Keeping track of your kids activities and school schedules can be an overwhelming challenge.  My solution?  Take the pressure off yourself by helping your kids do it on their own.  In our house my kids use their fridge planners to keep track of all their weekly to-dos.  When I posted this idea early on in my blog only my oldest daughter was in school.  Now that all three of my kids have schedules to manage I reworked the original idea and created a smaller, more versatile version.  I added lots of new icons to accommodate their changing activities and moved the velcro strips to the back so I could fit all three on the front of the fridge easily.  I’ll list the original post description as well as the new downloads below.

During the morning rush to get the kids off to school, I found myself checking multiple papers to find out what was happening that day. Did we need to pack library books or p.e. shoes? Is it a hot lunch day or do I need to pack a lunch? Does she need to bring her girl scout vest or ballet shoes? Some things were on the calendar and some were tacked up on the fridge. I felt like I was wasting time that I couldn’t spare, so I created this weekly planner to help my first grader manage her own schedule.

It’s a very simple velcro system. On it I list the days of the week Monday through Saturday. I created icons in MS Word (you should be able to adapt them easily) for each of my daughter’s usual activities and color coded the titles for easy sorting. Under each day on the chart, I’ve added a strip of velcro that can hold three icons. The first icon shows what’s happening at school that day (art, library, pe, music, computer). The second icon shows what type of lunch she’s having (cold or hot). The third icon shows reminders and afterschool activities (test, homework, gymnastics, etc.).

Usually, on Sunday night at family council we’ll gather all the various calendars and reminders and my daughter will arrange the icons on her chart. She’ll also use this chart to help her know what clothes to put in her under-bed clothes organizer. For example, if she sees that she’s got PE on Tuesday, she knows that she needs to pack an outfit that will work tennis shoes. 

We post this “planner” on the fridge so she can see it each morning when she’s getting dressed and packing her backpack. It has made a huge difference in our morning routine. I’ll also use it throughout the week when her teacher sends home reminders and other info. I think this one will stick with us for several years. Just thought I’d pass it on.

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About a year ago, we added a TV to the toy room in our basement. The kids loved having it, but I hated going up and down the stairs over and over again to help them find a good channel. One afternoon I came down to find my 6 year old watching a steamy soap opera and decided I needed to do something. We almost got rid of the TV; then I found this handy solution.

I bought this universal kid-friendly remote on eBay for around $9. It’s called a Weemote and it’s made by Phillips. It’s designed to allow you to program up to 5 mom-approved channels. The remote has big, colorful, numbered buttons that are very easy for the kids to learn; even my 3 year old can do it. For example, if they want to find the Disney channel, they don’t have to remember numbers, they just push the yellow star. There’s also a power button, volume control, and a channel changer that will only rotate through the 5 approved channels.

It can be programmed to work with any TV. The set-up was incredibly simple. It took me about 2 minutes. My treadmill is downstairs too, so if want to bypass all the Weemote programming I just grab the original remote or manually push the buttons on the TV. I noticed online that they also make a DVD player version, but I haven’t tried it yet. If any of you have, make a comment on this post so I can find out if you like it as much as I like this one.

To help my kids keep track of their remote, I stuck some sticky-back velcro on both the back of the remote and the side of the TV. Now it has a place and doesn’t get swept into the toy bucket on clean-up day. Sadly, it won’t stop the fighting over who gets to hold the remote, but I haven’t changed a channel in over a year which makes it a keeper in my book. Just thought I’d pass it on.

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School is starting again…which means seas of pastel colored papers coming home in backpacks. Of course the problem is that we get a random assortment each day. Homework, reminders, permission slips…it’s tough to keep it all straight. Rather than let my counter clutter up, I created this inbox system in my kitchen cupboard to help me manage the clutter.

Since the kitchen is the hub of our home, most of my organization centers there. I devoted the lower shelf of one cupboard to keeping the family organized. On the right side are my many binders (mentioned in a previous post). On the left, are these inexpensive inboxes I purchased from WalMart for around $10.

I labeled one inbox for every member of the family. Essentially the inboxes are temporary storage. As the backpacks come off, the kids put any homework on the fridge. Everything else goes into their inbox. Sometimes I get a minute when the kids are in the tub, but generally I don’t get a chance to go through the boxes until the kids are in bed. By then I’ve usually got a little time to sign things, write checks, and add notes to my calendar. Then I return stuff back to their backpacks and look forward to a slightly less hectic morning.

I also use the inboxes to stash lots of things for myself and my husband. For example, If I’m going through a catalog and see an idea I like, I rip it out and stick it in my inbox. Later, when I have time, I add it to my Design Ideas Binder. They also come in handy when I find a pile of my husband’s random papers and post-its. Rather than try to figure out what they are, I toss them into his inbox and tell him to look there first.

It’s a simple system, but it works…and it’s well worth the cupboard space. Just thought I’d pass it on.

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