New Year and a New Calendar

I like calendars. The pretty pictures. The memories. Over the past ?? years our calendars have been lovingly created by my mom. A couple of the years, there was a deal I couldn't pass up online, so I made one that way. But every Novemberish mom asks me to make a cd of all the pictures that year. Not an easy feat for me. As the number of pictures I have taken have declined and it would seem some years all the photos would be one or two or maybe 3 children. A couple would be left hanging out there? ? ? I really do love them all. There are just seasons. Like the girl who just is too embarrassed to ever have her picture taken any more.

But the past few years, these calendars have been more for wall art than functional for us. With seven schedules and lives to keep up with, the calendar gets crowded. I have searched and tried a lot of systems. I normally would find one that would work for a season and then I would start searching and praying again. The paper clutter always being such a burden.

Over a year ago, my Fun Mom and I went to Ireland. When we returned, she still had left over spending money! ! Imagine that. She had enough to get an Apple Itouch. Affectionately, renamed Me-touch! I watched her with her toy for a year. Pretty cool little gadget. Talked with a friend, learned a little more about aps. Started thinking....

Then this delightful friend sent me this link. All about using Google calendars for homeschooling. I didn't want a smart phone. Too thrifty to spend the money every month for internet access. However, I was really wanting to empty my hands and not have my bulky calendar. Using an Itouch for a calendar, that convinced me. So my back to school shopping including a very expensive calendar. Over Thanksgiving break I lost my school binder. The one with transcripts, grades and records. UGH ! ! Got me motivated in researching and learning how to use Google calendars for school. In the course of this research I discovered I could save their school records in Google documents! Imagine that. I back up records, but sometimes there is a gap.... Still playing with this idea. Still need to tweak this a bit here and there. But I am learning to not be afraid of all this technology and find a way to make it work for me and my family.

I fell in love with this new techno calendar concept. Enough now, my kids can access their school assignments and schedule on their devices. They can't change anything! They can look ! Of course, they love their "toys" and don't want to lose them. Not like a piece of paper called an assignment sheet. Really like this idea. But it gets better.

Different colors for different kids. Dad's schedule, mom's schedule. I can select which calendars I want to look at. I can choose which calendars to share with each child. But I also created a couple of special calendars. Can't remember where I read this idea but it stuck and I am loving it. I now have a calendar of possibilities. When I find out about something fun to do and don't know if we will. I put on the "Possibilities" calendar. I can hide it if it is cluttering up my screen. But I don't have to hold onto all those extra papers! Then I was collecting a list of prayer requests. Some I was having difficulty to remember because they were for a surgery date in a month, or a meeting in 2 weeks. Then I thought, a "Prayer Request" calendar. I can have repeat for as long as I need to. Plus, whenever I glance at my calendar, I am reminded to pray.

Assignment sheets that can't be lost. Calendars that can be accessed anywhere there is internet service. Reduced paper clutter. Plus, entertainment on the go for Flutter Nutter. He loves to play Angry Birds and Xs and Os (Tic Tac Toe).