The Family Calendar

Fall is a very busy time for most families.  Everything is starting up again, after the quieter days of summer… school, sports, activities, appointments, meetings, holidays and more! It can be hard to keep track of everyone’s different schedules! While we do try hard not to over-schedule ourselves and our kids (more about that, in a future post!) we still somehow end up with lots of activities and appointments to keep track of. I know that lots of people rely on things like online calendars or smart phone calendars to manage their time, but we rely on something a bit more Simple… a big wall calendar, which is hung in a prominent place in our kitchen. It seems to work best for us, as it’s instantly accessible to even the youngest members of the family. To make our calendar easy to read, we use different colored markers for each type of activity. A quick glance from across the room lets us know what’s going on each day.

Black: Work schedules & work-related classes, etc

Pink: Homeschool activities

Orange: Occupational Therapy & Social group for Noodle

Blue: Dance classes

Brown: Baseball practices and games

Green: Doctor and Dentist appointments

Purple: Fun Stuff, like parties, outings, special events, etc

Some families might find it easier to color code their calendar so that each family member is designated a different color.  We have been refining our calendar system over the years, and have tailored it to work for us.  Our Family Calendar is the most-used “tool” in our home. We all look at it every evening, to see what we have going on the next day, and we look at it every morning, as we get ready for our day. It keeps us organized and keeps us from missing important appointments. It helps us to plan our days without stress (or, with less stress, anyway!)

Next post, I’ll be talking about all the “stuff” we all have written on our calendars, and how to keep from becoming a slave to our schedules.