Dry Erase Board Calendar
Get your Family Organized with a Dry Erase Board Calendar
As a mother of two children things can get pretty crazy in my home. A typical weekend for both my husband and me would be filled with activities. Here is a simple unstructured breakdown:
• Take our son to soccer practice
• Drop our daughter off for music lessons
• Shop for groceries
• Clean the house
• Visit our parents
• Make the necessary meals (lunch dinner etc.)
• Help the children with their homework
• Anything else that decides to pop-up
Something was always going wrong, we were either late for an appointment, forgot to pick someone up on time or just plain old forgetting to do something important altogether. Then through the help of a good family friend we discovered the power of the dry erase board calendar.
I decided to use this method after one ultra crazy Saturday. I went online and searched for ways to organize my family life and that is where I found the dry erase board calendar. To me this works like using plastic storage containers to organize your closet, only with this you are organizing the lives of you and your children.
The toughest part of using dry erase board calendars is selling the idea to your kids and getting them to use it. It’s best to sell the idea to them when they are in a happy mood as they will be more receptive and open to the idea. My approach was to pitch the concept like an advertisement. Personally I am yet to meet the child that jumps for joy at the thought of being organized, much less making a schedule of their lives. I made it a point to stress on the many times that I made them late for practice or how I forgot to pick their friends for sleepovers. The trick is to make them feel that having this calendar will benefit them more than how it will benefit you.
Due to the type of board you have the flexibility of making changes where necessary while maintaining neatness. You don’t have to mark out an activity or change a sheet, you simply erase and re-write and your work is done. It’s time to get organized. What you will need to do is get everyone involved. Start by outlining the days of the week in a simple way. Next you will want to put the name of each family member. Start with the important activities; soccer practice, rehearsals, meetings, trips out of town, class schedules and so on.
It will not be the easiest thing to get your family in the routine of using the dry erase board calendar and in the beginning there will be glitches. However once your family gets into the habit of using this method, you will wonder how you ever lived without one.