Parent Discussion Topic: Kids' Schedules

I've discussed a few times now the struggle it can be to balance all of my obligations (namely here, here, here and here).  It's a juggling act all right to keep the balls of work, family, friends, home, health and writing in the air.  Sometimes the only way to keep going is to drop one of the balls; as I had to do this past summer with this blog.  Other times, the only way to make it work is to be carefully and creatively organized.

When it comes to managing my kids' schedules careful and creative organization is the only way to make things work. As any parent of school aged kids can tell you -- kids have a lot more scheduled time than we did when we were kids.  Many lament their lack of open ended play time -- something that we should be concerned with.  Hopefully every family is able to strike some sort of balance between activities and free-time.  But that is no small task when you are balancing the schedules of three active kids (if you have more kids than that I bow down to you in wonder of how you manage it all...).

We try to make sure that no individual child is over-scheduled, but again, we're balancing out the needs and wants of three children.  So while each kid maybe fine, our whole family has a lot of juggling to do to get each person where they need to be and when.  Sometimes we have to say that a kid can't do an activity because it conflicts with too many other things.  The goal is that another season will come around offering them that opportunity again. 

As I said we try not to over-schedule our kids, but even that is a balancing act.  Ironically, my oldest has the fewest number of activities at about 3 (1-2 are intermittent).  But considering the amount of homework he usually brings home, this is a very good thing.  My youngest, M, has the most.  If you knew her you'd know why.  She has dance and piano, girl scouts, science club and occasionally art club.  This Fall we had to let soccer go by the way-side, and you'd be amazed at how many of her friends and their parents have bemoaned the fact that she isn't on their team (not because she's a great player, but because my girl makes friends with everyone -- oh do I love that about her!!!).  L also had to take a season off of soccer.  He was considering moving to a pre-travel team, and we honestly could not find a way to make that work with our schedules.  So he opted for tennis lessons instead.  And oh, how he loves it!

Another mom and I were talking last night about balancing our kids and their activities.  Her son is an athlete who plays one sport a season so the scheduling wasn't too difficult.  Her daughter's sports are dance and swimming and they run concurrently.  So she has something every night.  The mom feels frazzled, but her daughter loves both activities.  Their compromise was to drop one of her dance classes (instead of 3 she's taking 2), but mom isn't sure how long that will work.  It is after all a constant juggling act.

While I could complain about the fact that kids need to be involved in sports at an early age if they even want a chance to play them later on, it won't help me figure out how to balance their schedules.  So instead, I'll focus on what's working for us right now.  The most important tools I have right now are a Master Planner, a weekly planner pad, and Google's calendar.

For us my Master Planner is a godsend.  It lets me write down everything on a monthly page, and then has two pages for the week with slots for 5 people.  That way I can write down everybody's everything.  It also has room for notes -- where I can sometimes remind myself to do things.  I honestly do not think I could function without this.  My Honey and I have also recently started using Google's calendar to share information with each other.  We don't have smartphones yet, but we both spend a lot of time on our computers.  This let's us share kids' activities and our own quickly and easily -- especially those last minute changes. 

Finally, what really makes this whole thing work is that I write out a weekly calendar for my kids each week.  I go to Michaels and buy the cheap $1 weekly calendar pads, but you could easily down-load a template for that (this site has some good examples, with this one being the closest to what I use.).  This lets them see what their day will look like and gives them advanced warning of what's coming up.  Our school also uses a 1-5 daily system for specials instead of doing them on specific days of the week, so the calendar also reminds them of when library books are due and when they have to wear their gym shoes to school.  For E, who always does better when things are clearly laid out this has been a life saver.  But the other two have come to rely on it as well.  If you think about it we probably all do better when we have an idea of what our week has in store for us.

All of these schedules keep us hopping, but so far things on this front are working.  We're busy without being overwhelmed. 

So what about you?  How do you all manage the craziness of multiple schedules?  What tricks do you use to keep everyone organized?  Have you had to limit the number of activities your kids are involved in?  What's working in your house this week and what isn't?  I'd love to hear your story.