Since becoming a one car family again, our juggling act has become clumsy. Doug gets times confused and whines that he doesn’t have time to run upstairs to check the marker board a dozen times a day. The solution arrived in the mail yesterday. A 7-column weekly grid calendar aka “The Fridge Grid” by the same people who made the BusyBodyBook that I carry with me at all times. The Fridge Grid allowed me to make Doug a copy of the next two weeks’ schedule of doctor appointments, karate classes, school activities and the dozens of other things that make me feel like we live in our car. Doug got excited about the calendar because it has a column for each member of the family. “It’s perfect for our family! Make a chore chart! No, make a meal and snack planner!” I’m going to use his chore suggestion first. This summer it’s going to be used to keep track of reading and videogaming hours. One of those numbers should be higher than the other.
You could have just used Google Calendar (or Yahoo Calendar, or Live Calendar, but you get the idea). Then Doug wouldn’t have had any excuses of having to run upstairs, or misplacing the paper you give him.
We spend so much time out on the town, that Internet based systems wouldn’t work.
We used google calendar for awhile but Cathy had trouble keeping her various calendar’s in sync. Google calendar was nice because we created a calendar for each child and could overlay everyone’s events.
Hi Cathy,
Thanks so much for blogging about our new Fridge Grid Pad yesterday. I especially LOVE your idea of tracking the kids’ video, computer and reading hours in their columns! You might want to reward
the kid who reads the most by the end of the week –
nothing wrong with a little competition.
As you yourself say, paper is paper – portable, easy to hand over and viewable by everyone – the kids too!
Joan