Anyone using Google Calendar to make calendars for your kids?

[Geek]

I've had one for myself for a while and I love it. It's attached to my gmail account and I can see it each morning when my e-mail gets loaded. I especially like having it e-mail reminders for anything that isn't a regular occurrence in our family schedule.

 

This morning I was playing around and created three more color-coded calendars for my kids. I started entering their classes on a 5-day week according to time, added in outside activities and chores, and Boom! I think I have something. We don't really follow time slots to the letter (as if!) but my kids are always asking me "What are we doing today? And when?" and would likely love to have something like this.

 

You can drag and drop calendar items. Make them repeat. Even stretch them to extend the allotted time. All on a color-coded calendar. (Of course you may already do these things with your own computer-based calendar, but are you using these features for your kids?)

 

It's free. And printable. :D

 

(No, I do not work for Google.)

Edited July 5, 2010 by Geek

[Saille]

I've been thinking about this b/c of SWB's lecture on Teaching Students to Work Independently. She recommends having them keep a student planner starting in 5th grade. I'm sort of wondering if cognitively speaking a kid of that age would do better keeping it on paper...but I also think having a google calendar printout available this year might be an effective bridge. OTOH, he's supposed to have a checklist, and I don't want to spam him with paper...hmm.

 

Dh and I both use Google Calendar. We have networked calendars so we both know what's going on.

[catz]

I don't use Google Calendar with my kids yet, but we love it and live by it. One of the nice features is my husband can add work related items while he is at work so I always know if he has a business dinner or is going to work late. Very handy for a free tool! We have about 10 different calendars we merge together for our household.

[Geek]

It's the time slots I like for the kids so they can see at a glance what they're doing on what days and at what times. You can change the custom view option to 5 days, and then print a 5-day week calendar with time slots.

 

I put in a little detail with school subjects, but I don't see the need for those things that are "do the next thing".

 

I even scheduled my 11yo's shower because he always "forgets" to take showers. :rolleyes:

[Geek]

Here's a screen shot of what a printout could look like.

 

 

I like the wavy lines break to separate the evening out. I inserted karate classes.

[Wee Pip]

Thanks for the tip, Geek! Why didn't I think of that? We use Google Calendar for our homeschool support group & it has been perfect for that (and it's free! free, I tell you!) My 9yo has a strong desire to have her work all prepared for her ahead of time so she can get started in the morning, so this will be perfect for her! My 7yo drags herself out of bed around 10am and takes hours to eat breakfast, and even longer to do school, so using Google Calendar may help keep her on task a bit. My ultimate goal for her next year is to do something, anything without dragging it out forever. So I think Calendar will work well for both purposes. We won't pay much attn to the times on the calendar, because every day looks different from the next, but it will be good as a checklist sort of thing.

[AudreyTN]

I love my Google calendar. I just got an HTC Evo and it's linked to my phone now too.

[ourjourneys]

:iagree:Me too! Totally the best for homeschooling! The EVO and Google... Go anywhere at anytime and it is all right with you... :auto:

I love my Google calendar. I just got an HTC Evo and it's linked to my phone now too.

[AudreyTN]

:iagree:Me too! Totally the best for homeschooling! The EVO and Google... Go anywhere at anytime and it is all right with you... :auto:

 

Exactly.

[babysparkler]

:iagree:Me too! Totally the best for homeschooling! The EVO and Google... Go anywhere at anytime and it is all right with you... :auto:

 

I can't wait for my EVO to come in... we ordered them 2 weeks ago :glare:.

[Frontier Mom]

I posted this same question a few months back because I too thought it would be a great tool. Noone really answered but the timing probably wasn't right. I do think it is a good tool and something mine should start working with themselves.

[CathyT]

I loveourcalendar that is on the computer. My husband and my oldest son and I all list our events on it. I plan to add my 14 year old on it this fall. Boy does it help to keep our schedules from overlapping too much.:001_smile:

[workingmom]

So those that use the calendar for kids, do they check their calendars on the computer or do you print it out daily for them?

