The Goose and Carrot July Edition

[Lougle]

All welcome, and everything disappears after 90 days.

I’m interested in the calendar too. My problem with all these things is I have to have it running perfectly from the start. Ds doesn’t engage well with teething problems or indeed slow starts.
shower seems to still be a draw though. Yay!

Yes, I am interested in the calendar too. Is there an option to put pictures in it?

While DD1 can read at the level of a seven year old, her poor memory means, she’s much better with visual support, because she can forget what the words shepherd’s pie refer to, but she recognises it in a photo.

@Wellzizizbetter I think you could make it work because it is populated from a phone app/computer site, so you could set that up and get it just right before you got the screen. So then when you have the screen, it's all done.

I went to the drs today (absolutely ridiculous story I'll bore you with in a while) and got DD1 an appointment. The appointment confirmation email came through and I just forwarded it to the Skylight email address, then it added it to the Skylight. On the way home, DD1 sent me a message saying "PLEASE get me a Dr appointment" and I replied '"Look at the Skylight".

@LathkillDale it isn't that sophisticated, although you can add emojis to the description box, so you might be able to make it work a bit.

@Lougle so happy the ADHD meds are showing improvement for DD1. What is this wizardry you speak of? Is it a calendar that projects onto the wall?

It's a device that sits on your counter or mounts on the wall. It's pretty cool.

Oh that is cool!!

@Lougle I have been looking at the Skylight. Can you add notes to appointments/tasks? For example, sometimes either DH or I will drop DS2 at football but not stay. At the moment we write who will be taking him/collecting him on the whiteboard, would we be able to do that? Or we might put on DS1’s that he is going to a sensory room with carer A and B. Could we add the with carer A&B part? I was shocked at the price. It has the disability price tag without being a disability specific aid.

So today has been a whole new education in the vagaries of the new triage system at the doctors' surgery. They call it 'Rapid Health', which is deeply ironic, since it has slowed the appointment/triage system right down.

You can't book an appointment other than using Rapid Health. You can only use Rapid Health during surgery opening hours. So I had two Rapid Health forms to fill in today.

The first was for DD2. General fatigue, probably needs a blood test. The form auto triaged and offers a single appointment with the nurse practitioner. Fine, but we can't make the time offered, so I come out of the form.

I mention it to the receptionist. "Did you accept the appointment?" "No, we can't make that time." "Oh no, you need to accept the appointment, then phone us to tell us you can't make the appointment. It won't have saved. You'll have to redo it." Fine.

The second was for DD1 who possibly has a UTI but symptoms are not classic. But I know they'll want a urine sample. Under the old system, you'd drop a sample in, it was checked, then you either got a message saying 'all good' or 'have some abx, we've sent the sample off', or 'you need to see me, come down to the surgery.'

DD2 kindly jumped out of the car and collected a sample bottle. The receptionist said that the sample must be there by 1pm. It was 12.15. I rush home, sterilise a pot, get a sample, and get it back to the surgery. The receptionist said "Oh no, we can't test the sample unless you've done a Rapid Health." Fine. So I do the Rapid Health and get offered an ANP appointment for 2.30pm. Great. I take the sample back to the desk. "Oh no, bring it at 2.30pm." "But that's after 1pm?" "Oh yes, ANP can test after 1pm. Normal nurses can't." Righto.

So the Rapid Health questionnaire has no free text. It's tick boxes only. There is no tick box for 'tummy hurts when I wee', only 'it burns/stings', but DD1 is clear that it doesn't. Ticking no funnels you down the 'general abdominal pain' route.

So 15 minutes before our appointment time, the ANP phones and says "Ummmm....DD1 is quite complex. I think you really need to see a doctor, not me." So I have to explain that the triage form was rubbish, that I think she can deal with it, and she probably needs some nitrofurantoin.

Then I went to the pharmacy but the pavement was blocked with bins so DD1 had to use the road with her wheelchair, then we rounded the corner and the ridiculous coffee shop owner had his collection of old mobility scooters on the road (to stop people parking outside his coffee shop) and I ended up yelling at him that he was utterly ridiculous and I couldn't understand how he gets away with it (I do know how but I was so cross). He moved the stupid scooters. They'll be back tomorrow.

Yes, you can set profiles, then you assign the event to the profile. For example, tomorrow DD2 is having her ears pierced and I'm taking her, so the event is split between us, both in our assigned colours and the icon/tag for each of us in the bottom corner.

I too was shocked by the price, but in their defence, they take on board suggestions from users and roll them out in what they call their 'road map' frequently, rather than making you buy a new device. Today the calender said 'day view added' - it's apparently a feature they've been working on and it's now been deployed.

It's worth noting that you do need the subscription to make use of it fully, but at just over £1 per week I didn't think that was too bad, especially as we're a family of 5.

I think someone like you would make very good use of it and would find the value in it immediately, tbh. Although the limitations would also be immediately apparent (such as the fact that it only has 4 meal times and you can't change that, although you can change what they are called, and you can add multiple meals of each type each day).

I think it you were the sort of person who can't use a system approach to daily life, it would just gather dust. I've used Google Calendar for years and it integrates with that, so it's not hard to use. I guess if keeping events organised was new, it might be a bit of a learning curve.

DD1 was delighted that it congratulated her for completing her tasks today, and that it told her she had maintained a habit. She gives me regular points updates, and I think that seeing the number of stars change as she taps a task to say it's done is a big part of that. But I guess that's also about the developmental stage she's at.

