Help me to get organised for school stuff!

[Honeymoonmummy]

Hi all, my DD has just started school and we have lots of dates for the calendar already! My DS us at nursery still. Can you please give me your best tips for dealing with all the school letters and what you use to record dates - family calendar etc.

Also, does anyone have any tips for sharing electronic calendars? Our home pc doesn't have outlook so I can't just put it on my work calendar and send an invitation to my home email address. Dh and I would like to both have dates on our iPhone calendars.

Please help to organise me!!

TIA

Bump

Can you and your DH not just link your iPhone calendars? If you share an iTunes acc then I think you can do this easily, not sure otherwise though.

I love my iPhone calendar - it reminds me of whats coming up in the drop down box and I can set it to remind me x hours/days before if needed plus the regular activities can easily be set to repeat without having to write in on each date (as on a paper calendar). I also love the fact it goes everywhere with me and its not just another thing to remember nor do I have scraps of paper everywhere!

Oh and I write dates down from school as soon as I get them (& fill in/send back forms the next day) otherwise I would forget! I then have a file for school stuff, one for each activity etc )and go through every 1-2 months to get rid of papers not needed) so I see the date on my calendar and can get the relevant info when needed.

Yes, a deal-with-them-on-the-day-you-get-the-paperwork approach is really the only one that works. If you can't do the admin as soon as you get home from the school run etc...put them to one side and deal with them when your DCs are in bed and asleep.

I'm afraid I'm very much 'old school' and still keep a diary with important dates in it. I will flag things up on the Outlook calendar for things which are upcoming for school that I might otherwise forget about. I also have the type of brain which is quite retentive of dates so not very likely to forget important ones, although more likely now the DCs are at different schools!

iCal on phone - have different 'calendars' for each member of the family (including my parents) and separate for home and school so I can see at a glance what's needed when.

Also use Alarm reminders for stuff like swimming things and Wunderlist is the best to-do list app ever!

You need a family calendar on your wall in a place you look at all the time - kitchen maybe.

I deal with all the paperwork on a Sunday afternoon and put dates in the diary (shared electronic with DH on our phones) and then write the dates for the week on a magnetic planner from Organised Mum which has a column for each family member. In theory I keep letters with info for a few weeks/months away in a monthly file, but mostly they're in a heap on the kitchen work top

What about something like this

www.amazon.co.uk/KTwo-Month-School-Family-Calendar/dp/B00CUFMGMI/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1379015370&sr=8-6&keywords=school+year+calendar+2014

Also I just use the calendar on my mobile for important stuff.

Keep a little stash of envelopes and coins and personalised notepaper .. I just make them on the computer along with chequebook and leave in the kitchen cupboard so you can sort out notes, bills etc straight away.

Agree with dealing with anything that needs signed/returned immediately and putting dates in shared iphone calendars, with reminders.

We also have a dedicated display board (metal one with magnets) for any project sheets that are longer term than normal homework (bring in junk modelling supplies, topic research, that sort of thing) and it's next to family computer.

AND 3 clipboards that hang in a row on the dining room wall for admin info, newsletters, rolling school menus, term dates etc - for both school and after school stuff.

Thanks all. I've ordered a family calendar and a weekly magnetic wipe clean planner, plus have bought an extendable file thingy for all the correspondence. I will have a look at iCal.

Better, I can't find an iCal in the App Store - is it icalender by infinite tiers? Google have an app called calenmob with good reviews, does anyone use this? We do share the same iTunes account but he doesn't want to see all my reminders and vice versa

ICal is the inbuilt calendar app on your iPhones. If you open it, click on the calendars button and from there you can create different calendars e.g family. You can then select a calendar and share it with your DH.

a very basic low tech solution I have used is to sellotape school letters requiring responses to the inside of the front door. It means I see it every time I leave the house. For me it needs to be that in my face for me to remember things.

I use Tasks n Todo's which is an Android app. I think it might be on IPhone as well. You can write notes and set reminders and have separate lists for members of the family as well that can sync with everyone's phone, so that if someone in the family completes something on the list, then they can tick it off.

Fwiw, my system is Google Calendar (free). I use an app on my iPhone that syncs with it (Week Cal, but there are several apps that do this). If I invite dp to an 'event' he gets an invite on his calendar and can add it. It took a bit of figuring out, but we have no problems now. I can set up recurring events, I've used the app to colour code things (I have 4 dc so each of them has their own icon :). Plus we have one of those magnetic wall planners and I update it every Sunday which takes minutes!
Dp can now do planning and say yes to grandma etc because he knows what's happening so he's happy too.
My friends think I've gone over the top and too techy but hey I don't forget a thing!

Meant to say that the advantage of google cal is that you can access it from any computer and your information is backed up. I didn't like using proprietary apps as if they get flakey you're stuffed. I don't like iCal, it's too basic IMO.

Accessorizequeen how do you get that app to appear as an app icon on your phone? I went to app store and found it but it just gives the option to open not install. Also can you do the colour coding on your phone as I think that would be very useful?
Thanks

Jester if you have the option to open, it's already installed I think? See if its on your desktop. Yes I use that app to colour-coordinate so school events are one colour, birthdays are another. And I have an icon for each child and one for me which stand out well. I can also save events as templates. I tried out 6 calendar apps and that one did everything I wanted although the iPad app is a bit rubbish.

Just had a look and there is normal calendar which I use now and another called weekcal. I clicked on that and it has got all my info in which is great so now I can colour code!
What view do you find is best to use?
I have tried using this and my filofax aswell but I'm always forgetting the filofax and it takes so much time duplicating everything. Phone calendar is the way to go I think, as long as I don 't lose phone!

I use the agenda view, it's the most usable.