I recently received this question from a fellow blog reader.
I have a typical busy household with kids in sports activities and things going on all the time to keep track of. Right now, my husband and I each have our own At-A-Glance calendar that we try to keep coordinated. I have tried going digital on my Blackberry but like to see the whole month at a time, and that just didn’t do it for me. I don’t like the look of having a big calendar on the fridge, and ours is not magnetic anyway. I would like to have one family calendar that we all refer to and add to. In your experience, what do you find works well? Dry erase, traditional paper, one color ink per person to keep track, etc?
With school just around the corner (yes, it starts for my kids NEXT Tuesday!) I thought this was a timely question. For us…life is about to ratchet up on the complications scale…so it’s a good time to rethink the family calendar. So here are my thoughts on family calendars.
I have to agree completely on the digital calendar bit. I’ve tried this before, and like our fellow blog reading friend, found the time horizon to be just (way) too short for me. I prefer a month-at-a-glance calendar and for my family I maintain a big wall calendar from Erin Condren* (that hangs on the fridge.) OK…so the fridge part is where we differ…but that’s OK. There are other options. This is the wall calendar I like.
An important consideration with your family calendar is where to hang it. To be most effective, the calendar should be hung in a centralized location where everyone can see it. This is why the refrigerator works well…your calendar is right smack dab in the middle of everything, reminding you about what’s going on. Other options, depending on the layout of your home, include the laundry room, on the back door (if that’s the door you use daily), the inside of the coat closet door, or on a bulletin board in the kitchen. You could also use a smaller calendar, and keep it tucked in a basket on the kitchen counter or on the back of a cabinet door. Hanging the calendar out of site would require everyone to adopt a new habit of pulling out the calendar and looking at it on a daily basis. This would require some effort.
I’d recommend a paper calendar over dry erase or chalkboard (even though that type of calendar looks so cool) because you can’t plan as far in advance with this type of calendar. For example, now is a great time to get all the school holidays and planned school events on your family calendar. (Or do this as soon as this info is available in your school district.) With a single-month dry erase or chalkboard calendar, you wouldn’t be able to record events further out than the month you’re in. This means you’d have to maintain a secondary calendar and then update your dry-erase calendar at the start of each month. All of this translates into double entry of info, more stuff to keep track of, and more than one place to look to figure out what your family has going on (especially if you’re nearing the end of a month.) Also, with a dry-erase calendar you don’t have a paper record of the past events…which can be nice to have (especially if you’re a scrapbooker.)
As far as color coding goes…well…I’m not a fan. I typically don’t recommend this for clients, unless they have used color coding in the past and found it to solve an organizational problem for them. I know there are advocates of color-coding out there, but for me, the benefit of having everyone assigned a specific color does not exceed the challenge of having four pens at-the-ready each time I go to update the calendar. Color coding just adds a step and an extra thought process…and I don’t find that the added benefit is worth it. Keep in mind I only have two kids, so I usually just put their initials in parenthesis in front of the event or deadline that applies to them and this works fine for us.
I do like color, though. I use brightly colored Sharpies to update my calendar and usually select colors in keeping with the month (orange in October, red and blue in July, green and red in December.) I couldn’t do that with color coding…now could I? 😉
Wow…who knew I had so much to say about family calendars? Maybe you do, too. Let’s see if you do…
Do you use a family calendar? If so, what’s your favorite kind—paper, chalk, dry-erase, or some other kind? And I’m dying to know: are you a color coder…or not so much?
I have one calendar for myself. And I’m a color coder. One color for work and one for personal. And I bought one of those “old” Bic pens with the four colors on them, they still make them. And it works great!
I’ve actually found a mom calendar at the grocery store these past two years! Love it. It’s got lines enough for entries for a 5 person family for EACH DAY!! Love it. It’s pretty colors and fun designs… but no big picture at the top for looking at… the spread out design really takes up the room! I keep mine in my pantry tacked to the back of the door (mind you my door opens out)… that way I don’t have to look at it when I don’t want to… and when it’s messy, yuck! But it’s all there. Now… whether or not I’m good about keeping it up to date… I’ll leave that for you to guess! 🙂
did that post?