DD2 wants the stars but is happy for me to check off the tasks in the app and doesn't care about seeing them go up as long as they do. She is actively asking me for stars for things she's done and vocalising how many stars she thinks she should earn and why she thinks the activity was worth that many stars, which is a new level of communication for her.

Sorry, just to expand (tell me if I'm boring you!). You can add events via voice note, Alexa, taking a photo of an event flyer, forwarding an email that contains the information to the calender's email address, or forwarding a PDF to the email address. It will pull the information out and then add it, and you get an email saying that it's adding it, with a button to undo the import if you don't want it to.

You can also invite other people to see and use the app. So it could work really well for your carer setup.

Lots of good intel. I’m interested. Stars are ageless IMO as are stickers.

Did the meet up get any traction? MH is still tricky here even though function has improved. I could do with a scone and to listen in person.

I don't think it got any further forward but my meetup springs are fully loaded! Everything is tricky here but it isn't going to get any easier, so I'm ready when everyone else is.

I use a calendar on my phone, and it has similar features (I think) but not the screen (obviously). I imagined ds would use it on his iPad but he won’t. It does seem a very expensive solution given all the other tech we already have.

is it A4 and can you get second screens (I’m thinking for a granny annexe).

I agree, it's expensive for what it is, although one of my reasons for getting it is that it only does what it does and can't be used to view YouTube, etc.

You can link as many as you have.

There is another app called Mango viewer, which can be loaded on any screen including old tablets you might have lying around. It didn't do everything I wanted, but it might be worth looking at.

Has anyone seen the report of the suicide of Matilda Davis, a parent carer in The Guardian today:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/ng-interactive/2026/aug/11/matilda-davis-mother-suicide-carer-broken-social-care-system-england?CMP=ShareiOSAppOther

May she rest in peace.

@LathkillDale I can’t read it but that sounds like an awful thing.

I’m so glad I have you all to talk to.

@LathkillDale such an utterly devastating situation. Another mother and DC failed by a long line of professionals.

@Lougle it sounds lie, it is working really well for DD1. I hope it continues.

Yes, you can set profiles, then you assign the event to the profile. For example, tomorrow DD2 is having her ears pierced and I'm taking her, so the event is split between us, both in our assigned colours and the icon/tag for each of us in the bottom corner.

Could you drop DD2 to have her ears pierced, go to an appointment with DD1, then return to pick DD2 up? Or would your profile not be able to do that unless you had an event for each step because it wouldn’t recognise you weren’t staying with DD2 so thought you had doubled booked?

Currently I update the whiteboard every Sunday using my calendar, DH’s calendar, a shared calendar, DSs’ timetables and staffing rotas, anything DD2 let’s me know about and the meal plan. I can see having everything in one place to start with and not having to write it all on the board each week then take a photo and make sure everyone has a copy would help.

@Wellzizizbetter I echo that. This thread is a lifeline at times.

@LathkillDale it is tragic and although I have reasons why I would never go there, I have many times expressed to DH that I could imagine that I'd break and need psychiatric care, then everyone would say "But she was doing so well, she seemed so strong...."

I used to say similar about DD2 when she was 9 and I was fighting for ASD assessment. I bluntly said to someone "I am not going to be the mother of a teen daughter who is self-harming, or in the grip of an eating disorder, for someone to turn around and say 'Has anyone considered ASD?'"

"Could you drop DD2 to have her ears pierced, go to an appointment with DD1, then return to pick DD2 up? Or would your profile not be able to do that unless you had an event for each step because it wouldn’t recognise you weren’t staying with DD2 so thought you had doubled booked?"

I would tend to put that in my Google Calendar (I actually use Business Calendar but it syncs with Google Calender) as three events anyway, to make sure I've blocked out the time. So "take DD2 to X town 10:00-10:30", "DD1 psychologist in y town 11.30" would start at the time I needed to leave for y town, even though the appointment was later. Then "pick up DD2 from x town at 1pm" would start at the time I needed to leave y town to get to x town.

But yes, you could have them as overlapping events, so blocking out the time you need for the whole journey as one event, then also having an event for the actual appointment. Or three separate events, or you could block out the whole time as an appointment and in the description say "drop DD2 into X town on the way/pick up on the way back".

The calender function is really just a display of your calender with the addition of being able to colour code the imported events with the profile of the person involved. You can also have labels, which aren't assigned to a person. So you could have an 'admin' label for an events such as Annual Reviews which don't directly involve your DC.

It also has task lists that you can assign to individuals, and routines you can set for individuals. Also general lists. So, for example, your tracking of health parameters could be done using it, I would think. You can take photos of handwritten lists and it will import it in as a typed list.

I think task lists for each person would be brilliant.

The app is free to download, and they offer a 7 day free trial of their 'sidekick' functions. Might be worth downloading it and having a play? Then you'd know whether it was worth thinking about a screen. People sell them on FB marketplace, too, so you could pick one up cheaper than buying from Skylight. The advantage of buying direct from Skylight Vs Amazon/Currys (my usual go to) is that if you buy from Skylight directly you get a 4 month satisfaction guarantee instead of the 30 days the other retailers offer.

I have a vague plan to make a physical calendar with block ds can set up for us all. It plays into his Montessori type learner MH from years ago in a way that may sit better. I’m tempted though. Sadly I love a gizmo so have to be careful about getting too spendy.

I would be all over this and straight to buy it if it wasn't for our recent reduction in screen time - DS already stares at his phone when it's got no time on it!

I can’t help thinking it should cost £60. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

ignore typos in previous post. Little of what I say is sensible. I’m at swimming and it’s so hot I feel like I’m steaming.

@Wellzizizbetter I think they should issue them on prescription to all families with SN 🤣🤣