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LisaR
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| Posted: June 23 2007 at 9:10am | IP Logged
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For years I have used Family Centered Press lovely smaller size planner. This is by my side at all times and is easily portable, AND I can so far, fit our "life" into it. However, I have found over the years that I am verbally reminding dh, the kids, etc about upcoming ball games, appointments, etc. I have tried giving my planner to dh to transfer important stuff into his Franklin Planner, that works some of the time :) I have bought student planners for ds's and have found cartoons and other "graffiti" in them but not much else.
I have also tried leaving the planner in a prominent place for everyone to acess, but no one looks at it and it gets buried. (why my attempt at a desktop size planner on my desk did not work either!)
so....I'd love suggestions as to how you keep everyone in the know. do you do the refrigerator thing? DO you require your older kids to keep track of their own appts?
thanks for any help!
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Lisa
dh Tim '92
Joseph 17
Paul 14
Thomas 11
Dominic 8
Maria Gianna 5
Isaac Vincent 9/21/10! and...
many little saints in heaven!
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stefoodie
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We have a large desktop calendar that really should go on a wall now that I think about it. Once every couple of weeks we sit down and add in all events that are coming up. DH usually initiates this as he needs to have his Palm updated, etc.
I've also set up a calendar at 30 boxes that I now have on my blog's sidebar -- I'm using it for lesson plans right now which is not really the best use for it as it can only accommodate 8 events -- but it would be perfect for games, etc. Last night I just started a Google calendar which I think would be a better choice, plus dh and dd would be able to see/edit it.
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stef
mom to five
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Becky Parker
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| Posted: June 23 2007 at 11:37am | IP Logged
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We have a bulletin board in our kitchen on which I hung a desk calendar. Before hanging it, I wrote in all the weekly events that take place as well as feast days, ball practices, birthdays, etc. I did this using colorful sharpie markers. Birthdays are in red, holy days are in blue, sports are in green etc. As new things come up we add them. I actually covered the bulletin board in fabric before hanging it. It looks much nicer that way. I hung it on the wall so that we can't help but check it when we sit down for dinner.
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Becky
Wife to Wes, Mom to 6 wonderful kids on Earth and 4 in Heaven!
Academy Of The Good Shepherd
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ElizLeone
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| Posted: June 23 2007 at 11:56am | IP Logged
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I would love to hear more about what people are doing in this area, because I feel that we are at a calendaring crossroads right now. 
For years, my calendaring has all been via iCal on my computer. (I'm a mac person.) It's great, because I can color-code the various activities. I can also enter weekly, monthly, bi-weekly, or other regularly-scheduled activities once, and then have them automatically enter on all the following weeks/months/whatever. It's a real time-saver.
However, I am realizing more than ever this summer that the big downside to this calendar is that it's on my computer, and the kids and my husband don't see it. I'd like the kids to have a better sense of what's happening on what day, at what time, so I don't have to remind them. And it would be very helpful for my husband to see the calendar at a glance. Currently, he has his work calendar, and I manage the home calendar, but we don't always fall in sync, because no one can see the home one.
So... I'm thinking very seriously about going to a hang-on-the-wall calendar, but I'm sort of torn, because I don't want to give up the easy entry and modification qualities of the iCal set-up! I am in a quandry!
The only other idea I've come up with is to print the iCal calendar daily and post it on a bulletin board. However, that would require that I actually remember to do this daily (as our calendar seems to change at least that often), and I know from experience that I'll fall behind on this plan...
Hmmm... Any brilliant suggestions? 
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Elizabeth in Wisconsin
7 kids, 1 little saint
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JenniferS
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| Posted: June 23 2007 at 12:17pm | IP Logged
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We just have a wall calendar that we write everything on. We all check it to see what is going on. Even the older kids check it out.
Jen
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LisaR
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| Posted: June 23 2007 at 1:14pm | IP Logged
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Ok, those of you who use a wall calendar, do you also have a "mom's" calendar of some sort?? what about when you are at a homeschool meeting Dr, or other event out of your home and you need to schedule appts, meetings or things? I just don't what to give up my family centered planner. Maybe you take the calendar off the wall and bring it with you?
lisa
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Lisa
dh Tim '92
Joseph 17
Paul 14
Thomas 11
Dominic 8
Maria Gianna 5
Isaac Vincent 9/21/10! and...
many little saints in heaven!
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momwats8
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I use a calendar on the fridge and we have a very large dry eraser board. every day I write our schedule out on the dry eraser board in case they do not look at the calendar. I do use my own calendar too so I can keep things straight in my own head and try to keep us up to date a couple of days. I also do verbal reminders a couple of days before- something like " we have baseball tomorrow at 8:00 so we will need to be ready by 6:30" " Wednesday is our field trip so be up and ready by 9:00" etc. so they hear what is coming up too.
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Mary- Wife to Mike and Mother to Austin(92), Mikey(95), R.J.(97), Benedict(98), Kolbe(00), Ignatius(02), Christian(03), Margaret(05),&4 angels in heaven
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MicheleQ
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| Posted: June 23 2007 at 2:46pm | IP Logged
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LisaR wrote:
| I just don't what to give up my family centered planner. |
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Well that's good to hear. 