I have the Mom’s Calendar that I LOVE that also has a Desk Planner and I get two one for on the go and 1 for on my desk. The Mom’s Calendar I put right by the door headed to garage for Husband to view and the kiddos.
I have a large calendar from More Time Moms called the Family Organizer. When I buy a new one, I take the time to put each family members initial on a separate line, also one for family and dinner. This is time consuming at the time but well worth it throughout the year. I then add any constant dates like birthdays and annniversaries on the lines below our initials. Anything that is part of an individuals schedule is put on the line next to their initial. Anything involving the family goes on the family line. Whever I get the school calendar I put those dates right on the calendar next to each person’s name. I also like that there is a big pocket on the back. I put important papers in their. Right now I have dentist appointment cards for next year. I also have the school calendars in there for when I buy next year’s calendar. This is hung in our kitchen under our key rack/mail center which is above the garbage. We put it here because everyone uses the garbage and can look at the calendar. My eight year old has been checking the calendar since she was five when she started reading.
I only have one little girl right now and she’s only one so we aren’t into the hectic school schedules yet. We do attend a mommy & me class that we call “school” *smile* but….we use a standard decorative calendar (this year, black labs) and hang it inside a kitchen cabinet door right above the phone. We go into that cabinet every morning for our coffee cups and being so close to the phone/message machine, it’s easy to jot down an appointment or what have you quickly. I keep a decorative cup of pens/markers right beside the phone so we never have to look for one. I like it because I am a scrapbooker and it is a permanent reference that allows me to look back on our past year easily.
My mom has a paper calendar on her fridge that is color coded. She basically writes out the event, appointment, whatever and highlights it. My sister, brother, mom and step dad all have a color. its mainly for mom to have and keep track of the craziness, and its easy to read for everyone to see what’s going on when they choose to. When I have kids of my own, i intend to do the same technique. She also has just gotten into putting things into her palm pilot, b/c she is always on the go and all the events that my brother and sister are involved in, its easy for her to have on her at all times. Before she would have to say she would have to check the calendar at home, and get back to that person or whatever. Seems like a pretty good system to me! 🙂
I use a Creative Memories calendar in a fridge frame on my… you guessed it… fridge. I write everything on it (in black ink) from dr’s appts to soccer practice. Then it becomes a page in our family scrapbook for the year. Perfect for helping me remember all the little things from the month that make our family unique- I mean, with 4 kids, you can imagine all the dr’s appts! 🙂
I’m a digital gal and love all things Google. I use Google calendar. I can share it with my husband or anyone I want for that matter. My husband can check it from the office. I may start printing it out and posting on fridge so the girls can see. I can schedule recurring events easily. You can even have it email you a reminder prior to the event.
What I like about it is that if I get an email that can you come to some event at 3pm on August 13th, right in the email will be a link to add the event to the calendar.
We use a paper family calendar which we keep right at the entrance to the kitchen because that’s probably my most-used room in the house 🙂 (hence the extra kilos on my thighs!)
We don’t have kids yet but it helps us to see at a glance if we’re too busy or if we have space to do things.
We each keep our personal planners too but this helps us to see what’s going on as a family (yes, I consider us a family too :))
Not sure if that just posted???
We use a paper family calendar which we keep right at the entrance to the kitchen because that’s probably my most-used room in the house 🙂 (hence the extra kilos on my thighs!)
We don’t have kids yet but it helps us to see at a glance if we’re too busy or if we have space to do things.
We each keep our personal planners too but this helps us to see what’s going on as a family (yes, I consider us a family too :))
I have been using a Mom’s Plan It Calendar that I buy at a Local book store every August. It has lines for 5 different family members, my husband, myself, and our 2 daughters. I then use the bottom space for any reminders about the cats. I also love that it is a 17 month calendar. this way I can put information on the calendar before I buy a new calendar. I always write in pencil as things can be changed, dates get changed, events get cancelled etc. I keep the calendar in the Kitchen, next to the phone. This way if someone calls about a date, I can easily write it on the calendar. I have also taken to carrying a small pocket calendar in my purse. This way I always have the information at my fingertips.
