Easy Calendar

Yesterday, my friend Lori O. posted on her Facebook page that she was looking for a "good calendar to manage the kids' schedule" and soon she received many responses from moms who recommended "mommy" calendars, Smartphones, Google calendars and more. I just had to make my response to her in a blog post. Yeah, I'm a dork for sure.

I started to use a "mommy" type calendar at the beginning of the school year and thought it would be my answer to "organizing" our family activities.

The problem I had was that the spaces provided were too small and I couldn't fit everything in that I wanted. Also, it was cumbersome. I had to tack it to the wall. Even though it comes with a nice magnetic strip, I don't have a magnetic anything to stick it to.

So, I decided to do away with the mommy calendar and instead do what I used to do long ago.

In my kitchen there is a very large chalkboard {it measures a little more than 5 feet wide and 2 1/2 feet tall} that we use to draw pictures, scribble on, jot down notes, phone numbers and such. It's also used during birthdays to write large "Happy Birthday" messages. Previously I've also drawn a large grid and used it as a calendar but for some reason it was erased and I never used it for that purpose again. But, after having struggled with the "mommy" calendar that didn't quite fit my needs, I got out the level and tape measure and got to work drawing the grid lines.

Once the grid was done, I added the days of the week and then started filling in the various activities that we needed to keep track of.

This also works for our family as we often gather around the kitchen island to discuss upcoming events/activities. Now we can, at a glance, just look over to the calendar to see what's going on for the week/month. The kids also like pointing out the days of the week and it helps them with number recognition, letters, etc.

Let's just hope I can keep this up monthly.

Have a good weekend.