a huge wall calendar, a little daytimer-style book you carry around – these can all work.
Of course there’s an app for that. In our house we live by the Google calendar. Each child is colour coded and everything MUST go on the calendar. Everyone has the calendar on their device and I print it off week by week for the fridge so that I can easily see it at a glance and scribble my to-do’s on it.
The key is consistency, and you know I’m talking about the Mr. here. Mine plays sports and travels so ideally, he would be slamming that all in the calendar. It would sure help me become the organized parent I am MEANT to be! However, if I had a penny for every time I said “Check the calendar” I would have $850 this week alone. And it’s only Monday.
The nice thing about Google is that it’s here to stay. So now my son at 12 has his schedule on his iPad as well. You’re welcome, future daughter-in-law.
I also try to do a little weekly schedule review with the family to give them opportunities to remind me about a birthday party they never told me about or a field trip notice that’s crumpled up on the bottom of their backpack. (It sometimes works).
Every family has a different schedule hack – online or on paper, whatever works!