[meet me in paris]

Here's a screen shot of what a printout could look like.

 

 

Love that!! I've always used iCal, but I just ordered an Android phone and I know they sync beautifully with Google, so I think I'll have to switch over.

 

Thanks for walking us through it. :)

[WiseOwlKnits]

Love that!! I've always used iCal, but I just ordered an Android phone and I know they sync beautifully with Google, so I think I'll have to switch over.

 

Thanks for walking us through it. :)

 

You can still use iCal with Google Calendars if you want. I have 3 Google calendars, but I access them through iCal. Change something in one place and it changes it in the other... It's like the best of both worlds. :) Although I don't know if an Android will sync with iCal...

 

-Lesley

[Kim in SouthGa]

it works good with the iPhone too, with one exception. I can't get it to show the additional calendars I've added. For example, I made separate calendars for golf tournaments, school, personal, and my dh's is linked in. I have to copy everything to that main calendar for it to show up. But I love it anyway. Anything I add on my iPhone calendar automatically adds to the google calendar. Also, I don't use my gmail account for email, so everything syncs up with my calendar on bellsouth and I can see it in the am when I check my email. And you can set your iPhone/iPod Touch to give you a reminder buzz for minutes or days before an event. Do your kids have iPod touches? If so, they can sync their google calendars up with that. (not to mention all the other awesome apps, like flashcard makers, driver's ed and SAT quizzes, math fact games, etc...) we are big Mac fans, can you tell?:001_smile:

 

I think I will work on making the kids use google calendar, even if it just to add daily and special events, like golf tournaments and movie night.

[DarlaS]

It looks very much like the agenda view in Homeschool Tracker.

 

We do have all computers in the house on a dedicated internet connection. I would not even have to print it and could make changes as we go.

 

Hmm...

 

ETA: I just made one for myself, my 16 yo ds and my 13 yo ds--and the 13 yo has already discovered the joy of editing it. So next week has has a "Piano lesson! AAAAAAAH!" at 3:30. :lol:

 

This should be an interesting year. :glare:

Edited July 22, 2010 by darlasowders

[catholicmommy]

it works good with the iPhone too, with one exception. I can't get it to show the additional calendars I've added. For example, I made separate calendars for golf tournaments, school, personal, and my dh's is linked in. I have to copy everything to that main calendar for it to show up. But I love it anyway. Anything I add on my iPhone calendar automatically adds to the google calendar. Also, I don't use my gmail account for email, so everything syncs up with my calendar on bellsouth and I can see it in the am when I check my email. And you can set your iPhone/iPod Touch to give you a reminder buzz for minutes or days before an event. Do your kids have iPod touches? If so, they can sync their google calendars up with that. (not to mention all the other awesome apps, like flashcard makers, driver's ed and SAT quizzes, math fact games, etc...) we are big Mac fans, can you tell?:001_smile:

 

I think I will work on making the kids use google calendar, even if it just to add daily and special events, like golf tournaments and movie night.

 

There is a way to get all of your gooogle calendars to sync with ical. I have 5 synced right now. Just google it. I can't remember how i did it, but there was a page in google calendar somewhere where i just clicked on the calendars i wanted to sync and it worked.

[fleischdoc]

So maybe this is a dumb question, but is google that much better than ical? Just curious as I use ical for my general stuff and was thinking about making the kids calendars, but should I use google instead?

Lisa

[AngelAnnie]

I just read a blog post about this.

 

http://simplehomeschool.net/using-google-calendar-for-lesson-plans/

 

It inspired me to play around with it to possibly try for this coming school year!

 

I also found this other thread where it is also being discussed.

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=193240

[Satori]

I love Google Calendar (anything Google really, google email, docs, tasks)... but I am too spontaneous to schedule anything by the hour, so I don't use it for scheduling. I use Homeschool Skedtrack for that.

 

I have used Google Calendars for other things, I love that I can share it with my husband, and see it on any computer, etc...