It's Back to School time!
The first week of August is "Simplify Your LIfe Week". It also happens to be the first week of school for my children. We are in the process of school supply shopping and getting ready for more structured schedules. It's a bit tricky coordinating bus routes and carpools. Add to that extracurricular activities for both of them, and the scheduling quickly gets crazy! How to juggle it all? My family uses a large monthly calendar on our kitchen wall (see example below). We each are given a color for the calendar. That way, we can tell who has what on what day(s) and time(s). It's an easy visual reminder. We don't write down the details (it becomes too visually cluttered). We save that for our own personal calendars/agendas. But it's a great way to see at a glance who has that dentist appointment this Wednesday afternoon and who has soccer on Friday. (Full disclosure -- this is not my wall calendar, but it's similar...this one just looks nicer).
We've got the family organized with a giant wall calendar, now let's look at personal calendars/agendas..more specifically for students. I am lucky that the middle school both of my children attend(ed) requires each student to have their own student agenda. By starting to use an agenda in 5th grade, my son will learn important life skills like responsibility (write down the homework assignments and important information) and time management (when is the assignment due and what else do I have going on each day?). Being able to see an entire week of activities and assignments at once will help him organize his work into chunks that he can handle.
Using calendars and agendas are great ways to reduce stress and simplify your life!