Lisa here's my take on all this. I have tried for a long time to get everyone (including dh) to keep track of things. Sometimes they do well, most of the time they do not. I have decided that this is simply part of my job as keeper of the home to keep everyone informed of what is going on and when. I have let go of being frustrated and just let them know what we're doing and when. It works and everyone is happy. Your experience may be different.
That being said, one idea that works here is to write down the week's activities on a white board where everyone can see it. But this works but only if I actually do it and frankly sometimes it's just easier to keep track of everything in my planner and inform those who need to know what's going on.
Oh and I will tell you something else in case you are wondering. Even though I do it this way it's not as "controlling" as it may sound. My older children (22 and 21) do keep track of their own stuff and manage their own lives. They check with me to see if there's a conflict but otherwise they keep their own schedule. I DO make sure my kids all have planners IF they want them. 22 yr. old ds uses one 21 yr. old ds does not.
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Michele Quigley
wife to my prince charming and mom of 10 in Lancaster County, PA USA
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PDyer
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MicheleQ wrote:
| I have tried for a long time to get everyone (including dh) to keep track of things. Sometimes they do well, most of the time they do not. I have decided that this is simply part of my job as keeper of the home to keep everyone informed of what is going on and when. I have let go of being frustrated and just let them know what we're doing and when. It works and everyone is happy. |
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We have the same system in our house. I tried to maintain two calendars (my own and the family's, with people posting their own commitments) and had a very tough time keeping them the same. I use Michelle's calendar now. For better or for worse my family wants me to be responsible for keeping this system, so the calendar is in a binder that is readily accessible to anyone who wants to look at it, but no one ever does. 
Every week I try very hard to sit down with my husband to have a 'state of the calendar' meeting. The kids take part if the upcoming week is expected to be especially hectic. This way everyone can *see* what is coming, but not have to think to look for themselves. For now, it's working for us. As the kids get older, I expect the system will change...
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Patty
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Becky Parker
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Lisa,
I also use the planner from Family Centered Press. I take it with me everywhere. I just make it a point to transfer appointments and such from my planner to our wall calendar.
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Becky
Wife to Wes, Mom to 6 wonderful kids on Earth and 4 in Heaven!
Academy Of The Good Shepherd
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JodieLyn
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wall calender gets things jotted on it
and this summer just maxed me out.. I recently got a cell phone and the biggest help it's been.. I'm figuring out the calender.. I've figured out how to add things in (and view it so it can be seen) as a weekly which shows all the hours of the day and where things are sceduled.. and I can also access it as monthly quickly find a particular day (and then check what's on that day)
I like the wall calender.. we use the Catholic one we get through our Church.. so all the holy days and such are listed on it.. I sit down with the new calender and write in all the birthdays and anniversaries... in addition to that.. we have a seperate listing of dh's volunteer fire department schedule.. it's a list that's on the bulletin board next to the calender.. so is the alter server schedule and the list of families bringing forward the gifts.. though those get a quick mark on the main calender as well.
Everyone has access to the wall calender.. and I don't have kids old enough that I'm not involved in everything they have on the calender anyway.. so on my phone works just fine... cause if they're gonna get to anything.. I'm taking them
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All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
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LisaR
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| Posted: June 24 2007 at 2:27pm | IP Logged
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Ok, I am thinking now about just doing a white board - and maybe putting TODAY at the top and listing the schedule for the day. perhaps if there is room I could even put UPCOMING somewhere else on the board and post the key events for the next 3-5 days or so.
My fear with my personal size planner, a wall calendar, and then a white board (not to mention dh's planner) is that appts will somehow slip by. I think most of my kids tend to have focus issues (hey, I do too! :) ) and looking at a month at a time might cause them to glaze over.
I'm not going to stress so much anymore that my 14 and 11 y/o ds's can't remember/keep track of what is going on in their lives all the time.
Now...to find the "perfect whiteboard"!!
thanks everyone!!
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Lisa
dh Tim '92
Joseph 17
Paul 14
Thomas 11
Dominic 8
Maria Gianna 5
Isaac Vincent 9/21/10! and...
many little saints in heaven!
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kris
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older kids keep track of their own stuff. I just want to know what they are up to.
Dh and I have an e-mail calendar. Calendar in the kitchen for everything else, but I am mostly the brain for it all.
Gulp--I don't use a planner at all currently.
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Kris
married to Tim 6-83
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Bookswithtea
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I use Michelle's planner in my purse. I transfer stuff to a wall calendar. I've used the Flylady's wall calendar in the past because the squares are big, but I'm thinking about the MomAgenda weekly wall/desk calendar now, because it has lines in each box, one for each person!
Its a pain to remember to transfer,and sometimes I forget. In fact, in transferring this morning, I realized I planned an OB appt and a doula appointment on the same day I'm supposed to be running the nursery for our parish's vbs program!
Still, this system works better than my other system, which was failing me every week.
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mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and  due 9/10
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4Real Forums : Mothering and Family Life
Topic: How Do You Manage Kid's/Family Schedules?
