Eeeek, my kiddos are already back in school! Summer is officially over in my house and that means that we are back to a full time, out of control, bananas schedule for each and every one of us. With sports and work trips, meetings and playdates…before I know it I am lost in a sea of Post It notes that I have left myself to help me try to remember everything. And if I am honest, I usually fail pretty hard when I keep track like that. I decided that this year we needed to be more organized as a family. Not only for my sanity, but also to show my kids how to keep and maintain their own schedules. Here is what we came up with:
Breaking it down a bit, you can see the largest piece is the family calendar (PS: to protect our privacy, the info on here is totally fake). Each family member has their own color coded, dual sided marker to write their info on the calendar with. So for instance, if my daughter Grace sees something in orange or yellow she knows that that item directly relates to her. We also have a color designated as the family color, so vacations, days off from school, etc are all written with that color. My hubby also threw his old architecture t-square up on the wall so that we can make nice, straight lines on our calendar. We are very OCD like that. 🙂
Moving on we’ve got a large cork board to add any loose but important info to. The Lowes recipes for the much needed new dishwasher that I ordered, some wedding invites and a simple backyard sketch my hubby made while we were trying to design our pool are on their now. I’m always amazed at how quickly we fill up cork boards!
The pieces that I love most are the individual sections for each kid. They each have a chore chart as well as a basket to hold their school paperwork. They all have a hook hanging underneath for their backpacks and lunch boxes to be stored at each day. I love that the kids understand already (by day 2!!!) that the first thing that they need to do when they wake up is check their chore chart and calendar.
I’m kind of obsessed with this so far, but I will definitely be updating you all in a couple of months to let you know how it is continuing to work out for our family.
Here is the breakdown of supplies I used in case you love something:
Whiteboard calendar: $20 at Walmart
Cork board: shopped from my home/it was previously in my office
Kid’s Chore Charts: $7 each at Walmart
Kid’s Baskets: $12 each at Hobby Lobby
Folders in Baskets: $4 for 6 at Target
Backpack Hooks: $15 for 3 at Target
Cork Board Letters: $3 each at Hobby Lobby
“Adventure Awaits” Sign: $23 at Target
Arrow: $15 from local shop
Driftwood Pieces and Architecture T-Square: shopped from my home
Great organization tips.