Family Calendars Help Organize Activities and Homework
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By Anne Donegan Costas
Activities, Homework, and More
A family calendar will help you and your family not miss any important events or deadlines. The kids have settled into school and you have found that activities, homework, projects, piano lessons, ballet lessons, etc. are piling up. You may already have a way of keeping up with all the family activities that works for you. If so–great! If not or if you are not happy with your present way of doing things—please consider a calendar and read on!
Keeping Information Handy
Keeping a calendar allows you to keep all the family activities in one place. A good place might be in the kitchen/breakfast area where it can be reviewed easily by all. As you are setting up the calendar for the week or month it is best for you to sit down and put in all the family activities that are non-negotiables. You can put church activities, meetings, and/or piano or other practices on the calendar.
Adding Information From School
As your student brings home athletic, band, theatre practices those will need to be added. You might want to keep each of your children’s activities in a different color. Athletic games, presentations will need to be added as well. Your student may bring home a calendar from school with state testing dates. This is important for you to know so you can schedule doctor appointments on days when your child is not testing. As you gather your dates keep them all on the family calendar so you are able to see them at a glance.
Information For Subject Areas
Many teachers in the middle and high schools send home a syllabus with project due dates as well as major testing days. These might need to be highlighted or placed on the calendar so that they stand out. These are the major dates your student will want to be working around so as not to turn in an assignment late.
A very important reason for keeping a calendar is so your student will be able to manage his/her time appropriately. Your student may have a major project due on a Friday, for example, and has a game on the Thursday preceeding. If your student is checking the calendar on a regular basis he/she will be able to see that the project will need to be finished by Wednesday evening. This will enable him/her to finish any other last minute homework that was assigned on Thursday evening after the game and not be rushing to finish the project.
Student’s Own Calendar
As your student gets older it would be appropriate for him/her to keep their own calendar in addition to the family one. This way he/she will be able to add to it during the day as assignments are made in class. It is also teaching your student to be more accountable and self reliant. There are many kinds of school calendars. Allow your student to go with you and find one he/she feels they will really use. It needs to be clutter free and space to write assignments, make notes to self about announcements made in class, etc. I know, at times, I need to go several places before I finally find a calendar I like.
Managing time is the major enemy that I saw as a high school freshman counselor. Students come in to high school and they are not ready for the amount of information they need to keep up with. They have practices, homework, projects, games, club meetings, and the list is endless. They end up having to stay up late because they didn’t plan ahead and get things finished in a timely manner. Or they end up rushing through an assignment and don’t do their best.
Managing the Family Calendar
Adding dates, going over changes in dates, etc. will need to be managed. You will want to have a time to review the calendar with each of your children at a different time so they are not distracted by other conversation and noise. This allows them to get an idea of what will need to be on the calendar and what his/her part is in keeping up with the calendar.
Reminders
Of course, it would be great if you put up a calendar and never had to say anything again. I found, however, that one of my sons needed to be reminded many times about time management through his senior year in high school. He procrastinated something fierce! Hopefully, this idea will bring a certain level of orderliness to your routine involving the family and homework. Have a great day! Be WELL!
Click Here for Sample of District Calendar and School Calendars (click on school calendars at top of new page)