I also keep a family calendar on our fridge. I used the thinkbin but just saw that they’re not making a calendar for 2008-09 which is a bummer b/c it had lots of space to write & a time of day grid. Timetoo’s family organizer looks like a similar option.
I keep a separate calendar that I carry to appointments, meetings (on the lookout for a new one this school year). I like to look at the monthly view vs. weekly. I do color code on the family calendar with highlighters. With 3 kids, it helps me to see who is doing what, when especially during our busy soccer season.
I manage the schedules for two kids. I keep track of all appointments digitally – in Outlook. That allows me to email the appointments to my husband, and he can keep his Treo updated. However, I too, need to be able to see a month at a time, so I print out my calendar about once a week, and hang it on the fridge. This works for us!
Hi
I am a digi-mom – everything goes in my work calendar (Outlook). Family birthdays are recorded and set to recur each year — added bonus that I have the reminder set up for 1 week — this means one week before someone’s birthday I get a little bing bong message about it.
When the school calendar of inservice days, etc. comes home I input everything (again, 1 week reminder so I have the unexpected days off covered). I send Hubby reminders this way too — I block time on his calendar for back to school night and other events. I have a treo so I enter appoints and phone numbers when we are out, then sync up with my calendar when I get home.
As convenient as that is… I like a visual in the kitchen. Many events and activities are on that calendar which is nice, but we all know that is not the “master” version.
Christine — thanks for the “print it out” idea!
New for this school year — my girls each have a student planner. My older daughter has used one for school the last 2 years to keep track of her assignments. will be interesting to see how this impacts family activities.
good discussion!
Jen
another idea — a friend of mine has 3 kids (15, 14, 10) – 2 have special needs and life is pretty crazy with appointments, sports, and activities, etc. She is not a techie person at all but I think she has a good system…
1. she has a paper calendar in her purse (large purse, good sized week at a glance type calendar) and she makes her notes in that for everyone.
2. On her frig is a large dry erase calendar that has 5 rows of weeks. She uses this as a “rolling” 4 week visual of what is happening. Each week she erases the row that has just passed and transfers information to the remaining weeks so they are up to date. the 5th week is always blank so it is easy to to find the cuurent week at a glance. She uses initials instead of color coding also.
this is what I mean by rolling calendar:
week 1
week 2
week 3
week 4
blank row
the next week it looks like this:
blank row
week 2
week 3
week 4
week 5
the next week:
week 6
blank row
week 3
week 4
week 5
the next:
week 6
week 7
blank
week 4
week 5
hope that makes sense.
I agree Aby, we also keep one central calendar in our kitchen which is essential to us to know whether we are coming or going. I think often many families over complicate their system with too many calendars and not one MAIN one which is detrimental to staying organized.
I’ve got a paper calendar on the wall by the phone with color coding (pens in a jar also by the phone) for the 5 of us, plus a shelf with pegs where I hang clips (on ribbons) that hold sports schedules, lunch menus, etc. Works for us!
KellyM in MN
I use a paper fridge calendar from http://www.motherword.com and LOVE it!
I had a 2mth dry erase one for a long time, but my new house doesn’t have the same type of wall space the old one did so I had to switch.
I always had a paper calendar for planning in advance, but it was tucked away in a corner.
I must use colors, five kids, dh and myself at a glance I want to know who has what…
I keep everything on a monthly calendar at my desk, the kids put stuff on post it notes if they want to add something, then I write it on the actual calendar (I don’t want anything I can’t read on the calendar). I keep a small weekly calendar on the back door so the kids can be reminded of tests (the ones they tell me about). As for the pens, they are attached to the calendar and EVERYBODY knows to not remove mom’s pens.
Additionally I make notes about the day when there has been an unusual picture worthy day so I can scrap events and know the date later.